Gene Hackman

Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, he received two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Silver Bear.

When the Communist Revolution conquered the mainland in 1949, Hackman was assigned to Hawaii and Japan.

Following his discharge in 1951, he moved to New York City and had several jobs.

In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career.

He 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.

Hackman began performing in several Off-Broadway plays, starting with The Saintliness of Margery Kempe in 1959 and including Come to the Palace of Sin in 1963.

His mother died in 1962 as a result of a fire she accidentally started while smoking.

He began a study of journalism and television production at the University of Illinois under the G.I. Bill, but left and moved back to California.

In 1963 he made his Broadway debut in Children From Their Games which only had 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.

His first credited role was in Lilith, with Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty in the leading roles.

Hackman returned to Broadway in Poor Richard (1964–65) by Jean Kerr, which ran for over a hundred performances.

His other Oscar-nominated roles were in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), I Never Sang for My Father (1970), and Mississippi Burning (1988).

He continued to do television - The Trials of O'Brien, Hawk, The F.B.I. - and had a small part as Dr. John Whipple in the epic film Hawaii. He had small roles in features like First to Fight (1967), A Covenant with Death (1967) and Banning (1967).

Hackman was originally cast as Mr. Robinson in the 1967 Mike Nichols film The Graduate, but Nichols fired him three weeks into rehearsal for being "too young" for the role; he was replaced by Murray Hamilton.

In 1967 he appeared in an episode of the television series The Invaders entitled "The Spores".

Hackman's two Academy Award wins included one for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's acclaimed thriller The French Connection (1971) and the other for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Little" Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992).

He also acted in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Conversation (1974), Reds (1981), Hoosiers (1986), No Way Out (1987), Get Shorty (1995), Crimson Tide (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Absolute Power (1997), and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Eugene Ezra Hackman and Anna Lyda Elizabeth (née Gray).

He has one brother, Richard.

He has Pennsylvania Dutch, English, and Scottish ancestry; his mother was Canadian, and was born in Sarnia, Ontario.

His family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother, Beatrice.

Hackman's father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local paper.

His parents divorced when he was 13 and his father subsequently left the family.

Hackman decided that he wanted to become an actor when he was ten years old.

Hackman lived briefly in Storm Lake, Iowa, and spent his sophomore year at Storm Lake High School.

He left home at age 16 and lied about his age to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.

He served four and a half years as a field radio operator.

He was stationed in China (Qingdao and later in Shanghai).

Hackman gained further fame for his portrayal as Lex Luthor in Superman (1978) and its sequels Superman II (1980) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).

A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors and close friends, sharing NYC apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s.

To support himself between acting jobs, Hackman was working at a Howard Johnson's restaurant when he encountered an instructor from the Pasadena Playhouse, who said that his job proved that Hackman "wouldn't amount to anything".

A Marine officer who saw him as a doorman said "Hackman, you're a sorry son of a bitch".

Rejection motivated Hackman, who said,

"It was more psychological warfare, because I wasn't going to let those fuckers get me down. I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you're really interested in acting there is a part of you that relishes the struggle. It’s a narcotic in the way that you are trained to do this work and nobody will let you do it, so you’re a little bit nuts. You lie to people, you cheat, you do whatever it takes to get an audition, get a job."

Hackman got various bit roles, for example in the film Mad Dog Coll and on the TV series Tallahassee 7000, The United States Steel Hour, Route 66, Naked City, The Defenders, The Dupont Show of the Week, East Side/West Side, and Brenner.