- Born
- Birth nameEugene Allen Hackman
- Height6′ 1½″ (1.87 m)
- Eugene Allen Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Ann Lydia Elizabeth (Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman, who operated a newspaper printing press. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry, partly by way of Canada, where his mother was born. After several moves, his family settled in Danville, Illinois. Gene grew up in a broken home, which he left at the age of sixteen for a hitch with the US Marines.
Moving to New York after being discharged, he worked in a number of menial jobs before studying journalism and television production on the G.I. Bill at the University of Illinois. Hackman would be over 30 years old when he finally decided to take his chance at acting by enrolling at the Pasadena Playhouse. Legend says that Hackman and friend Dustin Hoffman were voted "least likely to succeed."
Hackman next moved back to New York, where he worked in summer stock and off-Broadway. In 1964 he was cast as the young suitor in the Broadway play "Any Wednesday." This role would lead to him being cast in the small role of Norman in Lilith (1964), starring Warren Beatty. When Beatty was casting for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), he cast Hackman as Buck Barrow, Clyde Barrow's brother. That role earned Hackman a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, an award for which he would again be nominated in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). In 1972 he won the Oscar for his role as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971). At 40 years old Hackman was a Hollywood star whose work would rise to new heights with Night Moves (1975) and Bite the Bullet (1975), or fall to new depths with The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Eureka (1983). Hackman is a versatile actor who can play comedy (the blind man in Young Frankenstein (1974)) or villainy (the evil Lex Luthor in Superman (1978)). He is the doctor who puts his work above people in Extreme Measures (1996) and the captain on the edge of nuclear destruction in Crimson Tide (1995). After initially turning down the role of Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992), Hackman finally accepted it, as its different slant on the western interested him. For his performance he won the Oscar and Golden Globe and decided that he wasn't tired of westerns after all. He has since appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), and The Quick and the Dead (1995).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com> (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpousesBetsy Arakawa(December 1991 - present)Filipa (Faye) Maltese(January 1, 1956 - 1986) (divorced, 3 children)
- ChildrenElizabeth Jean HackmanLeslie Anne Hackman
- ParentsAnn Lydia Elizabeth GrayEugene Ezra Hackman
- RelativesRichard Hackman(Sibling)
- Raspy voice
- Prefers to come to a role with minimal rehearsal
- While at the Pasadena Playhouse, Hackman and a classmate were voted "Least likely to succeed". The classmate was Dustin Hoffman.
- Announces his retirement from acting at the age of 78.
- Runaway Jury (2003) was the first time he and former roommate Dustin Hoffman performed on the screen together.
- He was initially reluctant to take the role of Lex Luthor in Superman (1978) as he didn't want to shave off a mustache that he had recently grown. Richard Donner made a deal with him that if he shaved it off, Donner would shave off his as well. After Hackman did so, Donner revealed that the mustache he was wearing was a fake. This made Hackman instantly respect and like Donner immensely.
- Was the first choice to play Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
- 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.
- [on aging] 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.
- The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways.
- [on accepting his Best Actor Oscar] I wish all five of us could be up here, I really do.
- If I start to become a "star", I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play best.
- The Quick and the Dead (1995) - $1,300,000
- Superman (1978) - $2,000,000
- Lucky Lady (1975) - $1,350,000
- The French Connection (1971) - $100,000
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