Gene Hackman Biography

The elder of his parents' two children, Gene Hackman was born at the onset of the Great Depression in San Bernardino, California, and raised in rural Danville, Illinois. His father left the family when Hackman was 13 by driving away without a word - just a casual "so long" wave from the driver's seat.

In high school, Hackman mostly kept to himself when not at the gym, where his height made him a natural for the school's basketball team. Feeling pressured by his mother to be a father figure for his younger brother, the teen dropped out of school, lied about his age and joined the Marine Corps. He served for six years and was honorably discharged in 1952. Since he had successfully completed a high school equivalency course while a Marine, he enrolled at the University of Illinois and majored in journalism. He dropped out six months later.

Heading to New York, he then attended the School of Radio Technique which was followed by radio jobs in Florida and Illinois. Unsuccessfully holding his interest, he briefly returned to New York to study commercial art with the Art Students League. Eventually, he drifted out to California, and enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he and classmate Dustin Hoffman mostly impersonated Marlon Brando and were ultimately voted "least likely to succeed." Once more, Hackman headed back to New York. In between off-Broadway roles, Hackman paid the rent by working as a soda jerk, shoe salesman, furniture mover, waiter, truck driver, and doorman. He also met and married bank teller Fay Maltese, with whom he eventually fathered three children.

After several years of stage work and small TV and film roles, Hackman sounded two important professional notes in 1964, when he had his first big hit on Broadway with Any Wednesday, and delivered a small but arresting turn in the Warren Beatty starrer Lilith. Beatty was so impressed that he offered Hackman a plum part in his landmark 1967 crime drama Bonnie and Clyde. Playing the role of outlaw Buck Barrow, brother to Beatty's Clyde, Hackman delivered a searing, shocking portrayal, playing his extended death scene on all fours - he later claimed to have drawn inspiration for that scene from seeing bulls die at bullfights. Hackman garnered the first Oscar nomination of his career, paving the way for his true breakthrough performance four years later in The French Connection for which he took home a Best Actor Oscar.

With roles in over 40 films during the next 20 years, Hackman polished his reputation as both a powerful lead and a seamless supporting player, delivering particularly excellent performances in The Conversation (1974), Superman (1978), Hoosiers (1986), and Mississippi Burning (1988). During that period, he also endured a pair of personal trials: His long-estranged father, with whom he never reached a full reconciliation, died of a heart attack in 1973; and his nearly 30-year marriage to Maltese ended in divorce in 1985.

Typecasting finally caught up with Hackman following his portrayal of a corrupt sheriff in Unforgiven, which brought him the second Oscar of his career, in the Best Supporting Actor category. By the late '90s, he had become one of Hollywood's most reliable screen villains, playing a crooked lawyer in The Firm (1993); a murderous gunfighter in The Quick and the Dead (1995); a nuke-happy sub commander in Crimson Tide (1995); an embittered, unrepentant Klansman on Death Row in The Chamber (1996); a scheming, dangerously experimental surgeon in Extreme Measures (1996); and an adulterous, violent-tempered President in Absolute Power (1997). Even his largely comedic turns in 1995's Get Shorty and 1996's The Birdcage had him playing slick, manipulative types.

Since 1981, Hackman made his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, far from the bright lights of Hollywood, where he indulged in impressionistic painting and stone sculpting. He continued acting, with prominent roles in three major 1998 releases, Twilight, Antz (his first work in an animated film), and the thriller Enemy of the State, in which he departed from his lately-established villainous persona to portray a sympathetic rogue intelligence agent.

After retiring from acting following the release of his final film, Welcome to Mooseport (2004), Hackman lived a private life and rarely gave interviews.

He co-wrote three historical fiction novels with undersea archaeologist Daniel Lenihan: Wake of the Perdido Star in 1999, Justice for None in 2004, and Escape from Andersonville in 2008. He also wrote two novels by himself, the first in 2011 about a story of love and revenge set in the Old West titled Payback at Morning Peak. His final novel was a police thriller, Pursuit, which was released in 2013.

He married Betsy Arakawa in 1991 and the two lived in Santa Fe until they were both found deceased on February 26, 2025, when they and one of their dogs were found lifeless in the home. Hackman was 95 and Betsy was 63. Police stated they found the deaths suspicious and are investigating. Two other dogs belonging to the couple were found on the property, one inside and one outside.

Hackman is survived by his three children: Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne Hackman.

Filmography:

Welcome to Mooseport (2004)
Runaway Jury (2003)
Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Heist (2001)
Heartbreakers (2001)
The Mexican (2001)
Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows (2000)
The Replacements (2000)
Under Suspicion (2000)
Enemy of the State (1998)
Antz (1998) (voice)
Twilight (1998)
Absolute Power (1997)
Extreme Measures (1996)
The Birdcage (1996)
The Chamber (1996)
Get Shorty (1995)
Crimson Tide (1995)
The Quick and the Dead (1995)
Wyatt Earp (1994)
Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
The Firm (1993)
Unforgiven (1992)
Class Action (1991)
Company Business (1991)
Loose Cannons (1990)
Narrow Margin (1990)
Postcards from the Edge (1990)
The Package (1989)
Another Woman (1988)
Bat*21 (1988)
Full Moon in Blue Water (1988)
Mississippi Burning (1988)
Split Decisions (1988)
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
No Way Out (1987)
Hoosiers (1986)
Power (1986)
Target (1985)
Twice in a Lifetime (1985)
Misunderstood (1984)
Under Fire (1983)
Two of a Kind (1983) (voice)
Uncommon Valor (1983)
Eureka (1982)
Reds (1981)
All Night Long (1981)
Superman II (1980)
Superman (1978)
Speed Fever (1978)
March or Die (1977)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
The Domino Principle (1977)
A Look at Liv (1977)
Bite the Bullet (1975)
Night Moves (1975)
French Connection II (1975)
Lucky Lady (1975)
The Conversation (1974)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Zandy's Bride (1974)
Scarecrow (1973/I)
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Cisco Pike (1972)
The French Connection (1971)
Hunting Party, The (1971)
Doctors' Wives (1971)
I Never Sang for My Father (1970)
Marooned (1969)
Riot (1969)
Downhill Racer (1969)
The Gypsy Moths (1969)
The Split (1968)
First to Fight (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Banning (1967)
A Covenant with Death (1967)
Hawaii (1966)
Lilith (1964)