As a longtime fan of both his acting and the way he handled his celebrity status, something just doesn’t seem right about the way things came to an end for the 95-year-old Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, as well as one of the couple’s three dogs. By now, though, if you’re reading this, you’ve heard the reports and come to your own conclusions.
To quote one of his characters, Little Bill Daggett, from Clint Eastwood’s excellent 1992 film, "Unforgiven," “I don’t deserve this … to die like this.”
At his advanced age, maybe you don’t get a whole lot of control over when your time comes, but for the sake of his children and those who called him brother, uncle and grandpa, it would be nice if there could be some answers. Eventually, there may be, but at the time of this writing, there are still more questions than facts.
What I keep ruminating on, though, is something more positive. Hackman was in some of my all-time favorite films and, more importantly, was great in all of them. I had gotten to the point in my fanhood for Hackman that I would watch a movie simply because he was in it.
Most casual film buffs, for example, know about the aforementioned "Unforgiven." Hackman won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of the loathsome but still kind of charming Daggett. The ass-kicking Daggett puts on English Bob (skillfully portrayed by Richard Harris) is legendary. Hackman’s character has ice running through his veins, and when you watch, you forget you are watching an actor in a film. Like he did in nearly every role of his, Hackman brought Little Bill to life.
Many film fans, though, may not be aware of some of Hackman’s lesser-known roles.
Gene Hackman in a scene from the film "Twice In A Lifetime,"1985.
Bud Yorkin Productions/Getty Images
In 1972’s "Cisco Pike," Hackman plays a bad cop caught between a rock and a hard place who decides to bring the heat down on the title character, played by Kris Kristofferson. The film also features Harry Dean Stanton, Karen Black and former Warhol superstar Viva. It’s a total bummer of a film, to be honest, but Hackman owns the screen when he’s on it, and you can’t help but hate him.
Another favorite of mine is the 1981 romantic comedy "All Night Long." I must have seen it 15 times before I turned 13, but I still love it to this day. Hackman plays George Dupler, and his work in the role is utterly charming. As his character’s life spirals down the middle-class drain, he retains a delightful optimism as he becomes smitten with Barbra Streisand’s Cheryl Gibbons. It wasn’t a hit by any means, but I adored watching Hackman as Dupler as a kid, and as an adult, I’ve often thought about how he handled some of the same real-life situations that many of us have faced.
Hackman was a master of the everyman characters. A few years after "All Night Long," Hackman played Harry Mackenzie in the sadly forgotten "Twice in a Lifetime" (1985). It’s another downer, in many ways, but Hackman’s steady, yet powerful portrayal of a 50-year-old factory worker having a midlife crisis gives an excellent supporting cast scene after scene in which to shine right along with him. Ann-Margaret, Ellen Burstyn, Amy Madigan, Ally Sheedy and Brian Dennehy all have great, memorable scenes with Hackman, especially Madigan. The two embodied the father/daughter relationship spectacularly.
As I consider Hackman’s greatness, I keep coming back to how he also had a knack for making the performances of his castmates stronger. Even in the pure cheese of the 1995 western "The Quick and the Dead," Hackman’s John Herod is just so fun to hate, and he gives some rather formulaic Western movie characters portrayed by Sharon Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe a great foil to pit themselves against for a little under two hours of pure escapism.
There’s a tiny bit of Little Bill Daggett in John Herod, and it would be great to see the two characters go head-to-head. But like he did with English Bob, I’m sure Little Bill would come out on top again —at least until the hero saved the day in the end.
As great as he was as a good guy in films like 1971’s "The French Connection" (for which he won his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 1972) and "Mississippi Burning" (1988), Hackman was even better as the villain. "The Quick and the Dead" and "Unforgiven" found him being the obvious bad guy, but Harry Zimm in "Get Shorty" saw Hackman being a shady, double-crossing gambling addict.
Hackman's supporting roles could be just as compelling as his star turns. Take "Young Frankenstein," for example, from 1974. It's one of my all-time favorites and arguably the funniest film ever, but I was well into my adult years and had seen the film countless times before I realized that Harold, the blind man who befriends Peter Boyle’s hilarious monster character, was Hackman.
Hackman also had a short but memorable turn as journalist Pete Van Wherry in "Reds" (1981). He shows up only a few times but provides Warren Beatty’s John Reed character with the necessary grounding to help bring Beatty’s more revolutionary spin on journalism to the forefront.
While he rarely, if ever, graced the tabloids, Hackman carved out an incredible career spanning the 1960s to the 2000s playing characters both fantastical (Lex Luthor in three of the four Christopher Reeve-led "Superman" films) and barely noticeable (film director Lowell Kolchek in Carrie Fisher’s autobiographical "Postcards From the Edge"). He won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another three. He also scored three Golden Globes wins and one Screen Actors Guild award as part of the cast of "The Birdcage." In short, he was a great actor, and he made everyone around him that much better as well.
May Gene Hackman, his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and their canine companion rest in peace, just as I wish peace to those who loved him in this time of transition. It’s safe to say we will never see another actor like him in our lifetimes, but we can take comfort in knowing there are nearly 80 films in which he appears.
Here are some recommendations for Gene Hackman's lesser-known films that you may have overlooked:
- 1967: "Bonnie and Clyde"
- 1972: "Cisco Pike" (hard to find, but shows up on TCM occasionally)
- 1975: "Bite the Bullet"
- 1975: "Night Moves"
- 1981: "All Night Long"
- 1985: "Twice in a Lifetime"
- 1990: "Loose Cannons"
- 1990: "Postcards from the Edge"
- 1995: "Get Shorty"
