Since "Bonnie and Clyde", Gene Hackman was one of the movie heroes of my youth. We drove to the centre of Cologne and went to the Cinemathek, which was located behind the cathedral, opposite the public broadcaster WDR. In the auditorium of the old Wallraff-Richartz Museum, we sat on wooden folding seats, but comfort didn't matter. The only important thing was to see all of the films in the original version, with or without German subtitles.
I suppose I also saw “Bonnie and Clyde” there, the film that disregarded the censorship of the Hays Code and swept away the stuffy Hollywood entertainment of the 60s like “Mary Poppins” and “Dr. Doolittle”. Gene Hackman was of course not the cool, yet impotent lover of Faye Dunaway (played by Warren Beatty) but his down-to-earth cousin, who has a hysterical wife on his hands who alerts the police to the gang's hideout with her screams.
The next film was “The French Connection”, William Friedkin's epoch-making cops-and-gangsters thriller. Gene Hackman plays the narcotics officer “Popeye” Doyle, who is on the trail of Fernando Rey, the slick mastermind of the French drug mafia. While Hackman stands freezing on the street dressed as Santa Claus, his counterpart dines in an elegant restaurant. When Hackman suddenly realizes that a suspect is getting away from him, he runs after him in his silly Christmas costume, an illustration of his helpless rage as a social underdog. The scene when Fernando Rey tricks him and Hackman chases after him in a car under the overground subway is legendary.
Gene Hackman had the desire to become an actor from an early age. “Acting was something I wanted to do since I was 10 and saw my first movie,” he said. "I was so captured by the action guys. Jimmy Cagney was my favorite. Without realizing it, I could see he had tremendous timing and vitality."
At 16, Hackman drops out of school and joins the US Marine Corps. At the age of 22, he applies to the Pasadena Playhouse. Here he was found to be lacking in talent, similar to his colleague Dustin Hofman. Fed up with Los Angeles, Hackman moves to New York, where the two become friends with Robert Duvall and make ends meet with temporary jobs. As a bouncer, Hackman meets his former acting teacher, who thinks he won't ever achieve anything more than that.
„It was more psychological warfare, because I wasn't going to let those fuckers get me down. I insisted with 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.”
Like his role model James Cagney, Hackman doesn't conform to anything and takes on authority. In an interview with Larry King on CNN, he said, “I have trouble with direction, because I have trouble with authority. I was not a good Marine. I was -- I made Corporal once and was promptly busted. And I just have always had trouble with authority.“
What made him so special was not least his unspectacular appearance. The New York Times described him as a man with unremarkable features who never looked young and could easily disappear in a crowd.
The role in ‘The French Connection’ helped Hackman win his first Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role and his breakthrough in Hollywood. Shortly afterwards, he co-starred with Al Pacino in ‘Scarecrow’ by Jerry Schatzberg (1974). Two social outsiders make their way from California to Detroit and Pittsburgh. What they experience along the way is anything but a hero's journey. It is the story of an unusual friendship between two marginalised characters, an ex-prisoner and a former psychiatric patient. Gene Hackman later described his character in ‘Scarecrow’ as his most important role.
In 1974, he starred with John Cazale in ‘The Conversation’, another classic of ‘New Hollywood’, as the lonely bugging expert Harry Caul, who gets caught up in a web of paranoia and ends up sitting in the rubble of his flat. Hackman complained about Francis Ford Coppola's imprecise direction. Nevertheless, he succeeded in creating an impressive character portrait in the climate of the Watergate scandal. ‘The Conversation’ won the Palme d'Or in Cannes and his performance was particularly praised.
Hackman has made around 100 films, in his early days he had small roles on television and first success on Broadway. In Arthur Penn's ‘Night Moves’ (1975), Hackman plays private detective Harry Moseby, a character straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel. ‘Night Moves’ is a dark psychological thriller that was underestimated by critics and was a flop at the box office. Later rehabilitated as a cult film, the film historian Robert Kolker called it ‘a film of impotence and despair’. Hackman's character's succinct comment on the French classic ‘My Night at Maud's’ became famous: "I saw a Rohmer film once. It was kinda like watching paint dry."
In ‘Mississippi Burning’ (1988), directed by Alan Parker, he plays FBI agent Anderson, who solves the murder of civil rights activists in the racist South in 1964.
Gene Hackmann has worked with Clint Eastwood twice. In “Absolute Power” (1997), he plays a corrupt American president whose mistress dies during a violent sex game. Despite a great cast, the film met with little enthusiasm from critics. The reception of ‘Unforgiven’ (1992) was completely different. Hackman initially had qualms about taking on the role of the sadistic sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett, who whips Morgan Freeman to death. The film was a huge success and finally brought Clint Eastwood recognition as a serious director. ‘Unforgiven’ was honoured with several Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Gene Hackman for Best Supporting Actor.
In Wes Anderson's “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001), the 71-year-old Hackman plays the divorced husband of Angelica Huston and a self-ironic grandfather who gets up to all kinds of mischief with his grandchildren.
Gene Hackman last appeared in front of the camera in 2004. He then retired to Santa Fe, where he painted, designed architecture and wrote historical novels. He died in February 2025 at the age of 95. Many of his fellow actors spoke of him with admiration. All that is left now is the wish to see Gene Hackman's films on the big screen again.