Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman[His middle name is "Allen," according to the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905–1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com] (born January 30, 1930) is an American actor and novelist.
Hackman has made 80 films. He came to fame in 1967 when his performance as
Buck Barrow in
Bonnie and Clyde earned him his first Oscar nomination. His major roles include police detective
Popeye Doyle in
The French Connection, surveillance expert Harry Caul in
The Conversation, basketball coach Norman Dale in
Hoosiers, the heroic Reverend Scott in
The Poseidon Adventure, federal agent Rupert Anderson in
Mississippi Burning, sadistic sheriff Little Bill Daggett in
Unforgiven, arch-villain
Lex Luthor in
Superman (plus two of its sequels), Edward "Brill" Lyle in
Enemy of the State, submarine captain Frank Ramsey in
Crimson Tide, professional thief Joe Moore in
Heist and Admiral Leslie McMahon Reigart in
Behind Enemy Lines.
Early life
Hackman was born in
San Bernardino, California, the son of Lyda (
née Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman.
[Gene Hackman Biography (1930-)] He has a brother, Richard. Hackman's family moved from one place to another until finally settling in
Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his
British maternal grandmother, Beatrice,
[www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/genehackman/] and where Hackman's father operated the printing press for the
Commercial-News, a local paper.
Hackman's parents divorced in 1943.
His mother died in 1962, as a result of a fire she accidentally set while smoking.
[Gene Hackman profile. E! Online.com.] At sixteen, Hackman left home to join the
U.S. Marine Corps, where he served four-and-a-half years as a field radio operator. Having finished his service, he moved to
New York, working in several minor jobs.
Career
1960s
At 26 years old, Hackman decided to become an actor, and joined the
Pasadena Playhouse in California. It was there that he forged a friendship with another aspiring actor,
Dustin Hoffman. Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were later voted "The Least Likely To Succeed." Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman hopped on a bus bound for New York City. A 2004 article in
Vanity Fair described how Hackman, Hoffman and
Robert Duvall were all struggling actors and close friends while living in New York City in the 1960s. Hackman was working as a doorman when he ran into an instructor whom he had despised at the Pasadena Playhouse. Reinforcing "The Least Likely To Succeed" vote, the man had said "See Hackman, I told you you wouldn't amount to anything."
Hackman began performing in several
off-Broadway plays. Finally, in 1964, he had an offer to co-star in the play
Any Wednesday with actress
Sandy Dennis. This opened the door to film work. His first role was in
Lilith, with
Warren Beatty in the leading role. Another supporting role,
Buck Barrow in
1967's Bonnie and Clyde, earned him an
Academy Award nomination as
Best Supporting Actor. In
1969 he played a ski coach in
Downhill Racer, and an
astronaut in
Marooned. Also In
1969 he played the role of a member of a barnstorming Skydiving team, that entertained mostly at county fairs.
The Gypsy Moths is consider by hard core Skydivers & BASE jumpers to be the best movie to date on the Extreme Skydiving lifestyle.
1970s
[
] as the character
Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in
The French Connection]].
In 1970, he was nominated for the same award, this time for
I Never Sang for My Father, working alongside
Melvyn Douglas and
Estelle Parsons. The next year he won the
Academy Award for Best Actor for his memorable performance as New York City police officer Popeye Doyle in
The French Connection, marking his graduation to leading man status.
He followed this with leading roles in the disaster film
The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and
Francis Ford Coppola's
The Conversation (1974) which was nominated for several Oscars. That same year, Hackman appeared in what became one of his most famous comedic roles as the blind hermit in
Young Frankenstein.
He later appeared as one of
Teddy Roosevelt's former
Rough Riders in the Western horse-race saga
Bite the Bullet (1975) and in the star-studded war film
A Bridge Too Far (1977) as Polish General
Sosabowski. Hackman showed a talent for both comedy and the "slow burn" as criminal mastermind
Lex Luthor in
Superman: The Movie (1978), as he would in its 1980 and 1987 sequels.
1980s
By the end of the 1980s, Hackman alternated between leading and supporting roles, earning another
Best Actor nomination for
Mississippi Burning. He had a memorable part as a
Secretary of Defense trying to cover up a homicide in 1987's
No Way Out opposite
Kevin Costner.
During this decade Hackman also could be seen in
Reds,
Under Fire,
Hoosiers,
Power,
Uncommon Valor and
Bat*21. A 2008
American Film Institute poll voted
Hoosiers the fourth-greatest film of all time in the sports genre.
1990s
In 1990, the actor underwent heart surgery, which kept him from work for a while, although he found time for
Narrow Margin – a remake of
The Narrow Margin (1952). In 1992, he played the sadistic sheriff "Little" Bill Daggett in the
western Unforgiven directed by
Clint Eastwood and written by
David Webb Peoples which earned him a second Oscar, this time for
Best Supporting Actor. The film won Best Picture.
Hackman co-starred with
Tom Cruise as a corrupt lawyer in
The Firm (1993) and appeared in a second
John Grisham story in 1996, playing a convict on death row in
The Chamber.
In 1995, Hackman played an inept Hollywood producer in
Get Shorty and the villainous fast-draw champion John Herrod in
The Quick and the Dead opposite
Leonardo DiCaprio and
Russell Crowe, as well as submarine Captain Frank Ramsey in the film
Crimson Tide with
Denzel Washington.
In 1996, he took a comedic turn as ultra-conservative Senator Kevin Keeley in
The Birdcage with
Robin Williams and
Nathan Lane. He also co-starred with
Will Smith in the 1998 film
Enemy of the State, where his character was reminiscent of the one from
The Conversation.
He played a President of the United States who commits a murder in 1997's
Absolute Power, re-teaming with director-star Clint Eastwood.
2000s
Hackman starred in the
David Mamet crime film
Heist as an aging professional thief of considerable skill who is forced into one final job. He also had a leading role as the head of an eccentric family in the
ensemble cast film
The Royal Tenenbaums and in yet another Grisham legal drama,
Runaway Jury, at long last getting to make a picture with his longtime friend Dustin Hoffman.
In 2003, at the
Golden Globes, Hackman was honored with the
Cecil B. DeMille Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field."
[Business Wire, November 14, 2002. Hollywood. Gene Hackman to Receive HFPA'S Cecil B. DeMille Award At 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards to be Telecast Live on NBC on Sunday, January 19, 2003]
Present
Together with undersea archaeologist Daniel Lenihan, Hackman has written three novels:
Wake of the Perdido Star (1999),
Justice for None (2004), and
Escape from Andersonville (2008).
On July 7, 2004, Hackman gave a rare interview to
Larry King, in which he announced that he had no future film projects lined up, and believes his acting career is over. In 2008, while promoting his third novel, Hackman confirmed that he has retired from acting.
His final film to date was
Welcome to Mooseport, a comedy with
Ray Romano in which Hackman portrayed a former
President of the United States.
Personal life
Hackman's first wife was Faye Maltese. They had three children, Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne, but the couple divorced in 1986 after 30 years of marriage. In 1991, Hackman married Betsy Arakawa. They live in
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Betsy is co-owner of an upscale retail home-furnishing store in Santa Fe, called Pandora's, Inc.
Filmography
