Gene Hackman

Eugene Allen Hackman was born on January 30, 1930, in San Bernardino, California, to Anna Lyda Elizabeth (née Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman. His mother was an actress, painter, and pianist who also worked as a waitress and had been born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The family relocated frequently before settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the home of Anna's English-born mother, Beatrice. His father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local newspaper. Hackman has stated that he decided to become an actor at age 10. When he was 13, his father divorced his mother and left the family. Hackman spent his sophomore year of high school at Storm Lake High School in Storm Lake, Iowa, then left home at 16, lying about his age to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served four and a half years as a field radio operator, stationed in Qingdao and Shanghai as part of Operation Beleaguer, where part of his role involved destroying Japanese military equipment to prevent it from falling into the hands of Communist revolutionaries. After the Communists conquered the mainland in 1949, he was reassigned to Hawaii and Japan, and was discharged in 1951. He subsequently moved to New York City, working various jobs, and later studied journalism and television production at the University of Illinois under the G.I. Bill before leaving without a degree and returning to California. In 1962, his mother died in a fire she had accidentally started while smoking.

In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended fellow aspiring actor Dustin Hoffman. Both were regarded as outsiders by their classmates and were voted least likely to succeed; Hackman received the lowest score the Playhouse had yet assigned. He subsequently moved to New York City, where he supported himself between acting jobs working at a Howard Johnson's restaurant, among other positions. A 2004 Vanity Fair article described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as close friends who shared New York apartments in various two-person combinations during the 1960s. Hackman began performing in Off-Broadway productions starting with Witness for the Prosecution in 1957 at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, New York, and also appeared in Come to the Palace of Sin in 1963, as well as Off-Broadway productions of Fragments and The Basement. During this period he also took bit roles in the film Mad Dog Coll and on television series including 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 made his Broadway debut in 1963 in Children From Their Games, which had only a short run. That same year he appeared in A Rainy Day in Newark, another brief engagement. Any Wednesday, in which he appeared alongside actress Sandy Dennis, proved a substantial Broadway success in 1964. He returned to Broadway in Poor Richard, written by Jean Kerr, which ran for over a hundred performances during 1964 and 1965. A subsequent Broadway appearance, The Natural Look, ran for just one performance. Hackman continued performing on Broadway through 1992, with additional credits including The Natural Law and Death and the Maiden.

His first credited film role came in the drama Lilith (1964), opposite Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty. He earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for playing Buck Barrow in the biographical crime drama Bonnie and Clyde (1967). He had a small part as Dr. John Whipple in the epic film Hawaii and appeared in features including First to Fight, A Covenant with Death, and Banning, all in 1967. He was originally cast as Mr. Robinson in The Graduate that same year but was replaced by Murray Hamilton after director Mike Nichols determined he was too young for the role. On television, he appeared in episodes of The Trials of O'Brien, Hawk, The F.B.I., Iron Horse, Insight, I Spy, and the CBS Playhouse episode My Father and My Mother, as well as the television film Shadow on the Land. A second Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, followed for his role in I Never Sang for My Father (1970), in which he played opposite Melvyn Douglas as a father and son unable to communicate.

Hackman won his first Academy Award, for Best Actor, for his portrayal of detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's action thriller The French Connection (1971). He went on to appear in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Scarecrow (1973), The Conversation (1974), Night Moves (1975), and A Bridge Too Far (1977). Beginning in 1978, he portrayed Lex Luthor across three Superman films, the last of which was released in 1987. A third Oscar nomination came for playing an FBI agent in the historical drama Mississippi Burning (1988). His second Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor, was awarded for his role as a villainous sheriff in Clint Eastwood's Western Unforgiven (1992). He also received two British Academy Film Awards, one Silver Bear, and four Golden Globe Awards over the course of his career.

Subsequent film appearances included Under Fire (1983), Hoosiers (1986), The Firm (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Get Shorty (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Absolute Power (1997), Antz (1998), Enemy of the State (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), and Runaway Jury (2003). Hackman retired from acting after starring in Welcome to Mooseport (2004), subsequently writing novels and occasionally narrating television documentaries until 2017. He died around February 18, 2025.