Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, writer, musician, and director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three Off-Broadway plays, and a documentary. He has also written three novels and one graphic novel.
He made his film debut with Joe Dante’s science fiction feature Explorers (1985), with River Phoenix; before making a breakthrough appearance in Dead Poets Society (1989), with Robin Williams. Other early films include Dad (1989), with Jack Lemmon, Ted Danson, Olympia Dukakis, Kathy Baker, and Kevin Spacey; White Fang (1991), with Klaus Maria Brandauer and Seymour Cassel; and A Midnight Clear (1992), with Gary Sinise, Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon and Arye Gross.
He appeared in various films before taking a role in the Generation X drama Reality Bites (1994), with Winona Ryder, Ben Stiller (who also directed), Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn; for which he received critical praise. Hawke starred alongside Julie Delpy in Richard Linklater‘s Before trilogy: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013), all of which received critical acclaim. He would collaborate with Linklater on various other films as well.
Hawke has been nominated twice for both the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; his writing contributions to Before Sunset and Before Midnight were recognized, as were his performances in Training Day (2001), with Denzel Washington; and Boyhood (2014), with Patricia Arquette. Hawke was further honored with SAG Award nominations for both films, as well as BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for the latter.
His other films include Gattaca (1997), with Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal, and Alan Arkin; the contemporary adaptation of Hamlet (2000), with Kyle MacLachlan, Liev Schreiber, and Bill Murray; Assault on Precinct 13 (2005), with Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, Maria Bello, Ja Rule, Drea de Matteo, Brian Dennehy, Aisha Hinds and Gabriel Byrne; Lord of War (2005), with Nicolas Cage and Ian Holm; Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007), with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney; and the horror film Sinister (2012), with Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Thompson, and Vincent D’Onofrio.
Other notable films include Maggie’s Plan (2015), with Greta Gerwig, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Travis Fimmel, Wallace Shawn, Monte Greene, Ida Rohatyn, and Julianne Moore; In a Valley of Violence (2016), with Taissa Farmiga, James Ransone, Karen Gillan, and John Travolta. In 2018, he garnered critical acclaim for his performance as a Protestant minister in Paul Schrader’s drama First Reformed (2017), receiving numerous accolades, including the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, and a nomination for the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actor.
In addition to his film work, Hawke has appeared in many theater productions. He made his Broadway debut in 1992 in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 2007 for his performance in Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia. In 2010, Hawke directed Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind, for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play. In 2018, he starred in the Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of Sam Shepard’s play True West alongside Paul Dano.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- Explorers (1985) – directed by Joe Dante
- Lion’s Den (1988) – directed by Bryan Singer – short
- Dead Poets Society (1989) – directed by Peter Weir
- Dad (1989) – directed by Gary David Goldberg
- White Fang (1991) – directed by Randal Kleiser
- Mystery Date (1991) – directed by Jonathan Wacks
- Waterland (1992) – directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal
- A Midnight Clear (1992) – directed by Keith Gordon
- Rich in Love (1993) – directed by Bruce Beresford
- Alive (1993) – directed by Frank Marshall
- Straight to One (1994) – director, writer only – short
- Quiz Show (1994) – directed by Robert Redford – uncredited cameo
- Reality Bites (1994) – directed by Ben Stiller
- Floundering (1994) – by Peter McCarthy
- White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf (1994) – directed by Ken Olin – uncredited cameo
- Before Sunrise (1995) – directed by Richard Linklater – also uncredited co-writer
- Search and Destroy (1995) – directed by David Salle
- Gattaca (1997) – directed by Andrew Niccol
- Great Expectations (1998) – directed by Alfonso Cuarón
- The Newton Boys (1998) – directed by Richard Linklater
- The Velocity of Gary (1999) – directed by Dan Ireland – aka The Velocity of Gary* *(Not His Real Name)
- Joe the King (1999) – directed by Frank Whaley
- Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) – directed by Scott Hicks
- Hamlet (2000) – directed by Michael Almereyda
- Waking Life (2001) – directed by Richard Linklater
- Tape (2001) – directed by Richard Linklater
- Training Day (2001) – directed by Antoine Fuqua
- Chelsea Walls (2001) – director, uncredited voice cameo
- The Jimmy Show (2002) – directed by Frank Whaley
- Taking Lives (2004) – directed by D. J. Caruso
- Before Sunset (2004) – directed by Richard Linklater – also co-writer
- Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) – directed by Jean-François Richet
- Lord of War (2005) – directed by Andrew Niccol
- One Last Thing… (2005) – directed by Alex Steyermark
- The Hottest State (2006) – also director, writer
- Fast Food Nation (2006) – directed by Richard Linklater
- Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) – directed by Sidney Lumet
- What Doesn’t Kill You (2008) – directed by Brian Goodman
- Chelsea on the Rocks (2008) – directed by Abel Ferrara – himself – documentary
- New York, I Love You (2008) – directed by Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Randall Balsmeyer, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Jiang Wen, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, & Brett Ratner – anthology – also writer
- Brooklyn’s Finest (2009) – directed by Antoine Fuqua
- Staten Island (2009) – directed by James DeMonaco – aka Little New York
- Corso: The Last Beat (2009) – directed by Gustave Reininger – narrator – documentary
- Daybreakers (2009)* – directed by Michael & Peter Spierig (as The Spierig Brothers)
- The Woman in the Fifth (2011) – directed by Paweł Pawlikowski – aka La femme du Vème – France/Poland/UK
- Total Recall (2012) – directed by Len Wiseman – director’s cut only
- Sinister (2012) – directed by Scott Derrickson
- Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012) – directed by Alex Gibney – voice – documentary
- Before Midnight (2013) – directed by Richard Linklater – also co-writer
- The Purge (2013) – directed by James DeMonaco
- Getaway (2013) – directed by Courtney Solomon
- Boyhood (2014)* – directed by Richard Linklater
- Predestination (2014) – directed by Michael & Peter Spierig (as The Spierig Brothers)
- Cymbeline (2014) – directed by Michael Almereyda – aka Anarchy
- Good Kill (2014) – directed by Andrew Niccol
- Seymour: An Introduction (2014) – also director – documentary
- Ten Thousand Saints (2015) – directed by Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
- Maggie’s Plan (2015) – directed by Rebecca Miller
- Born to Be Blue (2015) – directed by Robert Budreau
- Regression (2015) – directed by Alejandro Amenábar
- In a Valley of Violence (2016) – directed by Ti West
- The Phenom (2016) – directed by Noah Buschel
- Invasion! (2016) – directed by Eric Darnell – short
- Maudie (2016) – directed by Aisling Walsh
- The Magnificent Seven (2016)* – directed by Antoine Fuqua
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)* – directed by Luc Besson
- First Reformed (2017) – directed by Paul Schrader
- 24 Hours to Live (2017) a directed by Brian Smrz
- Juliet, Naked (2018) – directed by Jesse Peretz
- Blaze (2018) – director, co-writer, producer, cameo
- Stockholm (2018) – directed by Robert Budreau
- The Kid (2019) – directed by Vincent D’Onofrio
- Adopt a Highway (2019) – directed by Logan Marshall-Green – also producer
- The Truth (2019) – directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda – aka La Vérité – France/Japan
- Tesla (2020) – directed by Michael Almereyda
- Cut Throat City (2020) – directed by RZA
- The Northman (TBA) – directed by Robert Eggers
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