A journeyman character actor adept at playing oddballs and outsiders, John Hawkes emerged from relative obscurity with a prominent regular role on the critically acclaimed HBO series, "Deadwood" (2004- ). Prior to playing Sol Star, a Jewish immigrant who starts several businesses with best friend Sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) and goes on to become mayor of the lawless town, Hawkes bounced around from series to series in several guest starring roles, while appearing in bit parts in feature films. But after "Deadwood," which lasted a scant three seasons despite a strong following, Hawkes had risen several rungs up the Hollywood ladder to become a respected and much-recognized on-screen presence.
Born Sept. 11, 1959 in a small, rural town in Minnesota, Hawkes' first love as a youth was wrestling. From the time he was three, Hawkes wrestled competitively, qualifying for the nationals at the AAU level when he was in junior high. Size, however, proved to be a factor - he remained rather small compared to his competitors when he reached high school and failed to get along with his coach. While a sophomore, he happened to see a performance of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and discovered what he really wanted to do with his life. After graduating from Jefferson High School in Alexandria, he attended St. Cloud State University, but found the acting courses wanting and dropped out. He made his way to Austin, Texas where he spent more time working as a waiter and carpenter than as an actor.
Frustrated with a lack of job opportunities, Hawkes and several of his out-of-work actor friends formed Big State Productions, a theater group that gave him the chance to write and direct as well as act. The troupe wound up being a critical success, affording the opportunity to perform a show at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Hawkes began nabbing small parts in features shot in and around Austin, including "Dakota" (1988), "D.O.A." (1988) and "Rosalie Goes Shopping" (1989). Returning to theater, Hawkes and friend Brent Briscoe starred in a revival of the popular play, "Greater Tuna," at the Halsted Theatre Center in Chicago. A sketch satire written by Ed Howard, Jaston Williams and Joe Sears - who, over the years, performed the play numerous times across the nation - "Greater Tuna" allowed Hawkes and Briscoe to play ten characters each in various skits and vignettes that take place on a late summer day in Texas' third smallest town.
In 1990, Hawked decided to up his chances for making the big time and moved to Los Angeles to further his career. He found consistent work, mainly on television, though he did appear in his share of features, including small roles in "Scary Movie" (1991) and "Flesh and Bone" (1993). Guest starring roles on "Nurses" (NBC, 1991-94), "Civil Wars" (ABC, 1991-93) and "Wings" (NBC, 1990-97), where he played an unhinged waiter in love with Helen (Crystal Bernard), padded his resume. Hawkes managed to score several movies-of-the-week as well, including "Sweet Poison" (USA, 1991) and "Nails" (Showtime, 1992), the latter being about a detective (Dennis Hopper) scouring the underworld of drug smugglers and crooked politicians in order to find his partner's murderer. Returning to theater, Hawkes wrote and starred in his one-man show, "Nimrod Soul," playing nine characters of differing sex and backgrounds drifting across America to the promised land of California.
Hawkes continued appearing regularly in films and on television, including as a liquor store clerk who has an unfortunate run-in with the murderous Gecko Brothers (George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino) in "From Dusk Till Dawn" (1996). He nabbed roles on episodes of "Dangerous Minds" (ABC, 1996-97), "ER" (NBC, 1994- ) and "Nash Bridges" (CBS, 1995-2001), then found himself in "Rush Hour" (1998) and "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" (1998). Hawkes then appeared as Mac in "Deep in the Heart (of Texas)" (1998), a comedic drama based on Big State's play, "In the West" about two married documentary filmmakers from England who try to capture some local Texas flavor while their marriage is on the verge of disaster. In "A Slipping-Down Life" (1998), Hawkes had a prominent co-starring role as the manager and musical collaborator of a musician (Guy Pearce) who falls in love with an obsessed fan (Lili Taylor) after she attracts media attention for carving his name into her forehead. He then made a memorable impression upon audiences as a slow-witted fisherman in Wolfgang Peterson's equally dim "The Perfect Storm" (2000). Hawkes' slow, but steady rise was accelerated with stronger guest roles on "24" (Fox, 2001- ) and "The Practice" (ABC, 1996-2004), and a supporting role as a high-strung motel manager in the murder thriller, "Identity" (2003).
In 2004, Hawkes was approached by writer David Milch to costar in his revisionist western, "Deadwood," about the real-life mining town in South Dakota that attracted miscreants, murderers and opportunists of all stripes thanks to being home to the largest gold strike in North America. Set in 1876 as the town is first settled on sacred Indian land, "Deadwood" focused on murderous saloon owner, Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), Alma Garret (Molly Parker), a laudanum-addicted newlywed and Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), a reluctant, but violent former marshal who wants to stay away from law enforcement to concentrate on making money. Though much of the critical attention was showered on Milch and McShane, Hawkes more than held his own as Bullock's best friend and business partner, Sol Star - one of the few characters who exhibited a consistent moral center, despite the surrounding sin and vice.
Meanwhile, Hawkes starred in the low-budget indie, "You, Me and Everyone We Know" (2005), a quirky drama about a lonely performance artist (writer-director Miranda July) who forges a relationship with a single shoe salesman (Hawkes) trying to raise two sons; one young and precocious, the other on the verge of adolescence. While not appearing on television or in film, Hawkes performed with his alternative country band, King Straggler.
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