Everybody likes Ethan Hawke. The 52-year-old four-time Academy Award nominee has turned in stunning, cerebral performances since 1989's Dead Poets Society — and he's still full of surprises. In his most recent outing, Hawke stars alongside Pedro Pascal in the gay cowboy romance Strange Way of Life. The bold new Western marks the latest in a long line of envelope-pushing cowboys pics Hawke has made in recent years (The Good Lord Bird, anyone?), solidifying his status as one of the greatest interpreters of the Western genre. What about the man himself? His life? His loves? His little-known talents and secret literary career? Dig into Ethan Hawke lore, and you'll find he's a cornucopia of riches. We've rounded up all the mysteries and magic that makes Hawke, well, nothing short of the most interesting man in the world.
Videos by Wide Open Country
He Was Born in Texas
Ethan Hawke dons a Hank Williams logo at a 2013 event in Texas. (Rick Kern/Getty Images)
Ethan Green Hawke was born on Nov. 6, 1970, in Austin, Texas, to James and Leslie (née Caron) Hawke. His father was an insurance actuary and his mother a charity worker. Hawke's parents divorced when he was 4 years old, after which he relocated to New York City with his mother. A lover of country music, Hawke posted a sweet tribute to his mother in 2018, quoting Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson's 1978 classic "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys."
Hawke graduated from the Hun School of Princeton, a New Jersey boarding school, in 1988. Throughout his high school years, he performed in school theater productions, including Meet Me in St. Louis and You Can't Take It with You. He has three brothers and one sister.
Dead Poets Society Breakout
The cast of Dead Poets Society. (Francois Duhamel/Sygma via Getty Images)
Hawke studied acting briefly at Carnegie Mellon University, dropping out when he was cast in 1989's Oscar-winning drama Dead Poets Society at just 18 years old. The film, starring Robin Williams as a renegade English teacher at an all-boys boarding school, catapulted Hawke to stardom. He was roundly praised for his portrayal of troubled teen Todd Anderson.
After his Dead Poets Society breakout, Hawke studied English at New York University for two years, dropping out to pursue his acting career full time. "The success was so monumental that I was getting offers to be in such interesting movies and be in such interesting places, and it seemed silly to pursue anything else," Hawke told The Guardian in a 2005 interview.
Training Day and Critical Acclaim
Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke in Training Day. (Warner Brothers/Getty Images)
He followed up Dead Poets Society with lead roles in films such as Disney's White Fang and the cult favorite Reality Bites, gaining critical acclaim for his roles in Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise (1995) and Antoine Fuqua's hard-boiled crime thriller Training Day (2001), in which Hawke starred as a rookie narcotics officer assigned to Denzel Washington's shady detective. The role nabbed Hawke a Screen Actors Guild award and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, with Washington taking home the Best Actor Oscar.
Hawke told The Guardian that Training Day was his "best experience in Hollywood," heaping praise on co-star Washington: "Pure and simple, Denzel Washington is a great movie star. Each generation, there's two or three. And he's it."
Marriages to Uma Thurman and Ryan Shawhughes
Ethan Hawke with ex-wife Uma Thurman and wife Ryan Shawhughes. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic; Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
After meeting on the set of 1997's Gattaca, Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) were married from 1998 to 2005. They share two children: 24-year-old actress Maya Hawke and 21-year-old son Levon Hawke. In 2003, it was alleged that Hawke had cheated on Thurman with their children's nanny, Ryan Shawhughes — which Hawke has repeatedly denied. In a 2004 interview with 20/20, the actor claimed that his relationship with Shawhughes began after he and Thurman's megawatt marriage had broken down.
"Uma and I did not split up over anybody's infidelity," Hawke said. "I know people imagine some kind of Sound Of Music type love affair, but the truth is by the time Ryan and I were falling in love, it had been a long while since I had employed her."
When his divorce from Thurman was finalized in 2005, Hawke began publicly dating Shawhughes. The couple was married in 2008, and they share preteen daughters Clementine and Indiana.
His Daughter Maya Hawke's Hollywood Rise
Maya Hawke at the 2022 premiere of Stranger Things season 4. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Maya Hawke, 24, is an actress and singer-songwriter who first broke through with her hilarious portrayal of Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlor employee Robin Buckley in Stranger Things' season 3. She has since starred in the Netflix teen comedy Do Revenge, and she can be seen later this month in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City.
As for following in the footsteps of her famous parents, Maya credits her dad for her desire to connect through art:
"We'd spend a lot of time together playing guitar, singing songs, writing poetry, and would paint late into the night," she said in a 2020 interview, according to ET Canada. "I was the kid who wasn't interested in sports, so he had to engage with me in creative ways. This is where my relationship to communicating with art was built."
His Sojourns into the Western Genre
Ethan Hawke in The Magnificent Seven. (Ethan Hawke via Instagram)
Hawke stars alongside Pedro Pascal in Pedro Almodóvar's short film Strange Way of Life, a gay cowboy romance that premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. It's the latest Western in Hawke's gunslinger-heavy filmography. He previously starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in Linklater's The Newton Boys (1998), based on the legendary Texas bank robbers. In 2016, he played a vengeful drifter who goes up against John Travolta's despotic town marshal in Ti West's In a Valley of Violence. That same year, he reunited with Training Day director Fuqua and actor Washington for a Magnificent Seven remake, which also featured a pre-Yellowstone Luke Grimes.
From 2019-2020, Hawke starred in back-to-back Western films. He fronted Vincent D'Onofrio's Billy the Kid biopic The Kid. He also co-created, co-wrote and starred in The Good Lord Bird, a Showtime miniseries (and underrated banger) about the famed abolitionist John Brown. Hawke earned a Golden Globe nomination for his absurd and captivating take on Brown, who was executed for inciting a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry in 1859.
His Love of Country Music
Ethan Hawke plays guitar at the 2018 South By Southwest Festival. (Gary Miller/FilmMagic)
Hawke is a talented guitarist who grew up listening to Hank Williams and Willie Nelson, and he's incorporated his love of country music into his films. In 2018, he directed the biographical drama Blaze, based on the life of little-known country music singer and modern-day outlaw Blaze Foley. The actor was even on hand to introduce performers at Nelson's momentous 90th birthday concert at the Hollywood Bowl in May.
He's a Published Writer
Twenty-six-year-old Ethan Hawke at a book signing. (Richard Ellis; Screengrab via Ethan Hawke/Instagram)
Before his acting career took off in his late teens, Hawke dreamed of becoming a writer. He's published four novels, as well as a graphic novel about the Apache Wars in the 19th century titled Indeh. Most recently, Hawke co-wrote and directed the upcoming Flannery O'Connor biopic Wildcat, which will see his daughter Maya take on the role of the Southern Gothic novelist.
READ MORE: Meet Melissa Peterman: From Barbra Jean on 'Reba' to a Decades-Long Friendship with Reba McEntire
