Hackman out of hiding
MICHAEL SHELDON

Without warning, Gene Hackman stops me on a walk through a Chicago hotel
and performs a magic trick. Using his wife, Betsy, as his assistant, he opens his
palms to show they're empty and cups one hand over his wife's face; then she
sneezes, and a couple of shiny coins appear to fall from her nose into his other
hand. Smiling proudly, he takes a slight bow, and his obliging wife jokingly announces,
with a toss of her head and a gentle snort: "I feel so much better." Such antics are
the sort of thing you'd expect from a playful young star, but Hackman, 70, is a burly
ex-U.S. Marine who has a reputation for being intense, demanding, brooding, aloof-in
short, anything but playful. He can seem so forbidding that directors and fellow actors
have been known to tremble at his approach. On the set of the film "Extreme Measures,"
an obviously nervous Hugh Grant remarked of his tough co-star: "He looks like someone
who's going to be very angry." Despite being one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces-
he's the veteran of more than 70 films, including such classics as "The French Connection"
and "Unforgiven," and the more recent "Get Shorty," "Crimson Tide" and "Enemy of the State"-
Hackman is so reclusive, and gives so few interviews, that many of his fans know almost
nothing about his personal life. But Hackman doesn't care what the opinionmakers in
California think of him. He snubbed them years ago by moving hundreds of miles away and
now spends much of his time at a modest house he shares with Betsy in New Mexico.
"Where we live, in Santa Fe," he says, "you can lead your own life and not be bothered by
the latest gossip. Besides, a film actor doesn't have to live in L.A. Not that many movies are
shot there anymore." Today, Hackman seems remarkably relaxed and genial, without any
hint of that fearsome scowl he employs so effectively in his films. About 115 miles south of
his hotel in Chicago lies his hometown of Danville, where Eugene Alden Hackman came of
age and where his father worked as a printer for the local newspaper. This rare visit to old
familiar territory has put him in a nostalgic mood. "My dad was a strange sort of guy," he
says, rubbing his chin and chuckling to himself. "He'd disappear, and I wouldn't see him for
years. Then, suddenly, we'd meet somewhere and spend a few days together like old pals.
Hackman ran away from home when he was 16, lying about his age so he could join the
Marines. He left behind an alcoholic mother and a younger brother whose lives were a constant
struggle to make ends meet. "I knew that I wanted to be an actor someday, but I didn't know
how that was going to happen. I just knew that it wasn't going to happen in Danville. So I left."
After leaving the military, he went to California and took acting classes. His one friend was a
short "beatnik" who wore a leather vest, played bongo drums and went by the name of Dusty.
It didn't help that Dustin Hoffman found success before Hackman. When director Mike Nichols
gave Hoffman his first big break as the star of "The Graduate," he also found a part for Hackman
as the husband of the film's seductress, Mrs. Robinson. But in rehearsals, Hackman lost the job.
"I'm terrible in rehearsals. I stumble around a lot and am slow to make an impression." If Hackman
sometimes gives the impression of being an angry guy, it's not without reason. He still seems to
resent the early disappointments. When I ask how he was able to capture so well the volatile
character of Popeye Doyle-the part he made famous in his breakthrough film "The French
Connection"-he frowns, and a small wave of bitterness emerges. "That film worked partly because
I was so eager to prove myself. I was 40, still unknown to the average audience and wasn't afraid
to take risks. I didn't have a lot to lose. And I was a guy who had been working at crappy jobs for
20 years, waiting for my break. I had done every kind of job, hauling furniture around New York on
my back, and not making much money." His performance earned him the first of his two Academy
Awards (the second was for "Unforgiven"), and he was soon making incredible amounts of money
acting in everything from brilliant dramas (Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation") to blockbuster
epics ("A Bridge Too Far" and "The Poseidon Adventure"). After his lean years, he pushed himself
too far too fast. He appeared in many mediocre films where the pay was tempting. When Christopher
Reeve asked why he wanted to play the villain in Superman, he famously replied: "You mean,
besides the $2 million?" Inevitably, things started to go wrong. He suffered heart trouble in the late
'80s and was treated for a blocked artery. His first marriage, to Faye Maltese, ended after 30 years
in 1986. The mother of his two daughters and one son, Faye stood by him in the early days, working
in a New York bank to support the family. But- as Hackman is quick to concede-success drove them
apart. He spent too much time away from home, and their relationship suffered. But then Betsy
Arakawa came along. A petite woman 30 years his junior, she met him in California, where she
was trying to forge a career as a classical musician. They soon fell in love and married in 1991.
She often travels with him and seems to share his sense of humor and his preference for a quiet
life in the desert. It is not clear how close he remains to his three grown-up children. When I ask
what they are doing, he smiles and says: "Well, that's a good question." Later, he adds vaguely
that his daughters are involved in writing and broadcasting, and that his son wants to be a filmmaker.
An impulse to direct comes from a deep desire to exert more control over his creative efforts.
Recently, that desire led him to try his hand at novel writing. He is spending some of his time in
Chicago promoting the book, which he completed in 1999 with co- author Daniel Lenihan, a friend
from New Mexico. Wake of the Perdido Star (Piatkus Books, $17.99) is a rambling adventure yarn
set at sea during the 19th century and features a young American hero who seems torn from the
pages of an old boys' magazine Hackman read during childhood. The book has received mixed reviews,
but Hackman is proud of it, and his only regret is that some critics have chosen to review him rather
than his book. "I think some people doubt that I wrote any of the story, but I actually wrote a bit more
than half of it, and did it all in longhand. It's my work, and I wish that people wouldn't say: `Oh, a
famous actor put his name on it, so it can't be any good.' They should read it and forget that I'm
also an actor."

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