Ethan Hawke has had a four-decade career in Hollywood and is currently in the midst of a great second act, with starring roles in FX’s The Lowdown, which just wrapped its first season, and the hit Black Phone film franchise. But while most of us first discovered the star, who turns 55 on November 6, 2025, from his star-making turn in 1989’s Dead Poets Society, his actual film debut came four years earlier, in a little-seen E.T. copycat film called Explorers.
