Actor: “No sentimental guy” – Gene Hackman is dead

Hollywood’s ideal of beauty looked different. But in the end, genes Hackman’s bulbous nose, the wide chin and the early baldness of forehead became an attribute. The star of films such as “French Connection – Brooklyn”, “Merciless” and “The Royal Tenenbaums” was a sought -after character actor. Now the film world mourns the two-time Oscar winner, who died on Wednesday at the age of 95. His body was found together with his wife Betsy Arakawa on her place of residence, as several US media reported in the US state of New Mexico, citing the Sante Fe district.

A spokeswoman for the sheriff said ABC News and CNN that the couple had been found in a social control after a neighbor reported who was concerned about the well -being of the two. The couple’s dog was also found dead.

Hackman had withdrawn from Hollywood decades ago. With his second wife he lived away from the dream factory, in rural Santa Fe. At almost 75 when other actors are still in front of the camera, he retired – and found a new role: he wrote books, such as the civil war novel “Escape from Andersonville” (2008) and the police thriller “Pursuit” (2013) – and kept fit into old age.

Shortly before his 88th birthday (in January 2018) he posed with a new e-bike in jeans and baseball cap in front of a bike shop in Santa Fe. What a “cool type”, Instagram user commented on the photo.

Schauspiel dream as a child

His last big appearance on a Hollywood stage was a long time ago. At the 60th Golden Globe Awards in 2003, Gene Hackman was celebrated with the honorary award for his life’s work.

“I never wanted to be anything other than an actor,” he said visibly touched in front of the star audience. Even as a young boy, he sat with a bag of popcorn in the cinema and had Johnny Weissmuller, John Wayne, Errol Flynn and his favorite actor James Cagney put himself in other worlds.

Breakthrough with “The French Connection”

Hackman rarely got involved in interviews, such as in 2021, when the thriller “The French Connection” (German title “Festival Brooklyn”) celebrated its 50th anniversary. With this film, the actor made his big breakthrough in 1971. At that time, Hackman came to Oscar and Golden Globe Honor as a tough drug investigator in New York- directed by William Friedkin.

“Of course, this film helped my career and I am grateful for that,” said Hackman in 2021 of the “New York Post”. But he had no plans to look at the thriller on the occasion of the round anniversary. He only saw the film in a tiny demonstration room shortly after completion.

As the son of a printer and a waitress, Hackman grew up in a small town in the US state of Illinois. The father left the family when the young teenager was. At the age of 16 he came to the US Navy, a few years later he followed his passion for film and took acting lessons at the “Pasadena Playhouse” in California, where a young Dustin Hoffman also studied.

At that time, both were classified in the class as a student with the slightest chances of success. Together they moved to New York at the end of the 1950s, shared an apartment with Robert Duvall there, hit themselves with handlong jobs and continued to learn their acting crafts.

Hackman played his first major role in 1964 in the “Lilith” strip with Warren Beatty, who hired him three years later for “Bonnie and Clyde”. As Clydes Gangster brother, Hackman received his first Oscar nomination as the best supporting actor.

After his breakthrough as an Oscar -winning main actor with “French Connection”, the career quickly went uphill. In “Scarecrow” he plays a leaner, in “The Conversation” (“The Dialog”) a paranoid listening specialist. He made it to Hollywood’s A list with cash crowds such as the John Grisham film adaptation “The company” and “Crimson Tide”.

In the travesty classic “The Birdcage”, Hackman slipped into women’s clothes. In 1989 he won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival as a FBI agent in the racism drama “The Root of Hass”. With Dustin Hoffman he was seen in the strip “Runaway jury”.

Two Oscars and four Golden Globes

In 1993 he celebrated a further double success in the Globes and Oscars as the best supporting actor in the western “merciless”. Under the direction of Clint Eastwood, he played a sadistic sheriff. Hackman won his third Golden Globe as the best comedy actor in the family satire “Die Royal Tenenbaums” (2001), two years later there was the honorary globe for his life’s work.

Most recently, in 2004 he shone in the political satire “Welcome to Mooseport” as an arrogant ex-president who moved from Washington to the province. At that time he trusted US Talkmaster Larry King that he wanted to get out of the film business. The star complained that too many have to make compromises. He held his word and has not stepped in front of the camera since then.

No “sentimental guy”

Where he kept his Oscar trophies, Hackman was asked in 2011 in one of his rare interviews by the magazine “GQ”. “I’m not sure,” replied the actor. He hardly has any films in his house. “I’m not a sentimental guy”.

Of course, he experienced ups and downs in his career, Hackman admitted in the conversation. “But on the whole I am quite satisfied that it was the right decision to become an actor. Fortunately, I found a few things that I could do as an actor,” summed up the star. He would like to remember posterity as a “decent actor”. “As someone who tried to honest things in an honest way”.