Gene Hackman is known for his intense performances and ability to bring depth to every role. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he built a reputation as a versatile and powerful presence on screen, receiving two Oscars, two baftas, and four Golden Globes with many more nominations. He would also race cars, design architecture, and write multiple books.

Early Life

Eugene Allen Hackman was born on January 30, 1930, in San Bernardino, California. His father, Eugene Ezra Hackman, a newspaper press operator, walked out on the family when Hackman was a teenager. Gene and his brother were raised primarily by his mother, Anna Lyda Elizabeth, in Danville, Illinois.  He developed an early love for movies and decided that he wanted to become an actor at age 10. At 16, he lied about his age to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he spent several years stationed in China and Japan. After his time in service, he bounced between jobs and studied journalism and television production at the University of Illinois under the G.I. Bill, but left and moved back to California to focus on his acting career.

Career

Hackman enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse in the late 1950s, where he was voted “least likely to succeed.” However, to prove that the instructor was wrong, he continued to pursue acting, moved to New York, and took small roles in theatre, TV, and film while working in restaurants and taking other jobs to make ends meet.

His persistence paid off when he landed a role in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, playing Buck Barrow, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He was nearly forty years old when he gained the role. He was again nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). And his career took off in the 1970s with The French Connection (1971), where he played tough-as-nails detective Popeye Doyle. The film was a massive success, earning Hackman an Oscar for Best Actor. The film is famous for many reasons, including the gorilla-style car chase. Director William Friedkin wanted to save money, so the chase scene was filmed without the proper permits needed and, in some of the locations, actual traffic. For the sections with elevated subway tracks, according to The Telegraph he paid “the guy from the transit department” $40,000 to shoot on the elevated tracks.” Hackman was not driving during most of the scene, of course, with stunt driver Bill Hickman doing the work of smashing into things along the way.

I wonder what his acting instructor thought after seeing his “least likely to succeed” actor standing on the stage accepting an Academy Award?

After his standout performances in Bonnie and Clyde and The French Connection, Hackman joined the all-star cast of the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Throughout the decade, he delivered standout performances in The Conversation and Superman, where he played the comically villainous Lex Luthor. Hackman never had the slowdown and revival that some actors go through over the decades as he continued to dominate the screen in the 1980s and 1990s with films like Mississippi Burning, Hoosiers, and Unforgiven, the latter of which won him his second Academy Award, this time for Best Supporting Actor. His range as an actor, whether playing a ruthless sheriff or a flawed hero, kept audiences captivated. Even in 2001, he charmed a new generation of viewers with his role as the eccentric Royal Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums. Where he was known to be quite difficult to director Wes Anderson. He received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Other Endeavors

In the late 1970s, Hackman competed in Sports Car Club of America races. In 1980, he won the Long Beach Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. He also drove a Dan Gurney Team Toyota in the 24 Hours of Daytona Endurance Race in 1983. Hackman was also interested in architecture and design. He had created ten homes, two of which were featured in Architectural Digest.

After his final film, Welcome to Mooseport (2004), Hackman quietly retired from acting to become a writer, publishing several historical fiction and occasionally narrative documents.

Personal Life

Hackman was married twice, first to Fay Maltese in 1956, with whom he had three children. The two would divorce in 1986. Later, Hackman married Betsy Arakawa, a classical pianist, in 1991. He also enjoyed a quiet life in New Mexico, spending time on hobbies like painting and biking.

On February 26, 2025, Hackman, his wife, and one of their dogs were found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 95 and she was 65.