Ethan Hawke

Biography

Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970, in Austin, Texas) is an American actor, director, writer and screenwriter whose career across stage and screen has now spanned four decades. He became known internationally in 1989 with Dead Poets Society, and since then has moved between large studio productions and independent cinema, most often in long collaboration with director Richard Linklater. He has received five Academy Award nominations across acting and writing, as well as a Tony Award nomination, and has remained one of the most recognizable actors of his generation.

Hawke was raised mostly by his mother after his parents, who had married young, separated and later divorced. The family moved several times before settling in New York, and later in New Jersey, where Hawke graduated from the Hun School of Princeton in 1988. At school he hoped to become a writer, but the stage pulled him in first: he made his debut at thirteen in a school production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan. He enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University to study acting but left once he was cast in Peter Weir's film.

His film debut came in 1985 with Explorers, a science fiction film in which he appeared alongside River Phoenix. Its weak box office led him to step away from acting for a time, an experience he later described as hard to bear at such a young age. His breakthrough followed with Dead Poets Society, in which he played a shy student opposite Robin Williams; it was a commercial and critical success, and Hawke later said it opened doors he might otherwise not have had. In 1991 he starred in White Fang, his first leading role, and in 1993 he appeared in Alive, a survival drama based on Piers Paul Read's book about the Andes plane crash.

The turning point came with Reality Bites (1994), a comedy about Generation X in which he played a cynical young man opposite Winona Ryder. The film underperformed at the box office, but critics singled out Hawke's work, and he became closely associated with that generation. That same year he directed the video for Lisa Loeb's "Stay (I Missed You)". Before Sunrise (1995) followed, the first chapter of the trilogy he made with Linklater and Julie Delpy over nearly two decades. Hawke co-wrote the two sequels, Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013), earning two Oscar nominations for screenwriting.

In mainstream cinema, Training Day (2001) brought him Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his performance as a young police officer opposite Denzel Washington. In 2014 he starred in Boyhood, filmed over twelve years by Linklater, as a divorced father; the film earned him another Oscar nomination and Golden Globe and SAG nominations. Earlier, he had appeared in the science fiction film Gattaca (1997), and later in Sinister (2012), one of his most commercially successful horror titles.

Alongside film, Hawke has built a steady career on stage, debuting on Broadway in 1992 and receiving a Tony nomination in 2007 for The Coast of Utopia. He has also directed feature films, plays and documentaries, and has published novels including The Hottest State (1996). His legacy rests on long partnerships with independent filmmakers and a constant presence in major productions, and he remains an active figure in American film and television.

Key films

• Dead Poets Society (1989): a shy student under the guidance of a teacher played by Robin Williams, the role that made him a star.
• Reality Bites (1994): a generational comedy that made him a symbol of Generation X.
• Before Sunrise (1995): two young people meet on a train to Vienna, the start of a trilogy with Richard Linklater.
• Training Day (2001): a young police officer working alongside a corrupt veteran played by Denzel Washington; the role earned him an Oscar nomination.
• Boyhood (2014): a separated father in the drama filmed over twelve years by Linklater, earning another Oscar nomination.
• Gattaca (1997): a man who assumes another's identity in a society built on genetic perfection.