Born in Eastern Europe, Hawkes (or Hucks) immigrated to America as a teenager to pursue an acting career citing Johnny Weissmuller as a childhood influence. He played a Tarzan type character in a series of Spanish language movies. In Spain his character was referred to as Tarzan but when they were released in English language territories they directly avoided mentioning the Tarzan name, instead referring to Hawkes character as _Zan of the Jungle_. In 1971 he played the lead in the much loved exploitation movie Blood Freak in which he turns into a monster turkey. In the mid-Seventies he was badly burnt in an on set accident putting an end to his acting career. Now completely retired, today he runs an animal sanctuary out of Florida