Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer and producer. He’s won international recognition for his roles in a wide variety of movie genres. Jackman is perhaps best known for his long running role as Wolverine in the X-Men movie series. Take a look below for 30 more fun and fascinating facts about Hugh Jackman.

1. In Broadway theater, Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz.

2. Jackman’s work in Les Miserables earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013.

3. Jackman became known outside Australia in 1998, when he played the leading role of Curly in the Royal National Theater’s acclaimed stage production of Oklahoma!, in London’s West End.

4. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and is the son of Grace McNeil and Christopher John Jackman, a Cambridge trained accountant.

5. His parents were originally English and had come to Australia in 1967 as part of the Ten Pound Poms immigration.

6. His parents were devout Christians, having been converted by Evangelist Billy Graham after their marriage.

7. Jackman has four older siblings. He was the second child to be born in Australia. He also has a younger half-sister, from his mother’s remarriage.

8. His parents divorced when he was 8 years old, and Jackman remained in Australia with his father and two brother. His mother moved back to England with his two sisters.

9. He went to primary school at Pymble Public School and later went to the all-boys Knox Grammar School on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, where he starred in its production of My Fair Lady in 1985.

10. He studied at the University of Technology, Sydney, graduating in 1991 with a BA in Communications. In his final year of university, he took a drama course to make up additional credits. His class did Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum with Jackman as the lead.

11. After he got his degree, Jackman did a one year course at the Actor’s Center in Sydney.

12. He was a last minute addition to the X-Men cast as Dougray Scott was originally cast as Wolverine. However, Mission: Impossible II required two extra months of shooting so the role was given to Jackman.

13. For his role as Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, he won a Variety Club, a Mo and a Green Room Award for best male actor in a musical.

14. Jackman has made six movies with Halle Berry. They are, X-Men, Swordfish, X-Men 2, X-Men: The Last Stand, Movie 43 and X-Men: Days of Future Past.

15. While he was filming Van Helsing in 2004, he accidentally broke an extra’s hand.

16. He has described himself as a Christian and a religious person. He also meditates daily and follows the spiritually eclectic School of Practical Philosophy.

17. Jackman married Deborra-Lee Furness on April 11, 1996. They first met on the set of Australian television show Correlli.

18. He personally designed an engagement ring for Furness. Their wedding rings bore the Sanskrit inscription, “Om paramar mainamar,” which translated to, “We dedicate our union to a greater source.”

19. Furness had two miscarriages, following which she and Jackman adopted two mixed race children, Oscar and Ava.

20. In 2005, Jackman, alongside his longtime assistant John Palermo, formed the production company Seed Productions. Their first project was Viva Laughlin in 2007.

21. He admitted that after X-Men, it was difficult to summon up the rage and darkness that was necessary for the Wolverine role and it took weeks of work with Bryan Singer to find the right tone for the character.

22. He once said in an interview with Jay Leno that he’s a fan of the Friday The 13th movie series and that he became an actor because he wanted to play Jason.

23. Jackman is very near-sighted and has extremely blurry vision when he isn’t wearing his contacts.

24. He took stunt driving classes to prepare for his role in Swordfish.

25. He had never seen an episode of Saturday Night Live until he agreed to host the show. The producers sent him tapes of episodes so that he could understand what the show was all about.

26. Jackman wants to produce and star in a movie based on the life of The Incredible Hulk actor Bill Bixby.

27. When he met Olivia Newton-John, he confessed to her that under his desk in elementary school, there was a poster with Newton-John on it and he would kiss the poster every day.

28. He goes through an intense workout regiment each time he plays Wolverine.

29. His life goal as a young man was to be an international freelance journalist.

30. As of 2015, he holds the record for playing the same comic book character more time than any other actor, which is 7 in this case. Prior to his record, the record was held by Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in 4 movies.