Gene Hackman: A Hollywood badass who was ‘incapable of making a bad film’

Gene Hackman has had an impressive career spanning several decades (Picture: Getty)

Gene Hackman, whose shock death aged 95 alongside his wife Betsy Arakawa has left Hollywood reeling, was an acting legend who will be remembered for his impressive career as a badass on screen.

The actor had an incredible run as an actor, spanning more than sixty years and appearing in a wide range of critically acclaimed films.

Hackman received two Academy Awards, two Baftas, four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award and is remembered as an actor who had no bad films.

‘He’s incapable of bad work,’ said Alan Parker, who directed the civil rights drama Mississippi Burning in 1988 which earned Hackman an Oscar nomination.

‘Every director has a short list of actors he’d die to work with, and I’ll bet Gene’s on every one,’ he told Film Comment Magazine at the time.

After appearing in numerous critically acclaimed films as gun-toting baddies or no-nonsense tough men, the actor became known for creating sensational roles that showed off his gritty acting chops.

Hackman was praised for his early role in The French Connection in the 70s (Picture: 20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock)

After appearing in over 70 films during his six-decade-long career, he captured the attention of audiences from almost every generation.

Many of his fans will remember him as the criminal mastermind in Superman Lex Luthor, while older fans might remember some for his role in The French Connection as the bad cop Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle.

Hackman was also known for his disdain for the press and his prickly public persona – which he didn’t deny.

‘It’s probably accurate. The movie business is very stressful, and a lot of times people doing interviews hang around sometimes for a couple of days before they talk to you, or even after they talk to you,’ he said when asked 1992 interview with All About Actors.

‘You just forget they’re there, and you say something, or you’re impatient or tired or whatever else. Then they write that. That’s all right. I don’t care. Sure, I get frustrated and angry or upset and all that.’

In stark contrast to the roles he played on screen, Hackman has been remembered by Hollywood as a kind mentor and inspiration to fellow actors.

One of the actor’s later roles was Runaway Jury in 2003 (Picture: Zade Rosenthal/Monarchy/Regency/) What did Gene Hackman do before acting?

The actor didn’t pursue a career in acting until 1956 and had various jobs before becoming a film star.

At 16, Hackman joined the Marine Corps and served for four and a half years as a field radio operator in China, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hawai’i and Japan.

He was discharged in 1951 and later studied journalism and television production, but left Illinois to move back to California.

In 1956, he joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he met his friend and fellow actor Dustin Hoffman.

Reflecting on their early career, competing for jobs, Hoffman told the PA news agency in 2017: ‘I never thought that I would get hired when I was starting out.

‘Bob Duvall, Gene Hackman and myself, we were hoping just to make a living, off-off Broadway, off Broadway, we never thought any of this would happen.’

Hackman was also praised for March or Die in 1977 (Picture: ITV/Shutterstock)

In a BBC interview, he once spoke about his early life: ‘I suppose I wanted to be an actor from the time I was about ten, maybe even younger than that. Recollections of early movies that I had seen and actors that I admired like Jimmy Cagney, Errol Flynn, those kind of romantic action guys.

‘When I saw those actors, I felt I could do that. But I was in New York for about eight years before I had a job. I sold ladies shoes, polished leather furniture, drove a truck. I think that if you have it in you and you want it bad enough you can do it.’

Hackman starred withHugh Grant in the 1996 film Extreme Measures (Picture: Sidney Baldwin/Columbia/Castle R) What are some of his most famous roles?

In his early career, he appeared in various TV shows and Broadway productions, but his breakthrough didn’t come until 1970 when he appeared in I Never Sang for My Father.

The film shoved him straight into the spotlight, and he is best remembered for his roles including The French Connection, Unforgiven, Bonnie and Clyde, the Superman franchise, The Firm, and Behind Enemy Lines.

Hackman once said his role in the 1973 film Scarecrow, alongside Al Pacino, was his favourite role of his career.

He also starred in the hit movies Runaway Jury and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conservation, which won the Palm d’Or, as well as Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.

How many Oscars did he win?

Hackman won two Academy Awards and was nominated for five in total across his bursting-at-the-seams career.

He won the best actor gong for his role in the 1971 film The French Connection.

He also won the best supporting actor accolade for his role in Clint Eastwood’s Western film Unforgiven in 1992, in which he starred as Little Bill Daggett.

He was nominated three other times for Academy Awards, including for best supporting actor in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde.

He was also nominated for best-supporting actor in the 1970 film I Never Sang for My Father, and for best actor in Mississippi Burning in 1988.

In 1993 he won best supporting actor award for his role in Unforgiven. (Picture: Steve Starr/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) When did he quit acting and why?

Hackman’s final film role was Welcome to Mooseport opposite the actor Ray Romano.

The film was released in 2004 when he was 74. Following this project he quietly retired from acting, confirming he was no longer working in an interview while promoting his book in 2008.

In 2008, he told Reuters: ‘I haven’t held a press conference to announce retirement, but yes, I’m not going to act any longer.

‘I’ve been told not to say that over the last few years, in case some real wonderful part comes up, but I really don’t want to do it any longer.’

He added that he would spend the next portion of his life focusing on his passion for writing novels and added that he no longer enjoyed seeing his aged face on screen.

Gene Hackman and James Coburn starred in the Western Bite the Bullet in 1975 (Picture: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

‘I was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press,’ he once said.

‘It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on-screen. I think of myself, and feel like I’m quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.’

Hackman also commented in 2004 that heart problems were also a factor in retirement. Hackman told Empire: ‘The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York. The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.’

In an interview with GQ in 2011, the actor said he could consider coming out of retirement – if he could do it in his own home.

‘I don’t know. If I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people,’ he told GQ.

Gene Hackman with the Cecil B. DeMille Award presented to him by Robin Williams and Michael Caine (Picture: REUTERS) Who was his wife and did he have any children?

Hackman was married to his first wife, Faye Maltese, for almost 30 years and raised three children before divorcing in 1986.

In the 20 years after his retirement, the actor spent much of his time writing and staying out of the spotlight with his wife Betsy Arakawa, a classical pianist who he married in 1991.

Hackman released five novels in the later portion of his life: Wake of the Perdido Star (1999), Justice for None (2004), Escape from Andersonville (2008), Payback at Morning Peak (2011), and Pursuit (2013).

The actor and Betsy Arakawa married in 1991(Picture: Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

Hackman and Arakawa were found dead on Wednesday afternoon in their New Mexico home in the US, the Santa Fe County Sheriff confirmed.

A statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff in New Mexico said: ‘We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail.

‘This is an active investigation – however, at this time we do not believe that foul play was a factor.’

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