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Gene Hackman – A Memorable Face

© Dexter Wolfe

The struggles of defining an actor’s career can be daunting to say the least. For Gene Hackman, born January 30, 1930 in San Bernardino, California, his road was not the easiest to the big screen box office hits he enjoys today.

From a broken home he took out on his own at the age of 16 to join the marines. Lying about his age -- he got in and did a three year tour, discharged with a G.I. Bill for school. For a time he attended the University of Illinois studying journalism and TV production.

A really late start to the industry of acting, Gene Hackman began at the age of 30. He attended the Pasadena Playhouse in California where he met the now famous Dustan Hoffman, whom he was a reluctant roommate for a while. It is said that both actors were voted as least likely to succeed, which proves the adage that where there is a will there is a way.

Gene struggled like most would be actors with odd jobs. He was once a soda jerk, a furniture mover and even a hotel doorman. Hackman moved to New York and found work in summer stock and off Broadway.

Gene’s very first appearance was un-credited in Mad Dog Coll (1961) film and then his first credits appeared in the movie Lilith (1964) that did star Warren Beatty and Peter Fonda. His track record was a string of films; many violent like Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which also stared Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

He was landing roles in movies that had major leading actors at the time like Robert Wagner, John Forsythe, Burt Lancaster and even Robert Redford. His exposure grew with each film role, but his real lead action/crime movie came with The French Connection (1971) where he plays a New York City cop who stumbles onto a drug smuggling French connection. This led to a sequel film years later The French Connection II where his character Popeye Doyle fights the drug crime again.

A true classic movie that almost everyone has seen on a late Sunday afternoon as a re-run is The Poseidon Adventure (1972) where a passenger ship capsizes and the passengers struggle to survive. This had a cast line of actors: Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowall and Shelley Winters.

From western movies like Bite the Bullet (1975) to war movies A Bridge Too Far (1977), Hackman has done it all. Even Marvel Comics, Superman (1978), Superman II (1980) as the corrupt character Lex Luthor, with the great Christopher Reeve. With great difficulty with the producers of the Superman movies the producer in Superman II fired him and Hackman refused to play Lex Luthor in the following series but finally reappeared in Superman IV (1987).

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