621 Tornado Dr, Storm Lake, IA 50588, United States
Gene studied at Storm Lake High School in Storm Lake, Iowa, United States.
College/University
Career
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1967
Gene in the movie Bonnie and Clyde.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1967
From left to right: actor Gene Hackman as Buck Barrow, actress Estelle Parsons as Blanche Barrow, actor Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow, actress Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker, and actor Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1967
(from left) American actors Michael J Pollard (as CW Moss), Gene Hackman (as Buck Barrow), Warren Beatty (in white hat) (as Clyde Barrow), and Faye Dunaway (as Bonnie Parker) in a scene from 'Bonnie and Clyde' (directed by Arthur Penn), Pilot Point, Texas, 1967.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1967
Actors Warren Beatty (right) as Clyde Barrow and Gene Hackman as Buck Barrow in the film 'Bonnie and Clyde'.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1971
Gene in the movie The French Connection.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1971
Gene in the movie The French Connection.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1972
Portrait of the cast of the film 'The Poseidon Adventure' (directed by Ronald Neame), California. Pictured are, rear from left, Jack Albertson, Arthur O'Connell, Shelley Winters, and Red Buttons; center, from left, Stella Stevens, Gene Hackman, and Carol Lynley; and fore, from left, Pamela Sue Martin, Roddy McDowall, and Ernest Borgnine.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1972
Gene Hackman
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1972
Actors (L-R) Raquel Welch, Gene Hackman and Cloris Leachman (holding her Best Supporting Actress Oscar) at the 44th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, April 17th 1972.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1972
135 N Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012, Snited States
American actors Gene Hackman (left) and Jane Fonda pictured holding their Academy Awards at the 44th Academy Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on 10th April 1972.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1973
Gene in the movie Scarecrow.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1974
Gene in the movie The Conversation.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1974
Peter Boyle asks for more food from Gene Hackman in a scene from the movie "Young Frankenstein".
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1974
The best actor and actress for 1971, Gene Hackman and Jane Fonda, hold on tightly to their just presented Oscars at the 44th annual Academy Awards at the Music Center.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1975
Gene in the movie Night Moves.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1978
American actor Gene Hackman on the set of the film 'The Conversation' (directed by Francis Ford Coppola), 1978.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1978
American actor Gene Hackman (left) and director Francis Ford Coppola discuss a scene on the set of their film, 'The Conversation'.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1981
Gene Hackman, who got the racing bug while filming "The French Connection," is Toyota's most successful celebrity driver. He has won three such races at Watkins Glen and Long Beach. Photographed March 14, 1981 leaning against a Toyota Celica at Long Beach, California.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1981
Gene Hackman, who got the racing bug while filming "The French Connection," is Toyota's most successful celebrity driver. He has won three such races at Watkins Glen and Long Beach. Photographed March 14, 1981 in a Toyota Celica at Long Beach, California .
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1983
Gene in the movie Eureka.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1983
Gene in the movie Under Fire.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1988
Gene in the movie Mississippi Burning.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
1992
Gene in the movie Unforgiven.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
2001
Gene in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums.
Gallery of Gene Hackman
Payback at Morning Peak: Gene Hackman
Achievements
In 1972 Gene received the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Membership
Awards
Academy Awards
Gene received the Academy Awards in 1971 and 1992.
BAFTA Awards
Gene received the BAFTA Awards in 1973 and 1992.
Golden Globe Awards
Gene received the Golden Globe Awards in 1972, 1992, 2001.
Cecil B. DeMille Award
In 2003 Gene received the Cecil B. DeMille Award
Screen Actors Guild Award
In 1996 Gene received the Screen Actors Guild Award.
From left to right: actor Gene Hackman as Buck Barrow, actress Estelle Parsons as Blanche Barrow, actor Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow, actress Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker, and actor Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss.
(from left) American actors Michael J Pollard (as CW Moss), Gene Hackman (as Buck Barrow), Warren Beatty (in white hat) (as Clyde Barrow), and Faye Dunaway (as Bonnie Parker) in a scene from 'Bonnie and Clyde' (directed by Arthur Penn), Pilot Point, Texas, 1967.
Portrait of the cast of the film 'The Poseidon Adventure' (directed by Ronald Neame), California. Pictured are, rear from left, Jack Albertson, Arthur O'Connell, Shelley Winters, and Red Buttons; center, from left, Stella Stevens, Gene Hackman, and Carol Lynley; and fore, from left, Pamela Sue Martin, Roddy McDowall, and Ernest Borgnine.
Actors (L-R) Raquel Welch, Gene Hackman and Cloris Leachman (holding her Best Supporting Actress Oscar) at the 44th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, April 17th 1972.
135 N Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012, Snited States
American actors Gene Hackman (left) and Jane Fonda pictured holding their Academy Awards at the 44th Academy Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on 10th April 1972.
The best actor and actress for 1971, Gene Hackman and Jane Fonda, hold on tightly to their just presented Oscars at the 44th annual Academy Awards at the Music Center.
Gene Hackman and Daughter Elizabeth Hackman during Gene Hackman Sighting on Rodeo Drive - March 24, 1979 at Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, United States.
Gene Hackman, who got the racing bug while filming "The French Connection," is Toyota's most successful celebrity driver. He has won three such races at Watkins Glen and Long Beach. Photographed March 14, 1981 leaning against a Toyota Celica at Long Beach, California.
Gene Hackman, who got the racing bug while filming "The French Connection," is Toyota's most successful celebrity driver. He has won three such races at Watkins Glen and Long Beach. Photographed March 14, 1981 in a Toyota Celica at Long Beach, California .
Gene Hackman during "Runaway Jury" Press Conference with Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, John Cusack and Rachel Weisz at the Wyndham Hotel in New Orleans, Los Angeles.
876 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, United States
Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa during The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards - Arrivals at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, United States.
Gene Hackman during "Runaway Jury" Press Conference with Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, John Cusack and Rachel Weisz at Wyndham Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
Gene Hackman, in full Eugene Alden Hackman, is an American motion-picture actor known for his rugged appearance and his emotionally honest and natural performances. His solid dependability in a wide variety of roles endeared him to the public.
Background
Ethnicity:
Gene Hackman is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry; his mother was born in Lambton, Ontario.
Hackman was born on January 30, 1930, in San Bernardino, California, the son of Eugene Ezra Hackman and Anna Lyda Elizabeth (née Gray). He has one brother, Richard. Hackman's father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local paper. His parents divorced in 1943 and his father subsequently left the family. His mother died in 1962 as a result of a fire she accidentally set while smoking. After Gene’s maternal grandmother Beatrice Gray completed the responsibility of raising the two Hackman boys.
Education
Hackman spent his sophomore year at Storm Lake High School in Storm Lake, Iowa. When he was 16 years old, Hackman dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Marine Corps. During his time in the service, Hackman worked as a radio operator and finished his high school education. After being discharged in 1951, Hackman tried to find his way, living in Illinois and New York while working a variety of jobs. He studied journalism and TV production for a time as well.
Hackman eventually decided on acting and studied at the Pasadena Playhouse Theatre in the 1950s. Dustin Hoffman was one of his fellow students, and the two became friends and shared the dubious distinction of being voted "least likely to succeed" by their peers.
Hackman landed his first off-Broadway role in Chaparral in 1958. He became friends with actor Robert Duvall and even had Dustin Hoffman as a roommate for a time. Struggling for several years, Hackman landed his first film role - a bit part as a cop - in 1961's Mad Dog Coll. He made his Broadway debut two years later in Children From Their Games, which was quickly followed a role in A Rainy Day in Newark. Hackman was also part of the original cast of Any Wednesday, which debuted in 1964. After seeing him on Broadway, director Robert Rossen cast Hackman in the drama Lilith (1964), with Warren Beatty.
Beatty proved instrumental in Hackman's big career breakthrough. He helped Hackman land a supporting role in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which starred Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the infamous criminal couple. Hackman played Clyde's brother, Buck Burrow, who joins his sibling and his lady on their bank robbery spree. The role brought Hackman plenty of critical attention and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Three years later, Hackman garnered another Best Supporting Actor nod from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work on I Never Sang for My Father (1970). In the film, he played a professor trying to forge a relationship with his estranged father (played by Melvyn Douglas) after his mother's death. Next up was the flick that solidified his status as a bona fide screen star, The French Connection (1971). Hackman played the ultimate tough cop - Detective Popeye Doyle - in this hit thriller directed by William Friedkin, and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
After the success of The French Connection, Hackman took on a variety of films. He joined such classic stars as Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowall and Shelley Winters for the disaster-at-sea saga The Poseidon Adventure (1972). The next year, he teamed up with Al Pacino for the drama Scarecrow (1973). Hackman went on to star in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974), playing a surveillance expert who gets caught up in one of his projects. His portrayal of the measured and precise professional loner Harry Caul is another one of his highly praised performances.
Hackman returned as Popeye Doyle in The French Connection II in 1975, 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 a 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 (1980) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).
Reuniting with Warren Beatty, Hackman had a small role in Reds (1981), which was based on the true story of a politically radical journalist named John Reed. He followed that effort by playing a retired colonel who goes to Vietnam to find his son in Uncommon Valor (1983). He earned praise for his performance while the film itself received lackluster reviews.
Hackman continued to explore different genres and types of characters for the remainder of the decade. With Hoosiers (1986), he tackled the role of a new coach who leads a small-town basketball team to victory. He then played a sinister secretary of defense in No Way Out (1987), with Kevin Costner.
Hackman delivered another strong turn in Mississippi Burning (1988). In this historical dramatic thriller based on a true story, he played an FBI agent investigating the murder of three civil rights workers in 1964, a performance that earned him a Best Actor Academy Award nomination. Not long afterward, Hackman experienced chest pains and underwent an angioplasty. He considered retirement for a while, but eventually returned to his craft.
Working with another acclaimed film talent, Clint Eastwood, Hackman netted an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven (1992). In this western, he played a cruel sheriff pursued by Eastwood, who also won an Oscar for Best Director. Taking on a different kind of morally questionable character, Hackman played Tom Cruise’s mentor in The Firm (1993), a film adaptation of a John Grisham novel.
In 1995, Hackman played seasoned combat submarine captain Frank Ramsey opposite Denzel Washington’s Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter in the thrilling drama Crimson Tide. That same year, he starred as John Herod, a vicious mayor of a wild frontier town opposite Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe and the then up-and-coming actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the western The Quick and the Dead. In 1996, he starred in another John Grisham adaptation, The Chamber, as a convicted murderer and racist facing execution. The film struck out with critics and movie-goers alike, but Hackman had better luck that year as a conservative senator in the comedy The Birdcage, with Robin Williams.
The 2000s began with Hackman appearing as Coach Jimmy McGinty in football comedy The Replacements, opposite Keanu Reeves and Jack Warden. That same year also found him starring along Morgan Freeman in the crime thriller Under Suspicion. In 2001, Hackman headlined the ensemble cast of Wes Anderson's offbeat family comedy The Royal Tenenbaums. Anjelica Huston co-starred as his estranged wife and Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke Wilson played his adult children. That year, Hackman also starred in Heartbreakers as a wealthy widower targeted by a gold-digging mother and daughter, played by Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. In 2003, Hackman got a chance to work with old friend Dustin Hoffman in Runaway Jury, which also starred John Cusack. He played a jury consultant working for a gun manufacturer in a suit that Hoffman's client has brought against the company.
Hackman's last film project was the light-hearted comedy Welcome to Mooseport (2004), in which he starred as a former president who campaigns against a local (Ray Romano) to become mayor of a small town. While promoting the film, Hackman appeared on The Larry King Show and said that he did not have another film project lined up, adding that his film career was "probably all over."
While his acting gigs were winding down, Hackman began a thriving second career as a novelist. He co-wrote four books with Daniel Lenihan: Wake of the Perdido Star (1999), Justice for None (2004), Vermillion (2004) and Escape from Andersonville (2008). He went on to deliver two solo efforts, Payback at Morning Peak (2011) and Pursuit (2013).
Quotations:
"My mother and I were at a film once, and we came out through the lobby and she said, 'I want to see you do that someday.' And that was all that was needed. Because I already wanted to do it. But you have to have somebody tell you, or you need to be pushed a bit. And that's the only thing she's ever said to me about acting. Was she wanted to see me do that."
"Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors."
"You go through stages in your career that you feel very good about yourself. Then you feel awful, like, Why didn't I choose something else? But overall I'm pretty satisfied that I made the right choice when I decided to be an actor."
"The overall screenplay first, then the character proposed to me, and after that the director and other actors—almost always in that order. Of course, in the Seventies I took a couple of pictures because of the locale…."
"If you look at yourself as a star you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being... I need to keep myself on the edge and keep as pure as possible. You need something to bring you down to a sense of who you are and who you're portraying. You need to remember you're not a movie star and that you shouldn't be too happy. You should never take anything for granted."
"I always try to find in these bad guys, something that's human that makes them even more diabolical. If you see someone that's all bad, you kind of just put them in the monster category. But if you see someone who is really bad, but is also a father and a grandfather and all of that, that's even worse, I think."
"I think all good actors do that. That you have to commit. Otherwise, you're going to see that film down the line and it's going to bite you right in the butt."
"That night was like a dream. It was like I was standing in back of the theater and watching it through a lot of smoke. I just floated from my seat."
"It’s always hard for me, perhaps because there’s such a contradiction between fighting and the craft of acting. If you really fight somebody in a scene, it negates your craft. And since I’m only interested in my craft, it has to be resolved anew each time."
"Write what's in your heart. To be fulfilled as a writer, you have to write something that you care about."
Personality
Being a child, Hackman was afraid of basement. In 1946, a young Gene Hackman was jailed after he robbed a candy store. He was accused of stealing soda and candy.
Hackman is an avid fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars and regularly attended Jaguars games as a guest of then-head coach Jack Del Rio. He is friends with Del Rio from Del Rio's playing days at the University of Southern California.
Hackman competed in Sports Car Club of America races driving an open wheeled Formula Ford in the late seventies. In 1983 he drove a Dan Gurney Team Toyota in the 24 Hours of Daytona Endurance Race. He also won the Long Beach Grand Prix Celebrity Race.
Physical Characteristics:
Hackman is six feet two inches tall. His eyes are brown and hair is gray.
Interests
Sport & Clubs
Jacksonville Jaguars
Connections
Hackman's first marriage was to Faye Maltese. They had three children: Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne Hackman. The couple divorced in 1986 after three decades of marriage. In 1991 he married Betsy Arakawa. They have a home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.