MORE ABOUT GENE

Gene Hackman
AKA Eugene Allen Hackman
Born: 30-Jan-1930
Birthplace: San Bernardino, CA
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 2"
Eye Color: Blue
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Nationality: United States
Hobbies: Writing, Painting, Flying, Auto Racing
Executive summary: The Conversation
Military service: US Marine Corps (1946-49)
 
Father: Eugene Ezra Hackman (newspaper pressman)
Mother: Lyda (Gray) Hackman
alcoholic; died in bed at age 59 on December 30, 1962 in a
fire she accidentally set while smoking
Brother: Richard Hackman (b. 1942)
Wife: Fay Maltese (bank clerk, dated 1953-56, m. 1-Jan-1956, sep.
1982, div. 1986, three children)
Daughter: Elizabeth Hackman (with Maltese)
Son: Christopher Hackman (b. 1960 with Maltese)
Daughter: Leslie Hackman (with Maltese)
Wife: Betsy Arakawa (health club worker, b. 1961, cohanited 1984-91,
m. Dec-1991)
Grandmother: Beatrice Gray
British; maternal grandmother; raised Hackman
 
STUDIOS GENE WORKED WITH
Warner Bros Studios ("Bonnie & Clyde," "Superman," "Unforgiven")
20th Century Fox ("The French Connection," "Young Frankenstein")
Paramount Studios ("The Conversation," "Reds," "The Firm")
Disney Studio (Touchstone) ("Enemy of the State")
Dreamworks ("Antz")
Ren-Mar Studios ("The Birdcage")
MGM/UA ("Get Shorty")
Sony Pictures Studios ("Postcards From the Edge," "Absolute Power")

    University: Journalism, University of Illinois
    Howard Johnson Times Square
    Oscar for Best Actor 1972 for The French Connection
    Oscar for Best Supporting Actor 1993 for Unforgiven
    Golden Globe 1972 for The French Connection
    Golden Globe 1993 for Unforgiven
    Golden Globe 2002 for The Royal Tenenbaums
    Heart Attack 1990
    Angioplasty 1990

 

Gene Hackman made his name playing tough guys, spies, and
smooth villains, and won Oscars playing the drug warrior Popeye Doyle
in The French Connection and the sadistic, smiling sheriff in Unforgiven
with Clint Eastwood.

Hackman's father abandoned the family when he was 12, and his mother
was an alcoholic, leaving their son to be raised mostly by his maternal
grandmother. He was briefly jailed as a juvenile for shoplifting, then dropped
out of school, ran away at 16 and, lying about his age, joined the Marines.
After his tour of duty, he used the GI Bill to study journalism and TV production,
and worked as a radio announcer, shoe salesman, and truck driver until,
reassessing his life as his 30th birthday approached, he decided to try
becoming an actor.

He enrolled for acting classes, became fast friends and eventually roomed
with classmate Dustin Hoffman, and soon found a few stage and television
roles. In his first, brief screen appearance, he played a policeman in 1961's
Mad Dog Coll with Jerry Orbach. He made his Broadway debut opposite
Peggy Cass in Children From Their Games, which closed two days after it
opened, but by the mid-1960s he was working steadily in a succession of
Broadway plays. His first substantial film role was in the drama of mental
illness Lilith with Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty, and his first critical acclaim
came with his Oscar-nominated role as Beatty's brother in Bonnie and Clyde.
Among his other famous roles, he played the bug-master in The Conversation
with John Cazale, the ordinary hero of the cheesy Poseidon Adventure with
Shelley Winters, a campy Lex Luthor in Superman with Christopher Reeve,
the perfect high school basketball coach in Hoosiers with Barbara Hershey,
the sly Secretary of Defense in No Way Out with Kevin Costner, an untalented
filmmaker in Get Shorty with John Travolta, a rogue spy in Enemy of the State
with Will Smith, and the patriarch of a wildly dysfunctional family in The Royal
Tenenbaums with Owen Wilson. Now semi-retired, Hackman's last film was the
rather embarrassing Welcome to Mooseport with Ray Romano. Working with
archeologist Daniel Lenihan, Hackman has co-written a few novels.
In 2001, Hackman was involved in a very minor fender-bender in Los Angeles.
Witnesses said that when the two drivers emerged from their cars to exchange
information, the driver of the other vehicle was belligerent, and became more and
more angry over several minutes, finally shoving the 71-year-old Hackman.
According to the police report, Hackman responded by pummeling the other
driver with a half-dozen blows before the two men were restrained. No charges
were filed. His mother burned to death in 1962 when, drunk and smoking in bed,
she fell asleep and her cigarette ignited the mattress.

DID YOU KNOW? - THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT GENE
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT


Go Back