ETHAN HAWKE: MY LIFE IN SEVEN ROLES

The actor is earning Emmy and Oscar buzz with his two latest projects. Here are the big parts that honed his skills

- DAVID FEAR

He's been a shy prep student, a hopeless romantic, an earnest LA cop, a priest in existential crisis, the embodiment of Gen X slackitude. Over 40 years, we've watched Ethan Hawke go from ingenue to artist, a trend that continued this past autumn with his turns as a batty citizen journalist in the Tulsa-set series The Lowdown and broken-down Broadway composer Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater's Blue Moon. "I've been really lucky that I got to be mentored and nurtured," Hawke says of his career longevity. Here, he reflects on some of his memorable roles.

DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989)

Todd Anderson

You know how you hear about people sailing around Cape Horn - like, you've never done it before, but you've heard it's been accomplished, right? Dead Poets Society was, for me, like making that trip. I wasn’t the captain, I wasn’t even the first mate - I was just on the boat. But I saw firsthand that it could be done, and how a good ship is run.

REALITY BITES (1994)

Troy Dyer