As Sir Ian McKellen so often and so rightly reminds us, the gay population are not well served by Hollywood. Gay stars hold their tongues and stay in the closet, straight stars shy away from gay characters. Paranoia rules, a terrible fear that fame and fortune could be suddenly snatched away if you're tarred with the wrong brush. It's amazing, then, that while X-Men 2 and Van Helsing were turning him into one of the biggest, toughest action stars in recent memory, Hugh Jackman should be onstage in New York, nightly wowing audiences in The Boy From Oz, a lavish musical biography of Peter Allen, a super-camp dancer and lounge singer who married Liza Minnelli and later died from complications from AIDS.

This is not to say Jackman is an activist interloper on the world stage, or even that he's much of an activist at all. But what it proves is that he's talented and courageous enough to ignore Hollywood paranoia, popular bigotry and the macho imperatives of his homeland Australia. By making such a choice, Jackman has stepped aside from his peers and shown himself to be one of the world's most unusual and potentially important superstars.

He was born Hugh

ichael Jackman on the 12th of October, 1968, in Sydney, New South Wales. His parents were English, father Chris being an accountant from Cambridge, and he'd be the youngest of five kids, having two brothers and two sisters. Growing up in the Jackman household was not always easy. Chris was vehemently English in his demands for good manners at the table and elsewhere, and the kids' friends, disliking the strictness, would often stay away. Aside from this, though, Hugh enjoyed an active life outside the home, spending much time on the beach, feeding his action figures to the squids. He also discovered acting at a very early age, appearing onstage in Camelot at the age of 5, and continuing through a string of musicals and plays, pupils being strongly encouraged by the school to both contribute to official productions and put on their own.

At the age of 8 disaster struck when his mother, Grace Watson, decided to return to England. She'd work there as a psychologist, and bear another daughter, but her relationship with Hugh would be forever strained. So Chris was left to raise 5 children on his own, and did so in his own uncompromising manner. Very keen on education, he would pay for extra classes, musical tuition and instruments (Hugh would learn piano for six years, also studying guitar and violin), but if anyone wanted mere fripperies like new trainers they could damn well get a job and buy them themselves. Thus a strong work ethic was born, and Hugh would later spend years pumping gas from midnight to dawn at a Shell garage, chatting to visiting insomniacs. This lasted till a fellow worker was held up with a shotgun, Hugh figuring that $10 an hour was simply not enough.

A good student, Hugh would attend Knox Grammar School, an elite all-boys establishment in the Wahroonga district of Sydney. On graduation, he'd attend the city's University of Technology, earning a BA in Communications. The idea was to become a journalist, but he quickly realised he had neither the passion or the skill for the job. Instead, while studying for three days a week at Sydney's Actors' Centre, he took on a series of odd jobs. At one point he and friend Stan were clowns at kids' parties, Hugh being Coco and Stan Bozo. They had no tricks or talents (though Jackman later learned to juggle), they'd simply jump into dustbins and throw

e would pay for extra classes, musical tuition and instruments (Hugh would learn piano for six years, also studying guitar and violin), but if anyone wanted mere fripperies like new trainers they could damn well get a job and buy them themselves. Thus a strong work ethic was born, and Hugh would later spend years pumping gas from midnight to dawn at a Shell garage, chatting to visiting insomniacs. This lasted till a fellow worker was held up with a shotgun, Hugh figuring that $10 an hour was simply not enough.

A good student, Hugh would attend Knox Grammar School, an elite all-boys establishment in the Wahroonga district of Sydney. On graduation, he'd attend the city's University of Technology, earning a BA in Communications. The idea was to become a journalist, but he quickly realised he had neither the passion or the skill for the job. Instead, while studying for three days a week at Sydney's Actors' Centre, he took on a series of odd jobs. At one point he and friend Stan were clowns at kids' parties, Hugh being Coco and Stan Bozo. They had no tricks or talents (though Jackman later learned to juggle), they'd simply jump into dustbins and throw eggs at each other, eventually being revealed as imposters by cheated children and fired. He'd also work for the National Parks and Wildlife Foundation, handing out leaflets, half the time dressed as a ranger, half as Kooey the Koala. Clad in a huge furry suit, he would often pass out from the heat and, when expected to run the city's annual City To Surf marathon dressed as Kooey, he slipped down a side street and drove to within sight of the finishing line. Coming 600th out of 40,000 he remains the highest-placed marsupial in marathon history.

Now in the early Nineties and, as said, acting part-time at the Actors' Centre, Hugh would face a spooky encounter and his first major career choice. Told by a white witch that he should concentrate on performance as he was going to be a big star, the very next day he attended an audition for Neighbours and was offered a year-long contract. At last realising that he could actually make a living at this, and while waiting for the Neighbours contract to arrive, he applied to WAAPA, the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, and was accepted. With one weekend to decide, what was he to do now? Take the money and the immediate fame, or take the risk?

Deciding that he wanted to be a serious actor, he turned down Neighbours and spent three years at WAAPA, gaining an all-round theatre education in the likes of Romeo And Juliet, Translations, Barbarians and Tonight We Improvise. Graduating in 1994, he walked straight into the Australian production of Beauty And The Beast, playing Belle's super-macho and unwanted suitor Gaston. It would be a tough run. At one point Jackman began to suffer terrible headaches and was advised to drink plenty of water. The headaches disappeared but, when approaching the climax of his signature tune, he realised that to hit the final high note he was going to have to relax more muscles than was going to be socially acceptable. Nonetheless, he did it and was relieved (ho ho) to find that no shameful wet patch was showing. Unfortunately, back onstage ten minutes later he realised that all that water was just taking its time soaking through his thick red tights. And everyone could now see it.

Following this first stage stint, as most Australian film stars have done, he decided to gain experience in the world of soaps, miniseries and cop dramas. He'd