Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman | |
|---|---|
 Hackman in June 2008 | |
| Born | Eugene Allen Hackman January 30, 1930 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | Storm Lake High School |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, Author |
| Years active | 1961–2006 |
| Spouse(s) | Faye Maltese (m. 1956–1986, divorced) Betsy Arakawa (m. 1991–present) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | Eugene Ezra Hackman Lyda Gray |
| Awards | Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTAs Award |
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman[1] (born January 30, 1930) is an U.S. actor and novelist.
Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde. His major later films include The French Connection (1971), in which he played Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle; The Poseidon Adventure (1972); The Conversation (1974); Young Frankenstein (1974); Superman (1978), in which he played arch-villain Lex Luthor; Hoosiers (1986); Mississippi Burning (1987); Unforgiven (1992); Get Shorty (1995); The Birdcage (1996); Enemy Of The State (1998); and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
Early life
Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Lyda (née Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman.[2] He has a brother, Richard. His family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother Beatrice.[3] Hackman's father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local paper.[4] Hackman's parents divorced in 1943 and his father subsequently left the family.[3][4]
Gene lived briefly in Storm Lake, Iowa and his sophomore home room photograph is in the 1945 Storm Lake High School "Breeze" year-book. At sixteen years, Hackman left home to join the United States Marine Corps, where he served four-and-a-half years as a field radio operator.[5] After his discharge, he moved to New York, working in several minor jobs.[5] His mother died in 1962 as a result of a fire she accidentally set while smoking.[6]
Career
1960s
In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career; he joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California.[5] It was there that he forged a friendship with another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman.[5] Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were later voted "The Least Likely To Succeed."[5] Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman hopped on a bus bound for New York City. A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described how Hackman, Hoffman and Robert Duvall were all struggling actors and close friends while living in New York City in the 1960s. Hackman was working as a doorman when he ran into an instructor whom he had despised at the Pasadena Playhouse. Reinforcing "The Least Likely To Succeed" vote, the man had said, "See, Hackman, I told you you wouldn't amount to anything."
Hackman began performing in several Off-Broadway plays. In 1964, he had an offer to co-star in the play[7] Any Wednesday with actress Sandy Dennis. This opened the door to film work. His first role was in Lilith, with Warren Beatty in the leading role. In 1967, Hackman appeared in an episode of the television series The Invaders entitled The Spores. Another supporting role, Buck Barrow in 1967's Bonnie and Clyde,[5] earned him an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. In 1968, he appeared in an episode of "I Spy", in the role of "Hunter", in the episode "Happy Birthday...Everybody".[7] In 1969, he played a ski coach in Downhill Racer and an astronaut in Marooned. Also in that year, he played the role of a member of a barnstorming skydiving team that entertained mostly at county fairs: The Gypsy Moths. He nearly accepted the role of Mike Brady for the upcoming TV series, The Brady Bunch, but was advised by his agent to decline in exchange for a more promising role, which he did.
1970s
.jpg)
In 1971, he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award again, this time for 1970's I Never Sang for My Father, working alongside Melvyn Douglas and Estelle Parsons. The next year, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as New York City Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection, marking his graduation to leading man status.[5]
He followed this with leading roles in the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), which was nominated for several Oscars.[5] That same year, Hackman appeared in what became one of his most famous comedic roles as the blind hermit in Young Frankenstein.
He later appeared as one of Teddy Roosevelt's former Rough Riders in the Western horse-race saga Bite the Bullet (1975), as well as in that year's sequel French Connection II and the star-studded war film A Bridge Too Far (1977), as Polish General Stanislaw Sosabowski. Hackman showed a talent for both comedy and the "slow burn" as criminal mastermind Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie (1978), as he would in its 1980 and 1987 sequels.
1980s
By the end of the 1980s, Hackman alternated between leading and supporting roles, earning another Best Actor nomination for Mississippi Burning. He had a memorable part as a Secretary of Defense trying to cover up a homicide in 1987's No Way Out opposite Kevin Costner.
During this decade Hackman also could be seen in Reds, Under Fire, Hoosiers, Power, Uncommon Valor and Bat*21. A 2008 American Film Institute poll voted Hoosiers the fourth-greatest film of all time in the sports genre.
1990s
In 1990, the actor underwent an angioplasty, which kept him from work for a while, although he found time for Narrow Margin—a remake of The Narrow Margin (1952). In 1992, he played the sadistic sheriff "Little" Bill Daggett in the western Unforgiven directed by Clint Eastwood and written by David Webb Peoples which earned him a second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actor. The film won Best Picture.[5]
Hackman co-starred with Tom Cruise as a corrupt lawyer in The Firm (1993) and appeared in a second John Grisham story in 1996, playing a convict on death row in The Chamber.
In 1995, Hackman played an inept Hollywood producer in Get Shorty and the villainous fast-draw champion John Herrod in The Quick and the Dead opposite Sharon Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, as well as submarine Captain Frank Ramsey in the film Crimson Tide with Denzel Washington.
In 1996, he took a comedic turn as ultra-conservative Senator Kevin Keeley in The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. He also co-starred with Will Smith in the 1998 film Enemy of the State, where his character was reminiscent of the one from The Conversation.
He played a President of the United States who commits a murder in 1997's Absolute Power, re-teaming with director-star Clint Eastwood.
2000s
Hackman starred in the David Mamet crime film Heist, as an aging professional thief of considerable skill who is forced into one final job and the comedy Heartbreakers alongside Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta and Jennifer Love Hewitt. He also had a leading role as the head of an eccentric family in the ensemble cast film The Royal Tenenbaums and in yet another Grisham legal drama, Runaway Jury, at long last getting to make a picture with his longtime friend Dustin Hoffman.
In 2003 at the Golden Globes, Hackman was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field."[8]
Retirement
Together with undersea archaeologist Daniel Lenihan, Hackman has written four novels: Wake of the Perdido Star (1999), Justice for None (2004), Escape from Andersonville (2008) and Payback at Morning Peak (2011).
On July 7, 2004, Hackman gave a rare interview to Larry King, in which Hackman announced that he had no future film projects lined up and believes his acting career is over. In 2008, while promoting his third novel, Hackman confirmed that he had retired from acting.[9] In 2011, Hackman appeared on the Fox Sports radio show, the Loose Cannons, where he discussed his career and novels with Pat O'Brien, Steve Hartman and Vic "the Brick" Jacobs. His final film to date was Welcome to Mooseport (2004), a comedy with Ray Romano in which Hackman portrayed a former President of the United States.
Personal life
Hackman's first wife was Faye Maltese. They had three children, Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne.[citation needed] The couple divorced in 1986 after three decades of marriage. In 1991, Hackman married Betsy Arakawa. They live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Betsy is co-owner of an up-scale retail home-furnishing store in Santa Fe called Pandora's, Inc.
Hackman competed in Sports Car Club of America races driving an open wheeled Formula Ford in the late seventies. In 1983, Hackman drove a Dan Gurney Team Toyota in the 24 Hours of Daytona Endurance Race. He also won the Long Beach Grand Prix Celebrity Race.
Hackman is an avid fanatic of the Jacksonville Jaguars and regularly attended Jaguars games as a guest of then head coach Jack Del Rio. Hackman is friends with Del Rio from Del Rio's playing days at the University of Southern California.[10]
On January 13, 2012, Gene Hackman was struck by a car while riding a bicycle in Islamorada, Florida. He sustained minor injuries and was transported to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, Florida. [11]
Filmography
References
- ^ His middle name is "Allen", according to the California Birth Index, 1905–1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com
- ^ "Gene Hackman Biography (1930–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
- ^ a b Norman, Michael (1989-03-19). "HOLLYWOOD'S UNCOMMON EVERYMAN". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-07-19.
- ^ a b Leman, Kevin (2007). What Your Childhood Memories Say about You: And What You Can Do about It. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. p. 154. ISBN 1414311869.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Stated on Inside the Actors Studio, 2001
- ^ "Gene Hackman profile". Eonline.com. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
- ^ a b http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0609447/plotsummary
- ^ "Business Wire, November 14, 2002. Hollywood. 'Gene Hackman to Receive HFPA'S Cecil B. DeMille Award At 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards to be Telecast Live on NBC on Sunday, January 19, 2003'". Findarticles.com. 2002-11-14. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
- ^ Blair, Iain (2008-06-05). "Just a Minute With: Gene Hackman on his retirement". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
- ^ By BART HUBBUCHThe Times-Union (2005-11-29). "JAGUARS NOTEBOOK: Chatter angers Cardinals". Jacksonville.com. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ^ http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-13/entertainment/showbiz_hackman-accident_1_highway-patrol-gene-hackman-bike?_s=PM:SHOWBIZ
- ^ "Berlinale: 1989 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
External links
- Gene Hackman at IMDb
- Template:Allrovi person
- Gene Hackman at the TCM Movie Database
- Gene Hackman at the Internet Broadway Database
- Please use a more specific IOBDB template. See the template documentation for available templates.
- 1930 births
- Actors from California
- American film actors
- American novelists
- American people of German descent
- American people of English descent
- American stage actors
- Art Students League of New York alumni
- Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award winners
- BAFTA winners (people)
- Best Actor Academy Award winners
- Best Actor BAFTA Award winners
- Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners
- Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
- Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners
- Living people
- Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
- People from Danville, Illinois
- People from San Bernardino, California
- United States Marines