Born on Oct. 12, 1968, in Sydney, Australia, Hugh Michael Jackman was the second child of his English parents to be born in Australia. His parents traveled to Australia as part of the \”Ten Pound Poms\” program that encouraged British citizens to relocate to Australia because of the booming economy and the need for labor. When he was just eight, his parents divorced and he stayed in Sydney with his father and brothers, while his mother took his two sisters and moved back to the UK.

Jackman spent much of his adolescence wanting to travel the world, so he decided he would be an airplane chef. He figured he could travel on the plane, and because airlines served food onboard, he logically concluded that a chef had to be onboard to prepare the food. Sadly, Hugh didn\’t know that the food was already prepared and just reheated on the plane. Instead, he went to college at the University of Technology, Sydney, where he earned a B.A. in Communications. During his final year there, he had to sign up for an extra class to earn his credits, so he enrolled in an acting class. His interest was piqued, and by the time he was given the lead in the class staging of the play The Memorandum, Hugh had fallen in love with acting.

After taking a year-long course at an acting studio in Sydney, he traveled to Perth to attend the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts of Edith Cowan University, where he earned his degree in 1994. He was so into acting and honing his craft that he turned down a plum role on the popular Aussie soap opera \”Neigbours\” in order to attend school. The part could have made his career at a much younger age, but it could have also prevented him from getting the part of a lifetime in 2000 as Wolverine, one of the X-Men from Marvel Comics\’ lore.

Before he would don Wolverine\’s famous claws, Jackman paid his dues with small roles in various Australian movie and television productions. He also had a love for theater, particularly musical theater. He began to be seen by more than just Australian audiences when he performed in Oklahoma! in London, nabbing some major theater awards in the process. When he starred in the filmed version of the play, more audiences across the globe began to take notice.

Right before his big moment in the \”Oklahoma!\” spotlight, Jackman appeared on the television show \”Corelli,\” where he met fellow thespian Deborra-Lee Furness. The two quickly fell in love and married in 1996 after Jackman proposed to her with an engagement ring that he designed himself. The two were eager to start a family, but Furness suffered two heartbreaking miscarriages, which prompted the couple to adopt. They now have two children, Oscar, born in 2000, and daughter Ava Eliot, born in 2005.

Not long after Jackman\’s international success on the stage, actor Dougray Scott had to drop out of the movie adaptation of \”X-Men\” because \”Mission: Impossible II\” required him to shoot two extra months worth of footage. This unfortunate turn of events for Scott was a boon for Jackman because it left the part of Wolverine wide open. After a slightly nervous audition, Hugh was awarded the part that would turn him into a household name. He would go on to star in a total of five movies as Wolverine, with a sixth, \”The Wolverine,\” set for a July 2013 release. He will also team up again with his \”X-Men\” director Bryan Singer for \”X-Men: Days of Future Past\” in 2014.

After his big breakout role as Wolverine, Jackman got to flex his acting muscles and show a much softer side with leading man roles in \”Someone Like You\” and \”Kate and Leopold.\” That same year, he got to show that he could be funny by hosting \”Saturday Night Live.\”

Jackman still performs fairly often in the theater, taking nearly a whole year off at one point in 2010 in order to go back to his roots on the stage. Fans of his work on the big screen shouldn\’t fret, as the actor still loves to shoot movies, even returning Down Under for a long stretch to film the epic \”Australia\” with fellow Aussie Baz Luhrmann. He plans to continue mixing theater and movies into the future. Though he often returns to his native land for visits, Jackman, his wife, and their two children currently reside in New York City.

As a long time fan of Hollywood I was able to carve out the perfect career in the entertainment industry by writing initially for celebrity news sites and am now the owner of Movie Room Reviews.

As a long time fan of Hollywood I was able to carve out the perfect career in the entertainment industry by writing initially for celebrity news sites and am now the owner of http://MovieRoomReviews.com

Author Bio: As a long time fan of Hollywood I was able to carve out the perfect career in the entertainment industry by writing initially for celebrity news sites and am now the owner of Movie Room Reviews.

Category: Entertainment
Keywords: hugh jackman, biography, actor, hollywood, movies, films, movie news, movie room reviews