Gene Hackman was an actor’s actor. A consummate professional. This famous everyman was a character actor’s Superman. Prolific, uncompromising, and true to himself, the Oscar-winning actor played a variety of characters, somehow leaving his indelible mark on each role. He never considered himself a “method actor” like his contemporaries Al Pacino and Robert De Niro; he approached every role well-prepared and with a genuineness that belied his immense talents.
Over his 40-year career, he was nominated for five Academy Awards and won two. Not blessed with “leading-man” looks, he specialized in playing morally ambiguous characters and brought a freshness to every role, whether on stage or screen.
Beginnings and Hackman’s Early Career
Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, on Jan. 30, 1930, but grew up in Danville, Illinois. When he was 13, his father left their family, never to return. At 16, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1946. Serving in China, Hawaii, and Japan, he worked as a disc jockey on his unit’s radio station. After being discharged, he studied journalism at the University of Illinois but only lasted six months.
From there, he headed to New York City to work in the television production business. After working at local stations around the country, he got the acting bug and moved to California. He studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse along with another struggling actor, Dustin Hoffman. From there, he moved back to New York, got married, and lived the life of a struggling actor, taking odd jobs to get by and looking for his first big break.
Broadway Beckons and Career Takes Off
He found theatre work, first in summer stock and then in Off Broadway productions. In his first successful Broadway play, Any Wednesday, he played a young man who falls in love with a tycoon’s mistress. He was a smash hit, and his days of working odd jobs were over. He headed to Hollywood, where he had guest appearances on television shows like Route 66 and The Defenders. His big break came when he had a bit part in the movie Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty.
Beatty was so impressed by Hackman’s performance that he asked him to accept a role in the new movie he was producing, Bonnie and Clyde. His depiction of Clyde’s brother Buck Barrow was so memorable that he received his first Oscar nomination (supporting actor) for his role. His career took off from there. Another supporting actor Academy Award nomination for his role in I Never Sang for My Father (1970), led to one of most famous portrayals of all time.
In William Friedkin’s The French Connection, Hackman played Popeye Doyle, a ruthless, manical narcotics cop in pursuit of international drug smugglers. It was the role of a lifetime and earned Hackman his first Oscar as best actor. After that, Hackman starred in a number of 1970s Hollywood successes such as The Poseidon Adventure, Scarecrow, Francis Ford Copola’s The Conversation, A Bridge Too Far, and Superman.
1980s-Mooseport
The 1980s brought more success as Hackamn mixed leading parts with sharp supporting roles. Highlights from this era include Reds (with Warren Beatty), Under Fire (one of my favorites, where Hackman played a war correspondent), Uncommon Valor, Hoosiers, No Way Out and an Academy Award nomination (supporting actor) for playing a redneck F.B.I. agent in Mississippi Burning (1987).
Even heart surgery in 1990 did not slow Hackman down. His success continued through the 90s with hit movies like Post Cards from the Edge, his supporting Oscar-winning performance in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, Geronimo: An American Legend, Crimson Tide, The Birdcage, and Enemy of the State.
The turn of the century brought outstanding performances in The Mexican, The Royal Tenenbaums, and his final film, 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport. In 2008, he was asked why he quit acting. To this, Hackman said
“I did not want to keep pressing” and risk “going out on a real sour note.”
Busy Retirement
But his retirement from acting was hardly sedate. He wrote or co-wrote five novels, painted, sculptured, rode his motorcycle, and rooted for the Jacksonville Jaguars football team. He lived out his days with his second wife, Betsy Arakawa, in their Adobe home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, until their untimely death. Hackman, when asked to sum up his life, said
“‘He tried.’ I think that’d be fairly accurate.”
Gene Hackman is survived by his three children from his first marriage, Christopher, Elizabeth, and Leslie, and a granddaughter.
