Winner of two Oscars Gene Hackman is one of the most famous and respected Hollywood actors of the second half of the 20th century. He played in films for over forty years, and he mainly got the roles of the military, police and other government officials. After completing his acting career, Hackman took up writing - he had already published several books.
Hackman before the start of his acting career
Gene Hackman (born 1930) spent his childhood in Danville, Illinois.
When Jin was thirteen years old, his father (he was a local printer) left his family and left the city. Moreover, as Hackman himself later recalled, this was a big blow for him.
At sixteen, the future actor enrolled in the United States Marine Corps. To be enlisted in the armed forces, he concealed information about his real age (he attributed to himself several years).
Gene served in the Marine Corps until 1951. He was fired from the troops after he got into an accident on his motorcycle.
Hackman, as a former military man, was given the opportunity to train for free. He first went to art school and then to the radio engineering college in New York. A college diploma allowed him to get a job on radio in Florida, but he soon ceased to like this work.
And only after that Gene Hackman joined the Florida theater troupe Pasadena Playhouse, where he met another future famous film actor - Dustin Hoffman.
First roles and first Oscar nominations
In the late fifties, Hackman, along with Hoffman, went to conquer New York. At first, it was hard: in order to earn a living in a big city, Hackman was forced to get a job as a driver, and Hoffman - as an orderly in a mental hospital.
Breakthrough for Hackman was 1964 - he first got a role in the Broadway production of "Any Wednesday." The production became a hit, staged on Broadway for over two years. In the same 1964, Hackman played his first notable role in cinema - in the film "Lilith".
In 1967, Warren Beatty, producer of Bonnie and Clyde, offered Hackman a role in this film - the role of Buck Barrow. Released, the film became a cult, he was awarded as many as ten Oscar nominations. Hackman was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor. After that, the actor began to receive offers from various filmmakers with enviable regularity.
In 1970, Hackman played one of the main roles in the movie I Never Sang to Father. Here, the actor appears before the audience in the form of Gene Harrison, a single man from New York who wants to leave with his new lover to another state. But such plans are not to his father's liking. This stern, always dissatisfied old man believes that his son must neglect his personal life and look after him.
For this role, Hackman was again nominated for an Oscar. However, this time the statuette was presented to another.
Peak of acting career
Worldwide fame came to Hackman after the release of the movie "The French Messenger" (1971). The main role in it finally brought the actor an Oscar. It was not so easy for Hackman, who has a rather mild character in life, to enter the image of the embittered police officer Jimmy Doyle, but in the end, the reincarnation was one hundred percent successful.
Hackman's next major work is the role of Harry Cole, a wiretapping specialist and paranoid obsessed with conspiracy, in the thriller The Conversation, which was released in 1974. By the way, the famous Francis Ford Coppola was the director and screenwriter of this film.
Later Gene Hackman starred in such films as "Superman", "Night Moves", "Domino Principle", "No Exit", "Extreme Measures", "Eureka", "Bat-21", "Mississippi on Fire".
Hackman's role is often defined by the phrase "real man." Most of his characters are calm, reliable, brave. And even the tramp from the movie "Scarecrow" (1973) performed by Jim Hackman does not look sorry.
Hackman's works in the nineties and two thousand
In the nineties, Hackman played several times the sheriff - in the films "Unforgiven", "Wyatt Earp", "The Quick and the Dead", "Geronimo". Especially memorable and striking was Hackman's performance in Clint Eastwood's film Unforgiven (1991). For the way the artist played here the role of Sheriff Bill Daggett, he was awarded a second Oscar.
Gradually, the actor moved away from the images of tough and harsh guys and switched to age-specific character roles. The last feature film in which Hackman appeared is "Welcome to Losinaya Bay". Here he got the role of former US President Monroe Cole (the character's name and surname are fictitious).
Gene Hackman as a writer
In the late nineties, Gene Hackman decided to get serious about literary work. In 1999, the novel "Wake of the Perdido Star" was published, which the great film actor wrote together with underwater archaeologist Daniel Lenihan. In 2004 and 2008, two more books, co-authored by Lenikhan, were published.
In 2011, a novel appeared in bookstores, which Hackman first wrote alone - "Payback at Morning Peak."
Hackman's last book to date came out in 2013 - it is called "Pirsuit" ("Pursuit").
Personal life
In 1955, Hackman met his first wife, Faye Malthis, a bank secretary. It happened in New York at a dance. Jin and Fay lived together for a long thirty years and only divorced in 1985. From Faye the actor has two daughters - Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Ann, and one son - Christopher Allen.
In 1991, the actor married again - to the talented pianist Betsy Arakawa. This marriage continues to this day. Gene Hackman lives with his second wife in Santa Fe (New Mexico).
