Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman pop art portrait as Popeye in The French Connection. Hackman (born in San Bernardino, California, in 1930) was an American film actor.... more

by Movie World Posters

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Gene Hackman

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Movie World Posters

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Photograph - Digital Illustration

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Gene Hackman pop art portrait as Popeye in "The French Connection." Hackman (born in San Bernardino, California, in 1930) was an American film actor. He was the winner of two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, and two BAFTAs. His career spanned over 60 years.

He dropped out of school at age 16 to join the Marines. Discharged after three years of service, he moved to New York and for two years drifted from job to job. Hackman became good friends with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall in the 1950s and 60s, when they were working menial jobs and scrounging for any roles.

Hackman's first break in acting came in 1964 when he landed the lead part opposite Sandy Dennis in the Broadway comedy "Any Wednesday." It led to a brief but memorable scene in the film "Lilith" (1964). He was cast in "Bonnie and Clyde" three years later as Clyde's (Warren Beatty) brother Buck. Hackman's dynamic performance brought him his first Academy Award nomination.

He picked up another nomination for "I Never Sang for My Father" (1970) and won the Oscar for his acting in "The French Connection" (1971). As the police detective in that film, his character became a role with which he has remained most closely identified. By critics, Hackman is considered a superb, intuitive actor with an uncanny capacity to capture average characters down to their most minute emotional detail.

Hackman followed that film with several other superlative true-to-life performances, most memorably in "The Conversation" (1974). Later, demonstrating remarkable versatility, he flaunted comic skills in Superman (1978) and its sequels.

But his mainstay remained drama. After hammering out one strong performance after another, he won the best actor prize at the Berlin Film Festival and a fourth Oscar nomination for "Mississippi Burning" (1988). Its director, Alan Parker, stated that "Gene is the quintessential movie actor."

In 1992, he captured a second Oscar for his best-supporting actor performance in "Unforgiven," Clint Eastwood's heralded Western. By consistently evoking varieties of the everyman in his roles, he became
one of the most sought-after screen actors in Hollywood—and one of the highest-paid.

Among Hackman's other major film roles were "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), "French Connection II" (1975), "A Bridge Too Far" (1977), "Superman: The Movie" (1978), "Hoosiers" (1986), "The Firm" (1993), "The Quick and the Dead" (1995), "Crimson Tide" (1995), "Enemy of the State" (1998), "Behind Enemy Lines" (2001), and "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001).
(credit: Wikipedia)

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June 30th, 2019

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