Ethan Hawke Biography Quotes 2 Report mistakes
| 2 Quotes | |
| Occup. | Actor |
| From | USA |
| Born | November 6, 1970 |
| Age | 55 years |
Ethan Hawke was born on November 6, 1970, in Austin, Texas, to Leslie Carole Green and James Hawke. His parents separated when he was young, and he was raised primarily by his mother, moving from Texas to New York City and then to New Jersey. As a teenager in Princeton Junction, he acted in school and community productions and studied at the McCarter Theatre, experiences that led him to pursue a life in the arts. He appeared in his first feature film, Explorers, in 1985 while still in high school. Briefly enrolled in college, including a stint at Carnegie Mellon University, he left to work full time in film and theater.
Screen Breakthrough
Hawke earned wide attention with Dead Poets Society (1989), playing the shy student Todd Anderson opposite Robin Williams. The film became a landmark for a generation of moviegoers and introduced him as a thoughtful screen presence. He followed with roles in White Fang (1991) and other projects before anchoring a key 1990s portrait of young adulthood, Reality Bites (1994), directed by Ben Stiller and co-starring Winona Ryder. His early choices emphasized characters grappling with integrity, creativity, and the drift between idealism and adulthood.
Partnership with Richard Linklater
One of Hawke's defining artistic relationships is with filmmaker Richard Linklater. Their first major collaboration, Before Sunrise (1995), paired Hawke with Julie Delpy as two strangers who wander Vienna over the course of a single night. The film spawned an unusual, decades-spanning trilogy: Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). Hawke, Delpy, and Linklater developed the dialogue together, ultimately sharing Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for the latter two entries. Their collaborations extended to Tape (2001), Waking Life (2001), Fast Food Nation (2006), and the epic coming-of-age project Boyhood (2014), which was filmed intermittently over 12 years and earned Hawke an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Range and Recognition
Hawke has balanced intimate character studies with genre films and studio pictures. He starred in Gattaca (1997), directed by Andrew Niccol, alongside Uma Thurman and Jude Law, and delivered a contemporary Hamlet (2000) with director Michael Almereyda. His work with Antoine Fuqua resulted in Training Day (2001), opposite Denzel Washington, which brought him his first Academy Award nomination. He later reunited with Fuqua for Brooklyn's Finest (2009) and The Magnificent Seven (2016). Hawke demonstrated a flair for suspense and horror in Sinister (2012), produced by Jason Blum and directed by Scott Derrickson, and later collaborated with the same team on The Black Phone (2022), earning strong notices for his turn as a chilling antagonist. His acclaimed performance in Paul Schrader's First Reformed (2017) was a career high point, winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead and cementing his status as one of American cinema's most searching actors.
Stage Work
Alongside his screen career, Hawke has been devoted to the stage. In the early 1990s he co-founded the Malaparte Theater Company with friends including Robert Sean Leonard and Jonathan Marc Sherman, producing and performing new plays in New York City. He has appeared frequently on Broadway and Off-Broadway, notably in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia (2006, 2007), directed by Jack O'Brien, which earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He later starred in Macbeth (2013) and, years afterward, returned to Broadway for a widely praised revival of True West (2019) opposite Paul Dano. As a stage director, he has guided productions such as Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind for The New Group, extending his reputation as a serious theatrical craftsman.
Writing and Direction
Hawke is also an author. His debut novel, The Hottest State (1996), drew on themes of youthful obsession and artistic ambition; he later adapted and directed it as a feature film in 2006. A second novel, Ash Wednesday (2002), continued his exploration of love, faith, and responsibility. He published the parable-like Rules for a Knight (2015) and returned to fiction with A Bright Ray of Darkness (2021), a backstage portrait of an actor struggling through personal tumult during a Broadway run. As a filmmaker, Hawke directed Chelsea Walls (2001), helmed the warmly received documentary Seymour: An Introduction (2014) about pianist and teacher Seymour Bernstein, and crafted the biographical drama Blaze (2018), championing the life and music of songwriter Blaze Foley with performances by Ben Dickey and Alia Shawkat.
Television and Later Roles
Hawke's television work has grown in prominence. He co-created and starred in The Good Lord Bird (2020), an adaptation of James McBride's novel, portraying the abolitionist John Brown with a mix of ferocity and humor; the series drew critical acclaim and further demonstrated his appetite for challenging material. He continued to explore complex antagonists in Marvel's Moon Knight (2022) as Arthur Harrow. His film roles in the late 2010s and early 2020s, including Maudie (2016) with Sally Hawkins, Born to Be Blue (2015) as Chet Baker, and Tesla (2020) with director Michael Almereyda, reinforced his interest in portraits of artists and innovators.
Personal Life
Hawke married Uma Thurman in 1998 after meeting during the production of Gattaca. The couple had two children, Maya Hawke and Levon Roan Thurman-Hawke. Maya followed her parents into acting and music, emerging as a notable performer in her own right. After Hawke and Thurman divorced in 2005, he married Ryan Shawhughes in 2008; they have two daughters, Clementine Jane and Indiana. Throughout shifts in public attention, Hawke has emphasized the grounding role of family and the importance of sustaining long-term creative partnerships.
Approach and Legacy
Across decades, Hawke has cultivated a body of work defined by curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to evolve. With Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy, he developed an unusually intimate chronicle of love and time. With Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua, he explored moral ambiguity in crime dramas. With Paul Schrader, Michael Almereyda, Scott Derrickson, Andrew Niccol, and Jason Blum, he has navigated an array of forms, from philosophical drama to science fiction and horror. Parallel to the screen, his dedication to theater and literature reveals an artist who values process as much as accolades, who builds communities with peers such as Robert Sean Leonard, and who mentors younger artists while remaining open to new challenges.
Ethan Hawke's career reflects the choices of a performer, writer, and director who treats mainstream and independent projects with equal seriousness. His four Academy Award nominations, recognition on the stage, and presence as a novelist and filmmaker speak to an enduring, multifaceted influence. By trusting long-term collaborators and continually seeking demanding roles, he has become a model of artistic longevity, balancing ambition with reflection and craft with curiosity.
Our collection contains 2 quotes who is written by Ethan, under the main topics: Ethics & Morality - Deep.
Other people realated to Ethan: Julia Roberts (Actress), Emma Watson (Actress), David Guterson (Author), Skeet Ulrich (Actor), Abel Ferrara (Director), Nick Hornby (Writer), Marisa Tomei (Actress), Eva Mendes (Actress), Janeane Garofalo (Comedian), Macy Gray (Musician)