Ethan Green Hawke born November 6, is an American actor, author, and film director. He made his film debut in Explorers , before making a breakthrough performance in Dead Poets Society In addition to his film work, Hawke has appeared in many theater productions.
Hawke's parents were both students at the University of Texas at Austin at the time of his birth. They separated and later divorced in , when he was four years old. After the separation, Hawke was raised by his mother. In high school, Hawke aspired to be a writer, but developed an interest in acting. Hawke obtained his mother's permission to attend his first casting call at the age of 14, [ 14 ] and secured his first film role in Joe Dante 's Explorers , in which he played an alien-obsessed schoolboy alongside River Phoenix.
This failure caused Hawke to quit acting for a brief period after the film's release. In , Hawke made his breakthrough appearance in Peter Weir 's Dead Poets Society , playing one of the students taught by Robin Williams as a charismatic English teacher.
I didn't want to be an actor and I went back to college. But then the [film's] 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. While filming Dead Poets Society he auditioned for what would be his next film, 's comedy drama Dad , where he played Ted Danson 's son and Jack Lemmon 's grandson. The film, an adaptation of Jack London 's novel of the same name , featured Hawke as Jack Conroy, a Yukon gold hunter who befriends a wolfdog played by Jed.
According to The Oregonian , "Hawke does a good job as young Jack He makes Jack's passion for White Fang real and keeps it from being ridiculous or overly sentimental. Hawke's next role was in the Generation X drama Reality Bites , in which he played Troy Dyer, a slacker who mocks the ambitions of his girlfriend played by Winona Ryder. Film critic Roger Ebert called Hawke's performance convincing and noteworthy: "Hawke captures all the right notes as the boorish Troy and is so convincing it is worth noting that he has played quite different characters equally well in movies as different as "Alive" and "Dead Poets Society".
