Gene Hackman

Eugene Allen Hackman (January 30, 1930 – c. February 18, 2025) was an American actor. Considered one of the greatest actors of his generation and a paragon of the New Hollywood movement, Hackman's mainstream acting career spanned over four decades. He received several accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, one Silver Bear and four Golden Globe Awards.

Hackman made his credited film debut in the drama Lilith (1964). He later won two Academy Awards, his first for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's action thriller The French Connection (1971) and his second for Best Supporting Actor for playing a villainous sheriff in Clint Eastwood's Western Unforgiven (1992). He was Oscar-nominated for playing Buck Barrow in the crime drama Bonnie and Clyde (1967), a college professor in the drama I Never Sang for My Father (1970) and an FBI agent in the historical drama Mississippi Burning (1988).

Hackman gained further fame for his portrayal of Lex Luthor in three of the Superman films from 1978 to 1987. He also acted in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Scarecrow (1973), The Conversation (1974), Night Moves (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Under Fire (1983), Hoosiers (1986), The Firm (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Get Shorty (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Absolute Power (1997), Antz (1998), Enemy of the State (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), and Runaway Jury (2003). He retired from acting after starring in Welcome to Mooseport (2004), writing novels and occasionally narrating television documentaries until 2017.

Early life and military service

Eugene Allen Hackman was born on January 30, 1930, in San Bernardino, California, to Anna Lyda Elizabeth (née Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman. He had a brother named Richard. Anna, an actress, painter, and pianist who worked as a waitress, was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The family moved frequently before eventually settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of Anna's English-born mother, Beatrice. Eugene Sr. operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local newspaper. Hackman later stated that he decided to become an actor at the age of 10. When Hackman was 13 years old, Eugene Sr. divorced Anna and left the family.

Hackman spent his sophomore year at Storm Lake High School in Storm Lake, Iowa. He left home at the age of 16, lied about his age to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, and served four and a half years as a field radio operator. Hackman was stationed in China (Qingdao and later in Shanghai) as part of Operation Beleaguer. He later stated that part of his role there was destroying Japanese military equipment so that Communist revolutionaries did not capture it. After the Communists conquered the mainland in 1949, he was reassigned to Hawaii and Japan. After his discharge in 1951, Hackman moved to New York City, where he worked at various jobs. In 1962, Anna died in a fire she had accidentally started while smoking. Hackman began a study of journalism and television production at the University of Illinois under the G.I. Bill but left without graduating and moved back to California.

Career

1956–1969: Career beginnings

In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman. Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were voted "the least likely to succeed", and Hackman got the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had yet given. Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman moved to New York City. A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors and close friends, sharing New York apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s.

To support himself between acting jobs, Hackman was working at a Howard Johnson's restaurant when he encountered an instructor from the Pasadena Playhouse, who said that his job proved that Hackman "wouldn't amount to anything." A Marine officer who saw him as a doorman said, "Hackman, you're a sorry son of a bitch." Rejection motivated Hackman, who said:

It was more psychological warfare, because I wasn't going to let those fuckers get me down. I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you're really interested in acting there is a part of you that relishes the struggle. It's a narcotic in the way that you are trained to do this work and nobody will let you do it, so you're a little bit nuts. You lie to people, you cheat, you do whatever it takes to get an audition, get a job.

Hackman began performing in several Off-Broadway plays, starting with Witness for the Prosecution in 1957 at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, New York, and including Come to the Palace of Sin in 1963. He got various bit roles, for example, in the film Mad Dog Coll and on multiple television series: Tallahassee 7000, The United States Steel Hour, Route 66, Naked City, The Defenders, The DuPont Show of the Week, East Side/West Side, and Brenner. In 1963, he made his Broadway debut in Children From Their Games, which had only a short run, as did A Rainy Day in Newark. However, Any Wednesday with actress Sandy Dennis was a huge Broadway success in 1964. This opened the door to film work. His first credited role was in Lilith, with Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty in the leading roles.

Hackman returned to Broadway in Poor Richard (1964–65) by Jean Kerr, which ran for over a hundred performances. He continued to do television – The Trials of O'Brien, Hawk, and The F.B.I. – and had a small part as Dr. John Whipple in the epic film Hawaii. He had small roles in features like First to Fight (1967), A Covenant with Death (1967), and Banning (1967). Hackman was originally cast as Mr. Robinson in the 1967 Mike Nichols independent romantic comedy film The Graduate, but Nichols fired him three weeks into rehearsal for being "too young" for the role; he was replaced by Murray Hamilton. Also in 1967, he appeared in an episode of the television series The Invaders entitled "The Spores" and as Buck Barrow in 1967's biographical crime drama Bonnie and Clyde, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

A return to Broadway that same year, The Natural Look, ran for just one performance. Additionally, he performed Off-Broadway in Fragments and The Basement. Hackman was in episodes of Iron Horse ("Leopards Try, But Leopards Can't") and Insight ("Confrontation"). In 1968, he appeared in an episode of I Spy, in the role of "Hunter", in the episode "Happy Birthday... Everybody". That same year, he starred in the CBS Playhouse episode "My Father and My Mother" and the dystopian television film Shadow on the Land. In 1969, he played a ski coach in Downhill Racer and an astronaut in Marooned. Also that year, he played a member of a barnstorming skydiving team that entertained mostly at county fairs, a film which also inspired many to pursue skydiving and has a cult-like status amongst skydivers as a result: The Gypsy Moths. Hackman supported Jim Brown in two films, The Split (1968) and Riot (1969). Hackman nearly accepted the role of Mike Brady for the TV series The Brady Bunch, but his agent advised that he decline it in exchange for a more promising role, which he did, but this story is said to have been exaggerated.

1970–1979: Breakthrough and stardom

Hackman was nominated for a second Oscar for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the drama film I Never Sang for My Father (1970), directed by Gilbert Cates. Hackman acted opposite Melvyn Douglas, where they played father and son who are unable to communicate. Roger Ebert wrote of his performance, "Much of the film is just between the two of them and the characters seem to work so well because Douglas and Hackman respond to each other in every shot; the effect is not of acting, but as if the story were happening right now while we see it." He starred in the drama Doctors' Wives (1971) and the western film The Hunting Party (1971). He won his first Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as New York City Police Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the crime drama The French Connection (1971), directed by William Friedkin. This film marked his graduation to stardom. Robert B. Frederick of Variety praised the performances of Hackman and Roy Scheider, writing, "They are very believable as two hard-nosed narcotics officers" who are also "overworked, tired and mean".