Diary for my daughter 01.02.2025 - Gene Hackman

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Tata is fine today! I am getting ready to do some cleaning in the house, moping, hoovering, and tidying up some things. Later on, I will go to do some shopping with your grandfather. Today is the first day of spring. In Romania, we celebrate that with bringing some flowers to ladies. As is obviously that I can't bring you flowers, I just can say to you Happy First Spring Day! Hope that you will have a nice day! Here it is a cloudy one today! So.. let's go to your today story...

Gene Hackman

Eugene Allen Hackman (January 30, 1930 – c. February 17, 2025) was an American actor. In a career that spanned over four decades, he received two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.

Hackman's two Academy Award wins were for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's action thriller The French Connection (1971) and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a villainous Sheriff in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). He was also Oscar-nominated for three other roles: that of 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), Power (1986), Another Woman (1988), The Firm (1993), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Get Shorty (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and Runaway Jury (2003). He mostly retired from acting after his final film role in Welcome to Mooseport (2004), occasionally providing narration for 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. His mother was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Hackman's family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother, Beatrice. His father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local newspaper. Hackman said he had decided at age ten that he wanted to become an actor. His parents divorced when he was 13, and his father later left the family.

Hackman spent his sophomore year at Storm Lake High School. He left home at age 16, lied about his age to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, and served four and a half years as a field-radio operator. Hackman was stationed in China (Qingdao and later in Shanghai). When Communist revolutionaries 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, his mother died in a fire she had accidentally started while smoking. He 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

Acting was something I wanted to do since I was 10 and saw my first movie, I was so captured by the action guys. Jimmy Cagney was my favorite. Without realizing it, I could see he had tremendous timing and vitality.

—Gene Hackman

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 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. Hackman began performing in several Off-Broadway plays, starting with The Saintliness of Margery Kempe in 1959 and including Come to the Palace of Sin in 1963. 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, 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 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 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 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). He starred in Doctors' Wives (1971) and The Hunting Party (1971) then won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as New York City Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971), marking his graduation to stardom.

After The French Connection, Hackman starred in ten films (not including his cameo in Young Frankenstein) over the next three years, making him the most prolific actor in Hollywood during that time frame. He followed The French Connection with leading roles in Cisco Pike (1972), Prime Cut (1972), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Scarecrow (1973) alongside Al Pacino, which was Hackman's favorite role of his career and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), which was nominated for several Oscars and also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes. That same year, Hackman appeared in what would become one of his most famous comedic roles, as Harold the Blind Man in Young Frankenstein. Hackman also appeared in Zandy's Bride (1974) and Night Moves (1975) for director Arthur Penn.

Hackman played one of Teddy Roosevelt's former Rough Riders in the Western horse-race saga Bite the Bullet (1975). He reprised his Oscar-winning role as Doyle in the sequel French Connection II (1975), and co-starred with Burt Reynolds and Liza Minnelli in Lucky Lady (1975), a notorious flop. After making The Domino Principle (1977) for Stanley Kramer, Hackman was part of an all-star cast in the war film A Bridge Too Far (1977), playing Polish General Stanisław Sosabowski, and was an officer in the French Foreign Legion in March or Die (1977).

Hackman showed a talent for both comedy and the "slow burn" as criminal mastermind Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie (1978), a role he would reprise in its 1980 and 1987 sequels.

1980–1999: Established career and acclaim

Gene is someone who is a very intuitive and instinctive actor ... The brilliance of Gene Hackman is that he can look at a scene and he can cut through to what is necessary, and he does it with extraordinary economy – he's the quintessential movie actor. He's never showy ever, but he's always right on.

—Alan Parker

director of Mississippi Burning (1988)

Hackman alternated between leading and supporting roles during the 1980s. He appeared opposite Barbra Streisand in All Night Long (1981) and supported Warren Beatty in Reds (1981). He played the lead in Eureka (1983) and a supporting role in Under Fire (1983). Hackman provided the voice of God in Two of a Kind (1983) and starred in Uncommon Valor (1983), Misunderstood (1984), Twice in a Lifetime (1985), Target (1985) for Arthur Penn, and Power (1986). Between 1985 and 1988, he starred in nine films, making him the busiest actor, alongside Steve Guttenberg. Hackman played a high school basketball coach in Hoosiers (1986), which a 2008 American Film Institute poll named the fourth-greatest sports film of all time. After Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), he also voiced Nuclear Man (who was portrayed by Mark Pillow), and was in No Way Out (1987), Split Decisions (1988), Bat*21 (1988), and Full Moon in Blue Water (1988).

He acted opposite Gena Rowlands in the Woody Allen drama Another Woman (1988). Hackman starred in the Alan Parker directed crime drama Mississippi Burning (1988) where he acted opposite Willem Dafoe where they played an FBI agents investigating a murder of a civil rights leader. He earned acclaim for the role with Roger Ebert praising his performance for his "subtlety". He was nominated for a second Academy Award for Best Actor losing to Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man. After this he appeared in The Package (1989). Hackman starred in Loose Cannons (1990) with Dan Aykroyd, and he had a supporting role in Postcards from the Edge (1990). He appeared with Anne Archer in Narrow Margin (1990), a remake of the 1952 film The Narrow Margin. After Class Action (1991) and Company Business (1991) Hackman played the sadistic sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett in the Western Unforgiven directed by Clint Eastwood and written by David Webb Peoples. Hackman had pledged to avoid violent roles, but Eastwood convinced him to take the part, which earned him a second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actor. The film also won Best Picture.

Hackman returned to Broadway starring in the 1992 Ariel Dorfman play Death and the Maiden acting opposite Glenn Close and Richard Dreyfus at the Brooks Atkinson Theater. In 1993, he appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend as Brigadier General George Crook, and co-starred with Tom Cruise as a corrupt lawyer in The Firm, a legal thriller based on the John Grisham novel of the same name. Hackman would appear in two other films based on John Grisham novels, playing convict Sam Cayhall on death row in The Chamber (1996), and jury consultant Rankin Fitch in Runaway Jury (2003). Other notable films Hackman appeared in during the 1990s include Wyatt Earp (1994) (as Nicholas Porter Earp, Wyatt Earp's father), The Quick and the Dead (1995) opposite Sharon Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, and as submarine Captain Frank Ramsey alongside Denzel Washington in Crimson Tide (1995).

Hackman played film producer Harry Zimm with John Travolta in the comedy-drama Get Shorty (1995). In 1996, he took a comedic turn as conservative Senator Kevin Keeley in The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. He co-starred with Hugh Grant in Extreme Measures (1996) and reunited with Clint Eastwood in Absolute Power (1997). Hackman did Twilight (1998) with Paul Newman for director Robert Benton, did one of the voices for Antz (1998), and co-starred with Will Smith in Enemy of the State (1998), his character reminiscent of the one he had portrayed in The Conversation.

2000–2004: Final films and retirement

Hackman co-starred with Morgan Freeman in Under Suspicion (2000), Keanu Reeves in The Replacements (2000), Owen Wilson in Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Sigourney Weaver in Heartbreakers (2001), and appeared in the David Mamet crime thriller Heist (2001), as an aging professional thief of considerable skill who is forced into one final job. He made a cameo in The Mexican (2001). Hackman gained much critical acclaim playing against type as the head of an eccentric family in Wes Anderson's comedy film The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Hackman is utter perfection as the misbegotten paterfamilias, conveying beautifully Royal’s underlying decency and love for his family as well as his con-man slickness". For his performance, he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

In 2003, he also starred in another John Grisham legal drama, Runaway Jury, at long last getting to make a picture with his long-time friend Dustin Hoffman. In 2004, Hackman appeared alongside Ray Romano in the comedy Welcome to Mooseport, his final film acting role. Hackman was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" in 2003. Michael Caine and Robin Williams presented him with the award. On July 7, 2004, Hackman gave a rare interview to Larry King, where he announced that he had no future film projects lined up and believed his acting career was over. He narrated four episodes of the NFL Films sports documentary series America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions in 2007. In 2008, while promoting his third novel, he confirmed that he had retired from acting. That same year, Hackman made his last televised appearance in Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, as Guy Fieri went to a Santa Fe diner where Hackman was eating.

Speaking on his retirement in 2009, Hackman said, "The straw that broke the camel's back was actually a stress test that I took in New York. The doctor advised me that my heart wasn't in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress". When asked during a GQ magazine interview in 2011 if he would ever come out of retirement to do one more film, he said he might consider it "if I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people." He briefly came out of retirement to narrate two documentaries related to the United States Marine Corps: The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima (2016) and We, the Marines (2017).

Writing

Together with undersea archaeologist Daniel Lenihan, Hackman wrote three historical fiction novels: Wake of the Perdido Star (1999), a sea adventure of the 19th century; Justice for None (2004), a Depression-era tale of murder based on a real-life crime in his boyhood town of Danville; and Escape from Andersonville (2008), about a prison escape during the American Civil War. His first solo effort, a story of love and revenge set in the Old West titled Payback at Morning Peak, was released in 2011. His final novel Pursuit, a police thriller, followed in 2013.

Personal life

Marriages and family

In 1956, Hackman married Faye Maltese, with whom he had one son and two daughters: Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne Hackman. He was often out on location making films while the children were growing up. The couple divorced in 1986, after three decades of marriage.

In 1991, Hackman married classical pianist Betsy Arakawa (1959–2025). They shared a Santa Fe, New Mexico, home, which Architectural Digest featured in 1990. At the time, the home blended Southwestern styles and was at the crest of a twelve-acre hilltop, with a 360-degree view that stretched to the Jemez, Sangre de Cristo and Sandia mountains. As of 2022, Hackman continued to attend Santa Fe cultural events.

Views and interests

Hackman was a supporter of the Democratic Party, and said he was "proud" to be included on Nixon's Enemies List. However, he spoke fondly about Republican president Ronald Reagan.

In the late 1970s, Hackman competed in Sports Car Club of America races, driving an open-wheeled Formula Ford. 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 a fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, an NFL football team based in Jacksonville, Florida and regularly attended Jaguars games as a guest of former head coach Jack Del Rio. Their friendship went back to Del Rio's playing days at the University of Southern California.

Hackman was also interested in architecture and design. As of 1990, he had created ten homes, two of which were featured in Architectural Digest. After a period of time, he moved on to another house restoration. "I don't know what's wrong with me," he remarked, "I guess I like the process, and when it's over, it's over."

As of 2018, Hackman was an active cyclist.

Health

In 1990, Hackman underwent an angioplasty. In 2012, the 82-year-old Hackman was struck by a pickup truck while he was cycling in the Florida Keys. It was initially reported that he had suffered serious head trauma; however, his publicist stated that his injury was nothing more than "bumps and bruises".

Death

On February 26, 2025, Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa, and one of their three dogs were found dead at their residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hackman was 95 years old. The discovery was made by a maintenance worker who, upon discovering the bodies, contacted emergency services, prompting the arrival of Sheriff's deputies. The maintenance workers reported that they had last communicated with the couple two weeks prior to the discovery.

Deputies found Hackman's body in an advanced state of decomposition in the mudroom and Arakawa's body in a similar condition in a bathroom, with prescription medications scattered nearby. The medications identified included those for high blood pressure and thyroid conditions. One of their dogs, a German Shepherd, was found dead near Arakawa in the bathroom closet, while the couple's two other dogs were discovered alive on the property. A deputy noted that it appeared Hackman had "suddenly fallen", with evidence suggesting a similar scenario for Arakawa. The deputy also stated that the couple may have been dead for "several days, possibly even up to a couple [of] weeks."

On February 27, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department indicated that there were no significant indications of foul play, though they did not initially specify a time or cause of death. The fire department found no signs of a carbon monoxide leak. The sheriff's department has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Initial autopsy reports revealed no evidence of external trauma on either body. The bodies had begun to undergo natural mummification by the time they were discovered. On February 28, it was confirmed that the couple tested negative for carbon monoxide poisoning. Data retrieved from Hackman's pacemaker suggested that he likely died on February 17.

Tributes and legacy

Numerous members of the film industry have paid tribute to Hackman since his death. Clint Eastwood wrote in a statement, "There was no finer actor than Gene. Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much". Francis Ford Coppola wrote, "Gene Hackman [was] a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity ... I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution." British Academy of Film and Television Arts President Prince William also released a statement, which read in part, "Hackman was a true genius of film who brought each and every character to life with power, authenticity and star quality".

Others who paid tribute include Morgan Freeman, Dustin Hoffman, Glenn Close, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Bill Murray, Mel Brooks, Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Brolin, John Cusack, Nathan Lane, James Woods, Antonio Banderas, Dan Aykroyd, and Hank Azaria. Also Michael Chiklis and Superman co-star Valerie Perrine. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote that Hackman's death "marks the end of one of the greatest periods of U.S. cinema: the American New Wave ... He was the character actor who was really a star; in fact the star of every scene he was in – that tough, wised-up, intelligent, but unhandsome face perpetually on the verge of coolly unconcerned derision, or creased in a heartbreakingly fatherly, pained smile."

Awards and nominations

Hackman received two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. Asteroid 55397 Hackman, discovered by Roy Tucker in 2001, was named in his honor. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on May 18, 2019 (M.P.C. 114954).

Hackman has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:

40th Academy Awards (1967): Best Supporting Actor, nomination, Bonnie & Clyde

43rd Academy Awards (1970): Best Supporting Actor, nomination, I Never Sang for My Father

44th Academy Awards (1971): Best Actor, win, The French Connection

61st Academy Awards (1988): Best Actor, nomination, Mississippi Burning

65th Academy Awards (1992): Best Supporting Actor, win, Unforgiven

Publications

Hackman, Gene, and Daniel Lenihan (1999). Wake of the Perdido Star. New York: Newmarket Press. ISBN 978-1-557-04398-6. OCLC 42027535.

Hackman, Gene, and Daniel Lenihan (2004). Justice for None. New York: St. Martins Press. ISBN 978-0-312-32425-4. OCLC 54035033.

Hackman, Gene, and Daniel Lenihan (2008). Escape from Andersonville: A Novel of the Civil War. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-36373-4. OCLC 191865890.

Hackman, Gene (2011). Payback at Morning Peak: A Novel of the American West. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-451-62356-7. OCLC 798634411.

Hackman, Gene (2013). Pursuit. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 978-1-451-62357-4. OCLC 857568111.

And that was your today story. Monday, we will learn about Frédéric Chopin.

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