Ethan Hawke Biography

ETHAN HAWKE

Date of Birth: November 6, 1970

Though best known as a screen actor, Ethan Hawke is also a successful novelist (The Hottest State) and an accomplished stage actor and director.

Ethan first appeared on stage at age 13 in a Princeton University production of St. Joan. This led to an audition for Joe Dante's offbeat sci-fi comedy, Explorers. Both Ethan and River Phoenix made their film debuts in this movie—Phoenix's career took off, but Ethan's went nowhere. He went back to high school and performed in school plays before landing the role as a sensitive prep school student in Dead Poets Society.

From there, Ethan's star rose. He appeared opposite Jack Lemmon in Dad, took the lead in Disney's White Fang, and gave a searing performance in Alive.

Between films Ethan appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Casanova, co-founded a not-for-profit theater group in New York City, directed a short film entitled Straight To One—and got caught in the media spotlight when the tabloids lensed him dancing with Julia Roberts, then Mrs. Lyle Lovett. (It was just an innocent rhumba.)

Ethan had his biggest success with Reality Bites and Before Sunrise, then took a hiatus from Hollywood, returning with new vigor shooting three features in a row: Gattaca with Uma Thurman, Great Expectations with Gwyneth Paltrow, and The Newton Boys with fellow hunks Matthew McConaughey and Skeet Ulrich.

Ethan and actress Uma Thurman fell in love on the set of Gattaca—a movie about genetic perfection. They married on May 1, 1998 and have a daughter, Maya Ray, born July 8, 1998 and a son, Levon, born January 15, 2002. Unfortunately, in 2003, the high profile couple separated amid allegations that Ethan had cheated. Ethan commented shortly after the breakup, "Martin Luther King Jr. suffered from infidelity, so did John F. Kennedy. You're more likely to find great leadership coming from a man who likes to have sex with a lot of women than one who's monogamous." In 2008 he married Ryan Shawhughes. They have a daughter together.

In 2002 Ethan was nominated for his first Academy Award for the supporting role in Training Day (2001). He was nominated three years later for a Screenwriting Academy Award for Before Sunset (2004). In the thriller The Woman in the Fifth (2012) he played a man who becomes involved in with a mysterious woman. In 2015, Ethan received his first Golden Globe nomination as well as his fourth nomination for an Academy Award for his work in Boyhood (2014), which was filmed over a span of 12 years. He went on to star in Good Kill (2015), Born to be Blue (2016), Maggie's Plan (2016), The Magnificent Seven (2016), Maudie (2016) and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017).

Most recently, he starred in the indie film First Reformed (2018), playing the pastor of a small church, opposite Amanda Seyfried, and in the crime-comedy Stockholm (2019).

"The funny thing about being me," Ethan says, "is I feel like I'm doing so well for never having really been in a big hit movie. The fact that I have made money is a huge surprise."

Filmography:

The King (2018) (self)
First Reformed (2018)
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Maudie (2016)
Born to be Blue (2016)
Maggie's Plan (2016)
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Regression (2016)
Cymbeline (2015)
Good Kill (2015)
Boyhood (2015)
Epic (2014)
Getaway (2013)
Vigilandia (2013)
Shoedog (2012)
Total Recall (2012)
The Woman in the Fifth (2012)
Sinister (2012)
Daybreakers (2010)
Staten Island (2009)
Brooklyn's Finest (2009)
New York, I Love You (2009)
What Doesn't Kill You (2008)
Do Not Alter (2008)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
Tonight at Noon (2006)
The Hottest State (2006)
Fast Food Nation (2006)
Lord of War (2005)
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Before Sunset (2004)
Taking Lives (2004)
The Jimmy Show (2002)
Waking Life (2001) (voice)
Tape (2001)
Training Day (2001)
Hamlet (2000)
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
Joe the King (1999)
The Newton Boys (1998)
Great Expectations (1998)
Gattaca (1997)
Before Sunrise (1995)
Search And Destroy (1995)
Floundering (1994)
Quiz Show (1994)
Reality Bites (1994)
Alive (1993)
Straight To One (director) (1993)
A Midnight Clear (1992)
Rich In Love (1992)
Waterland (1992)
Mystery Date (1991)
White Fang (1991)
Dad (1989)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Explorers (1985)