Eugene Allen Hackman (January 30, 1930 – c. February 26, 2025) was an American actor. In a career that spanned four decades, he received two Academy Awards, two British Academy Films Awards,, and four Golden Globes.
Hackman's two Academy Award wins were for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's action thriller The French Connection (1971) and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a villainous Sheriff in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles as Buck Barrow in the crime drama Bonnie and Clyde (1967), a college professor in the drama I Never Sang for My Father (1970), and an FBI agent in the historical drama Mississippi Burning (1988).
Hackman gained further fame for his portrayal of Lex Luthor in Superman (1978) and its sequel Superman II (1980). He also acted in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Scarecrow (1973), The Conversation (1974), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Under Fire (1983), Power (1986), Loose Cannons (1990), The Firm (1993), The Quick and the Dead (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), Behind Enemy Lines (2001), and Runaway Jury (2003). He retired from acting after starring in Welcome to Mooseport (2004).
Marriages and family
Hackman was married twice. He had three children from his first marriage.
In 1956, Hackman married Faye Maltese (1929–2017), with whom he had one son and two daughters: Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne Hackman. He was often out on location making films while the children were growing up. The couple divorced in 1986, after three decades of marriage.
In 1991, Hackman married classical pianist Betsy Arakawa (1991–2025). They shared a Santa Fe, New Mexico home, which Architectural Digest featured in 1990. At the time, the home blended Southwestern styles and crested a twelve-acre hilltop, with a 360-degree view that stretched to the Colorado mountains. As of 2022, Hackman continued to attend Santa Fe cultural events.
Career
1956–1969: Career beginnings
In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman. Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were voted "The Least Likely To Succeed", and Hackman got the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had yet given. Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman moved to New York City. A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors and close friends, sharing NYC apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s. To support himself between acting jobs, Hackman was working at a Howard Johnson's restaurant when he encountered an instructor from the Pasadena Playhouse, who said that his job proved that Hackman "wouldn't amount to anything". A Marine officer who saw him as a doorman said "Hackman, you're a sorry son of a bitch". Rejection motivated Hackman, who said:
It was more psychological warfare because I wasn't going to let those fuckers get me down. I insisted to myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you're really interested in acting there is a part of you that relishes the struggle. It's a narcotic in the way that you are trained to do this work and nobody will let you do it, so you're a little bit nuts. You lie to people, you cheat, you do whatever it takes to get an audition, get a job.
2000–2004: Final films and retirement
Hackman co-starred with Morgan Freeman in Under Suspicion (2000), Keanu Reeves in The Replacements (2000), Owen Wilson in Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Sigourney Weaver in Heartbreakers (2001), and appeared in the David Mamet crime thriller Heist (2001), as an aging professional thief of considerable skill who is forced into one final job. He made a cameo in The Mexican (2001).
Hackman gained much critical acclaim playing against type as the head of an eccentric family in Wes Anderson's comedy film The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 2003, he also starred in another John Grisham legal drama, Runaway Jury, at long last getting to make a picture with his long-time friend Dustin Hoffman.
In 2004, Hackman appeared alongside Ray Romano in the comedy Welcome to Mooseport, his final film acting role.
Hackman was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" in 2003.
On July 7, 2004, Hackman gave a rare interview with Larry King, where he announced that he had no future film projects lined up and believed his acting career was over. In 2008, while promoting his third novel, he confirmed that he had retired from acting.
Speaking on his retirement in 2009, Hackman said:
When asked during a GQ interview in 2011 if he would ever come out of retirement to do one more film, he said he might consider it "if I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people." He briefly came out of retirement to narrate two documentaries related to the U.S. Marine Corps: The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima (2016) and We, the Marines (2017).
Writing (1999–2013)
Together with undersea archaeologist Daniel Lenihan, Hackman wrote three historical fiction novels: Wake of the Perdido Star (1999), a sea adventure of the 19th century; Justice for None (2004), a Depression-era tale of murder; and Escape from Andersonville (2008) about a prison escape during the American Civil War. His first solo effort, a story of love and revenge set in the Old West titled Payback at Morning Peak, was released in 2011.His last novel Pursuit, a police thriller, followed in 2013.
Death
On February 26, 2025, Hackman, his wife, and their dog were found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 95. The Santa Fe police department said there were no significant indications of foul play but did not provide either time or cause of death.