Ethan Hawke

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Ethan Hawke bigraphy, stories - Actor

Ethan Hawke : biography

November 6, 1970 –

Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society, which is considered his breakthrough role. He then appeared in such films as White Fang (1991), A Midnight Clear (1992), and Alive (1993) before taking a role in the 1994 Generation X drama Reality Bites, for which he gained critical acclaim. In 1995, he starred in the romantic drama Before Sunrise, and later in its sequels Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013).

In 2001, Hawke was cast as a rookie police officer in Training Day, for which he received a Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category. Other films have included the science fiction feature Gattaca (1997), the title role in Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet (2000), the action thriller Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), the crime drama Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007), and the horror film Sinister (2012).

Hawke has appeared in many theater productions including The Seagull, Henry IV, Hurlyburly, The Cherry Orchard, The Winter’s Tale and The Coast of Utopia, for which he earned a Tony Award nomination. He made his directorial debut with the 2002 independent feature Chelsea Walls. In November 2007 Hawke directed his first play, Jonathan Marc Sherman’s Things We Want. Aside from acting, he has written two novels, The Hottest State (1996) and Ash Wednesday (2002). Between 1998 and 2004, Hawke was married to actress Uma Thurman.

Career

1985–1993: Early work

Hawke obtained his mother’s permission to attend his first casting call at age 14. He secured his first film role in 1985’s Explorers, in which he played alongside River Phoenix as an alien-obsessed schoolboy who builds a spacecraft with his friends. The film received favorable reviews but made poor box office revenues, a failure which Hawke has admitted caused him to quit acting for a brief period after the film’s release. Hawke later described the disappointment as difficult to bear at such a young age, adding "I would never recommend that a kid act." His next film appearance was not until 1989’s comedy drama Dad, where he played Ted Danson’s son and Jack Lemmon’s grandson.

In 1989, Hawke made his breakthrough appearance, playing shy student Todd Anderson opposite Robin Williams’s inspirational English teacher in Dead Poets Society. The film was critically well-received; the Variety reviewer wrote "Hawke … gives a haunting performance." With revenue of $235 million worldwide, the film remains Hawke’s most commercially successful picture to date. Hawke later described the opportunities he was offered as a result of the film’s success as critical to his decision to continue acting: "I didn’t want to be an actor and I went back to college. But then the [film’s] success was so monumental that I was getting offers to be in such interesting movies and be in such interesting places, and it seemed silly to pursue anything else."

Hawke’s next film, 1991’s White Fang, brought his first leading role. The film, an adaptation of Jack London’s novel of the same name, featured Hawke as Jack Conroy, a Yukon gold hunter who befriends a wolfdog. According to The Oregonian, "Hawke does a good job as young Jack, being both physically robust but still boyishly naive. He makes Jack’s passion for White Fang real and keeps it from being ridiculous or overly sentimental." Hawke then appeared in A Midnight Clear (1992), a well-received war film by Keith Gordon, and 1993’s Alive, an adaptation of Piers Paul Read’s 1974 book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors.

1994–2000: Critical success