At the comparatively young age of 50, Ethan Hawke is already an extremely old, always changeable hand in the film business.
Ethan Hawke spent 35 of his now 50 years in front of the camera and some of them directly behind the camera. What runs like a red thread through his work is not wanting to pull a red thread. Hawke is reluctant to be tied to the F pattern, both in his roles and when it comes to monogamy. Only when it comes to the politics of his US homeland is the native Texan unwilling to experiment – even if not in the way his origins from the deep red Lone Star State might suggest. These and other interesting facts about Ethan Hawke's 50th birthday can be found here.
Democratic Texan
Hawke was born on November 6, 1970 in the Texas capital Austin. Many of his relatives there voted Donald Trump (74) four years ago out of conviction, as he told "The Hollywood Reporter". Hawke himself, however, is considered a vocal Democrat. For example, he recently supported Hillary Clinton (73), Barack Obama (59) and John Kerry (76) in their successful (Obama) and unsuccessful (Clinton, Kerry) pursuit of the presidency. Hawke is also committed to the rights of homosexuals, such as same-sex marriage – a topic that can hardly be reconciled with the mostly arch-conservative orientation of the Republicans.
The breakthrough as a dead poet fan
Four years after his first film "Explorers – A Fantastic Adventure" from 1985, the actor celebrated his breakthrough in the Oscar-winning drama "The Dead Poets Club" with Robin Williams (1951-2014). At the age of just 19, Hawke put on a remarkable performance as a shy boarding school student Todd Anderson, who dares thanks to the power of poetry to rebel against the conservative school management and to force independent action. A "Coming of Individual" story, so to speak, which should have significantly shaped Hawke's further life. "O Captain! My Captain!"
The versatility in person
Many actors and actresses remain largely loyal to a film genre, perhaps with a little outlier here and a guest excursion there. Some even have to see how they get stuck in the "Typecast" fire for all eternity. Not so Hawke. A look at his vita shows that he is always trying to take on new challenges. The simple and heartwarming "love film for realists", "Before Sunrise" (1995), was followed by the startling future dystopia "Gattaca" or the Shakespeare film "Hamlet" with Hawke as the tragic title hero.
In 2001 Hawke was seen at the side of Denzel Washington (65) in the action thriller "Training Day", eight years later he appeared as a vampire with a conscience in the sci-fi horror flick "Daybreakers". Significant for Hawke's changeability: In 2013, with the "Invasion" horror "The Purge" and the romantic drama "Before Midnight", two different tonal films came to the cinema with him. Only one year later the same game with the "Coming of Age" film "Boyhood" and the brain-twisting flick "Predestination". In 2016, thanks to the remake of "The Glorious Seven", he ticked Westerns off the genre list, most recently in 2020 he played the world-famous inventor Nikolai Tesla in the unusual biopic "Tesla".
Sniffed the Oscar four times
In addition to his acting career, Hawke has worked as a director four times and as often as a screenwriter. For the latter position, as co-writer of "Before Sunset" and "Before Midnight", he was even nominated for an Oscar. His name was also found twice on the list of nominees for "Best Supporting Actor". Both in 2001 in "Training Day" and in 2014 in "Boyhood", however, he came away empty-handed.
The thing about monogamy
Ethan Hawke has been married twice so far. From 1998 to 2005 with Uma Thurman (50), whom he met and fell in love with while filming "Gattaca", and since 2008 with Ryan Hawke, formerly Shawhughes. He has two children with both of them, and both women know each other better than they should like: Ryan Shawhughes was the former nanny of Hawke and Thurman's two kids and ultimately probably the reason that the stars' marriage fell apart.
Four years after the divorce in 2004, Hawke finally married the ex-nanny, the first child came in the same year of the marriage, and another followed in 2011. Ethan Hawke lives monogamous with his new wife, but he does not believe in the principle necessarily something, as he revealed in an interview with "Mr. Porter" in 2013: "People have such a childish attitude towards monogamy and loyalty. 'He cheated, so he's bad. She cheated, so she is bad' – instead to recognize that our species is simply not monogamous. "
The fact that for some people a world collapses when they find out that their partner has cheated on is in his eyes as if they were desperate "because their hair is turning gray". The 50-year-old must not be bothered by the isolated white spots on his temples and beard, which have become more and more numerous in recent years.