Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American actor and novelist.
Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Lyda (née Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman. He has a brother, Richard. Hackman's family moved a lot until finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English maternal grandmother Beatrice, 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. At 16, 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.
Hackman began performing in several off-Broadway plays. 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.
In 1970, he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award again, 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 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.
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.
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 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.
Arts & Culture
