Eugene Allen “Gene” Hackman was born on the 30th January, 1930. He is a retired American actor and novelist. His acting career is spanned over four decades during which he was nominated for five Oscars winning on two occasions. He has also won three Golden Globe Awards.
Early Life
At the age of 16, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps where he served for more than 4 years as a field radio operator. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, six years later to pursue an acting career along with Dustin Hoffman, another struggling actor at that time. The work was cut out for them when they were voted “The Least Likely to Succeed”.
Career Highlights
In a frenzy to prove everyone wrong, Hackman stayed on course and future was in no way different from what he dreamt of. In 1964, he had an offer to co-star in the play “Any Wednesday” with actress Sandy Dennis which opened the door to film work. Gene won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as New York City Detective Jimmy Popeye Doyle in “The French Connection”. The second award came for his performance in the movie “Unforgiven”. Hackman appeared in what became one of his most famous comedic roles as the blind hermit in “Young Frankenstein”. His performance in the movie “Hoosier” was captivating which was polled as the fourth greatest film of all time in the sports genre.by the American Film Institute. He also played the role of President of the United States in his movie “Absolute Power”.
He has written 3 novels together with the archaeologist Daniel Lenihan namely “Wake of the Perdido Star”, “Justice for None” and “Escape from Andersonville”.
The most acclaimed movies of Hackman are as follows;
- Superman
- The French Connection
- Unforgiven
- The Conversation
- Bonnie and Clyde
- Hoosiers
- Red
- Get Shorty
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- Crimson Tide
