Gene
Hackman.
The
Legendary Actor.
Eugene Allen Hackman, better known as Gene Hackman, was born
in San Bernardino, California on January 30, 1930, to Eugene Ezra Hackman and
Anna Lida Elizabeth. He has a brother named Richard. His family moved frequently,
eventually settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the home of his
English-born maternal grandmother, Beatrice. Hackman's father ran a press for a
local newspaper, the Commercial News. His parents divorced when he was 13, and
his father abandoned the family. Hackman decided to become an actor at the age
of ten.
Hackman, who lived briefly in Storm Lake, Lowa, spent his
sophomore year at Storm Lake High School. He ran away from home at 16 and lied
about his age to join the United States Marine Corps. Served as Field Radio
Director for four and a half years. After his discharge in 1951, he moved to
New York City and worked several jobs. He began studying journalism and
television production at the University of Illinois under the G I Bill, but
dropped out and returned to California.
Hackman eventually decided to pursue acting and studied at
the Pasadena Playhouse Theater in the 1950s. Dustin Hoffman was one of his
classmates, and the two became friends, sharing the dubious distinction that
their peers were "less likely to succeed."
Returning to New York, Hackman landed his first Off-Broadway
role in 1958 in Chaparral. He befriended actor Robert Duvall, with whom Hoffman
was briefly a roommate. After struggling for years, Hackman made his first
appearance as a police officer in 1961's Mad Dog Coll. He made his Broadway
debut two years later in ‘Children from Their Games’, followed by A Rainy Day
in Newark. Hackman was part of the original cast of Any Wednesday, which
debuted in 1964. After seeing him on Broadway, director Robert Rossen cast
Hackman in the play, Lilith, in 1964 opposite Warren Beatty.
Beatty was instrumental in Hackman's major career
breakthrough. He assisted Hackman in a supporting role in Bonnie and Clyde in
1967, which starred Beatty and Faye Dunaway as a notorious criminal duo.
Hackman plays Buck Burrow, Clyde's brother, who robs a bank with his
half-sister and his mistress. The role earned Hackman critical acclaim and his
first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Three years later, Hackman received another Best Supporting
Actor nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1970
for I Never Sang for My Father. In the film, he played the role of a professor
who tries to bond with his estranged father played by Melvin Douglas after his
mother's death. Next, in 1971, the movie The French Connection solidified his
status as a bona fide screen star. Hackman won the Academy Award for Best Actor
for his role as Detective Popeye Doyle in this hit thriller directed by William
Friedkin.
After the success of The French Connection, Hackman acted in
several films. He teamed up with such classic stars as Ernest Borgnine, Red
Buttons, Roddy McDowell, and Shelley Winters for the 1972 disaster-at-sea saga
The Poseidon Adventure. The following year, he teamed up with Al Pacino for the
drama Scarecrow. In 1974, Hackman starred in Francis Ford Coppola's The
Conversation, playing a surveillance expert caught up in one of his projects.
His portrayal of Harry Caul, a measured and precise professional recluse, is
one of his most acclaimed performances.
Hackman returned as Popeye Doyle in 1975's The French
Connection II, and that year he also starred in Bite the Bullet, Night Moves,
and the notorious flop Lucky Lady, co-starring Liza Minnelli, and Burt
Reynolds. He scored success with his portrayal of supervillain Lex Luthor in
1978's Superman, which starred Christopher Reeve as the legendary man of steel.
Hackman reprised his role in two sequels: Superman II in 1980 and Superman IV:
The Quest for Peace in 1987.
Reunited with Beatty, Hackman had a small role in 1981's
Reds, based on the true story of a politically radical journalist named John
Reed. He continued that effort in 1983, playing a retired colonel who travels
to Vietnam to find his son in Uncommon Valor. While the film received moderate
reviews, he was praised for his performance.
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