Tony Awards 2012: Who Is Deborra-Lee Furness, Hugh Jackman's Wife? [VIDEO, PHOTO]

Not many people knew of Hugh Jackman's wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, before Sunday night's Tony Awards, when she surprised the movie star, memorable Tony Awards host and Broadway veteran, with a Special Tony Award.

Deborra-Lee Furness, as her famous husband mentioned upon receiving the Special Tony Award, shies away from the public eye.

I love you with all my heart. I know how much you hate public speaking, Jackman told his wife in accepting his award, which can be viewed in the video below. This is probably the greatest thing you've ever done for me. It means the world to me.

Who exactly is Deborra-Lee Furness?

Like Jackman, she is a native of Australia, having been born on the continent in 1955, according to her IMDB page. She married Hugh Jackman on April 11, 1996. The couple have two children, 12-year-old son Oscar Maximillian Jackman, and 6-year-old Ava Eliot Jackman.

Deborra-Lee Furness is a graduate of Methodist Ladies' College in Melbourne, Australia.

Like her famous husband, Deborra-Lee Furness is an actor and has 38 credits to her name, most recently voicing the character of Barran in Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

Deborra-Lee Furness was also behind the camera for the short film Standing Room Only and a segment on Stories of Lost Souls.

Unfortunately, Deborra-Lee Furness was a consensus pick as one of the worst-dressed Tony Awards attendees, with the Newark Star-Ledger calling her feathery ensemble a 'La Cage Aux Folles' reject. The website mygay.net criticized her shoes as awful.

Jackman received the Special Tony Award for raising almost $2 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Jackman, a former Tony Award host, raised the funds while his Broadway show, Hugh Jackman Back On Broadway, had a 10-week run on the Great White Way, according to People.com.

Jackman was gracious in accepting the award.

To get something like this is an embarrassment of riches. I can't thank you enough, the Aussie actor said during the telecast.

Hugh Jackman said he had reservations about hosting Broadway's biggest night, noting that at the time he wasn't even in a Broadway show before.

I thought they were smoking crack at the time, he said of the show's producers. I pretty much ignored every instinct I had and said, 'Yes.'

When you receive hospitality when you don't expect it, and really, when you don't deserve it, that's something you never forget, Jackman said. I will never forget my time with you, this theatre community. It's something I treasure as much as everything.