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Hollywood icon Gene Hackman passed away at age 95
We are dedicating our home page to iconic Hollywood actor Gene Hackman who passed away on 17 February 2025 at the age of 95, together with his wife Betsy Arakawa whom he was married to since 1991.
Gene Hackman was one of Hollywood's greatest in his times with nummerous film credits, including some of the most popular films such as the Superman films in the 1980s. Gene Hackman and his wife were not found until the 26th of February by a maintenance worker. At first it was a suspicion of carbon monoxide poisoning since both were found dead at the same time at their house, however later it was determined to be not true, the current cause is not known and the investigations continue on.
Eugene Allen Hackman was born on 30 January 1930 in San Bernardino, California, to Anna Lyda Elizabeth and Eugene Ezra Hackman. His mother was originally from Ontario, Canada. Hackman's family moved frequently and settling in Danville, Illinois where he grew up with his brother Richard. His father operated the printing press for a local newspaper company.
Hackman said he had decided at age ten that he wanted to become an actor. His parents divorced when he was 13, and his father later left the family. Hackman spent some of his school years at Storm Lake High School and he left home at age 16, lied about his age to enlist in the United States Marine Corps and served four and a half years as a field-radio operator. Hackman was also stationed in China, in Qingdao and later in Shanghai. When Communist revolutionaries conquered the mainland in 1949, he was reassigned to Hawaii and Japan. After his discharge he moved to New York City where he worked at various jobs. In 1962, his mother died in a fire she had accidentally started while smoking. Hackman then began to study journalism and television production at the University of Illinois, but left without graduating and moved back to California.
In 1956 he began pursuing an acting career and joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California where he befriended another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman. Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were voted "the least likely to succeed" and Hackman got the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had yet given. Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman moved to New York City. In an article later Hackman described that him, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors sharing New York apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s. He got various bit roles in films and on multiple television series, and he also began performing in several Off-Broadway plays. In 1963 he made his Broadway debut in Children From Their Games which had only a short run, as did A Rainy Day in Newark, however, Any Wednesday with actress Sandy Dennis was a huge Broadway success in 1964. This opened the door to film work and lead to his first credited role in film in Lilith, with Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty in the leading roles.
Hackman alternated between leading and supporting film roles during the 1980s. He appeared opposite Barbra Streisand in All Night Long (1981) and supported Warren Beatty in Reds (1981). He played the lead in Eureka (1983) and a supporting role in Under Fire (1983). Hackman provided the voice of God in Two of a Kind (1983) and starred in Uncommon Valor (1983), Misunderstood (1984), Twice in a Lifetime (1985), Target (1985) for Arthur Penn, and Power (1986). Between 1985 and 1988, he starred in nine films, making him the busiest actor, alongside Steve Guttenberg. Hackman played a high school basketball coach in Hoosiers (1986), which a 2008 American Film Institute poll named the fourth-greatest sports film of all time. After Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), he also voiced Nuclear Man (who was portrayed by Mark Pillow), and was in No Way Out (1987), Split Decisions (1988), Bat*21 (1988), and Full Moon in Blue Water (1988).
Gene Hackman's two Academy Award (Oscars) wins were for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's action thriller The French Connection (1971) and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a villainous Sheriff in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). He was also Oscar-nominated (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) for three other roles: that of Buck Barrow in the crime drama Bonnie and Clyde (1967); a college professor in the drama I Never Sang for My Father (1970); and an FBI agent in the historical drama Mississippi Burning (1988).
On our Movie Forum post you can read more along with the entire filmography of Gene Hackman: Philmography
