Gene Hackman, the unpretentious actor whose performances in such films as “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers,” “Unforgiven” and “The Firm” elevated character roles to leading-man levels, has died. He was 95.
Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their home in New Mexico along with their dog, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
Hackman’s best roles were often of conflicted authority figures or surprisingly clever white-collar villains. Many held a hint – sometimes more than a hint – of menace.
He won an Oscar for his portrayal of New York cop Popeye Doyle in 1971’s “The French Connection,” a detective who gets his man but at a high cost. His surveillance expert in 1974’s “The Conversation” is single-minded to the point of obsession, losing all perspective.
Even in 1986’s “Hoosiers,” in which Hackman played perhaps his most heroic role – a small-town high school basketball coach – he seems to revel in the man’s flaws.
Yet he was always watchable, even magnetic. His cackle alone, which film critic David Edelstein described as “that familiar, slightly sinister ‘heh-heh-heh,’” inspired a YouTube tribute.
“On one hand, he has the gravitas of the Lincoln Memorial. On the other hand, he has the physical forgettability of that middle-management guy in the seat next to you on the flight from Rochester to Omaha,” wrote Michael Hainey in a 2011 GQ article.
“I’d like to think that if an actor was playing me, that he would do me in an honest fashion. I always try to approach the work in that way, regardless of how good or bad the script,” he told GQ.
Perhaps it was his status as a late bloomer that made Hackman so conscious of the need to strip his roles of adornment.
He was 36 before he broke through in 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde” – a role he got after losing the part of Mr. Robinson in “The Graduate.” Before that, he’d served in the Marines, scuffled in California and New York (sometimes with a roommate, “Graduate” star Dustin Hoffman) and worked odd jobs, including truck driver and doorman.
Still, he was fine just with being an actor – regardless of how others viewed his un-movie star face.
“Neither Dustin nor myself looked like the leading men of that era, especially Dusty because he wasn’t tall,” he told Film Comment in 1988. “We were constantly told by acting teachers and casting directors that we were ‘character’ actors. The word ‘character’ denotes something less than attractive.
“I accepted the limitation of always being the third or fourth guy down, and my goals were tiny,” he continued. “But I still wanted to be an actor.”
His acting origins
In the beginning, Hackman was lucky to be anything.
He was born January 30, 1930, and grew up in Danville, Illinois. His parents divorced when he was an adolescent, and his father, a printing press operator, deserted the family.
Hackman, 13 at the time, could still see his father’s goodbye wave in an interview more than four decades later.
“I hadn’t realized how much one small gesture can mean,” he told Parade in 1989. “Maybe that’s why I became an actor.” The lack of a father, he added, gave him his hardworking drive; his mother, who had musical talent, and his infirm grandmother, who lived with the family, gave him a fondness for the arts.
“I was too young to be left alone, and she was too old to be left alone, so I became very close with her,” he said of the latter. “She was a great storyteller.”
