Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970 in Austin, Texas) is an American actor, writer and director. He has been nominated for the Academy Awards both as an actor and a writer. He also received a Tony Award nomination for his theater work.
Hawke made his film debut in 1985 with the science-fiction feature Explorers, before making a breakthrough appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society. He then appeared in such films as White Fang (1991), Mystery Date (1991) (1991), A Midnight Clear (1992), and Alive (1993) before taking a role in the 1994 Generation X drama Reality Bites, for which he received critical praise. 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 played a young police officer in Training Day, for which he received the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category. He also garnered two screenwriting Oscar nominations for co-writing the screenplays of Before Sunset and Before Midnight. Other films have included the science-fiction drama Gattaca (1997), the contemporary adaptation of 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 for Best Featured Actor. Aside from acting, he has directed two feature films and three Off-Broadway plays. He also wrote the novels The Hottest State (1996) and Ash Wednesday (2002).
Between 1998 to 2005 Hawke was married to actress Uma Thurman, with whom he has two children (Maya and Levon) — both of whom have followed in their parents' footsteps and become actors, with Ethan and Maya having since played father-daughter John and Anne Brown in The Good Lord Bird. Since 2008 he has been married to Ryan Hawke (née Shawhughes), and they have two daughters. He is also a great-grandnephew of Tennessee Williams on his father's side.
Hawke is a huge fan of horror films and loves making them.
Selected filmography:
- Explorers (1985) as Ben Crandall
- Dead Poets Society (1989) as Todd Anderson
- Mystery Date (1991) (1991) as Tom McHugh
- A Midnight Clear (1992) as Will Knott
- Alive (1993) as Nando Parrado
- Reality Bites (1994) as Troy Dyer
- Before Trilogy as Jesse Wallace
- Before Sunrise (1995)
- Before Sunset (2004)
- Before Midnight (2013)
- Gattaca (1997) as Vincent Anton Freeman
- The Newton Boys (1998) as Jess Newton
- Training Day (2001) as Jake Hoyt
- Taking Lives (2004) as Martin Asher / James Costa
- Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) as Jake Roenick
- Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) as Hank Hanson
- Brooklyn's Finest (2009) as Sal Procida
- Sinister (2012) as Ellison Oswalt
- The Purge (2013) as James Sandin
- Boyhood (2014) as Mason Evans, Sr.
- Predestination (2014) as Agent Doe
- In a Valley of Violence (2016) as Paul
- The Magnificent Seven (2016) as 'Goodnight' Robicheaux
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) as 'Jolly' The Pimp
- First Reformed (2017) as Reverend Ernst Toller
- 24 Hours to Live (2017) as Travis Conrad
- The Good Lord Bird (2020) as John Brown
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (2022 — present) as Arthur Harrow
- Moon Knight (2022)
- The Northman (2022) as King Aurvandill War-Raven
- The Black Phone (2022) as The Grabber
- Batwheels (2022) as Batman
- Strange Way of Life (2023) as Jake
- Leave the World Behind (2023) as Clay Sanford
He provides examples of:
- Awesome, Dear Boy: The motive behind a lot of his roles, particularly his work in horror and sci-fi films as he's made clear he loves both genres.
- Celebrity Resemblance: He and Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath look so much alike that each has admitted to signing autographs as the other. Hawke himself famously put it "The kindest compliments I have ever gotten are when cops tell me Training Day and Assault on Precinct 13 inspired them to become cops. The funniest compliments I have ever gotten are when people tell me 'I love your band Sugar Ray'."
- Chronically Killed Actor: He tends to die a lot in his films. By his own admission, this is by design as he dislikes making sequels.
- Killed by Request: Hawke has actually requested to be killed off in certain films because (with the exception of the Before series) he hates making sequels.
- Production Posse: He frequently works with Richard Linklater, Andrew Niccol and Blumhouse Productions.
- What Could Have Been: He was approached for the role of Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever before Val Kilmer was cast. However, he turned down the offer due to fears of being typecast as the iconic comic book character (much like what happened to Adam West after his stint as the Camp Crusader). He later admitted his regret at turning down the part due to the career opportunities that could've opened up for him. He would end up voicing Batman in Batwheels.
