Gene Hackman

Season 7, Episode 714

Original Airdate: October 18, 2004

Eugene Aldan Hackman was born on January 30, 1931 in San Bernardino, CA. He was raised in Danville, Illinois where his father worked as a press operator for the Commercial News. His father left his family when Hackman was 13 without a word, just a wave goodbye.

At the age of 16, Hackman joined the Marines and served in Korea. It was during his stint in the Corps that Hackman took his first steps toward show business, when he accepted an assignment as a broadcaster on the Armed Forces Network. Though honorably discharged in 1952, he was busted down from corporal three times during his term of service.

Back in the States, he first studied journalism, then television production and finally settled on acting. He attended Pasadena Drama School with Dustin Hoffman - where they were supposedly voted “least likely to succeed.” Hackman headed to New York, followed by Hoffman (who slept on the kitchen floor of his apartment for a few months.)

In between off-Broadway roles, Hackman paid the rent by working a variety of different jobs: soda jerk, shoe salesman, furniture mover, waiter, truck driver, and doorman. He married bank teller Fay Maltese, by whom he eventually fathered three children.

Hackman's first film appearance was Mad Dog Call in 1961. After appearing in the Broadway success Any Wednesday, he returned to films in 1964 in Warren Beatty's Lilith. It was his friendship with Beatty that got Hackman the role of Buck Barrow in Bonnie & Clyde (1967). This performance garnered Hackman's first Oscar nomination, and made him get noticed. Subsequent films include The Split (1968), Downhill Racer (1969) and I Never Sang for My Father (1970) for which he received his second Oscar nomination. At the rather advanced age of 40, Hackman had become a Hollywood leading man.

In 1971, Hackman starred as Popeye Doyle, a tough NYPD narcotics officer in William Friedkin's The French Connection. Hackman won the Academy Award for Best Actor and helped propel the film to a Best Picture win. Six other actors turned previously down the role.

Other notable performances include The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Conversation (1974), The French Connection II (1975), Superman (1978) and Hoosiers (1986). In 1988, Hackman received an Oscar nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of an FBI agent in Mississippi Burning. In 1992, he appeared in Unforgiven, a gritty Western starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. Hackman's role as a corrupt small town sheriff won him his second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actor.

With his gruff demeanor, Hackman has often played the villain. Other films include: The Firm (1993), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Get Shorty (1995) Crimson Tide (1995), The Chamber (1996), Extreme Measures (1996), The Birdcage (1996), Absolute Power (1997). Enemy of the State (1998) and Heartbreakers (2001).

Recent films include The Royal Tennenbaums, with Angelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Danny Glover and Ben Stiller, and David Mamet's Heist. As an interesting side note, Hackman was the first choice to play Mike Brady on TV's long running The Brady Bunch and had also planned to play the part of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.

Hackman has been married to his wife Betsy since 1991. He makes his home far from the chaos of Hollywood, in Santa Fe, NM, where he enjoys such quiet pursuits as painting.