“The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways”.
Gene Hackman
Introduction
Gene Hackman was among the most respected and versatile Hollywood actors we have seen on the Silver Screen. Known for his intense performances and a temper that often got on the wrong side of the director, Wes Anderson once said, “There’s something very charismatic in him, even when he’s being his worst”. Dubbed “the brawling genius of the film”, his career spanned over 40 years with notable performances in The French Connection as the character Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle, Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde, Lex Luthor in three of the Superman films, an FBI agent in Mississippi Burning, the villainous Sherrif in Unforgiven and several blockbusters until his last in 2004, Welcome to Mooseport.
Iconic
Gene Hackman came late to act. He was 30. With a string of Broadway light comedies under his belt, seven to be precise, his dream of being an actor when he was ten, finally started to materialise. Yet to escape his parents’ marriage breakdown, he left home at the age of sixteen and lied about his age to enrol in the United States Marine Corps where he served as a radio operator for four and a half years, stationed in Shanghai, Hawaii and Japan. He was discharged in 1951 and he moved to New York, doing a string of jobs. His mother died in a house fire in 1962 after a lit cigarette started the fire. Gene went on to study journalism and television production at the University of Illinois but left without graduating. A classmate of Dustin Hoffman at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, he shared several apartments with Robert Duvall as a struggling actor, he topped up his wages by working at Howard Johnson’s restaurant. Yet after several less memorable film performances, he hit the big-time with films like I Never Sand for My Father, The French Connection and The Poseidon Adventure. A winner of two Academy Awards, two BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and one Screen Actor’s Guild Award, Gene was admired and respected by those in his profession. An actor with infinite nuance and boundless range. Yet he met a tragic end after a 911 emergency call found a 95-year-old Gene, his wife Betsy and their German Shepherd dog dead in their New Mexico home. A mystery with many conspiracy theories but one that the police are still in the early stages of investigating.
