GENE HACKMAN MILESTONES
(1946) Joined the Marines at age 16 after quitting school
(1950) Broke both legs in a motorcycle accident
(1958) Made stage debut opposite ZaSu Pitts in "The Curious Miss
Caraway" at the Pasadena Playhouse
Moved to California to attend the Pasadena Playhouse acting school
(1958) New York stage debut in "Chaparral"
(1959) TV acting debut in "Little Tin God" on "U.S. Steel Hour"; later
appeared in several other installments of the show
(1961) Made impression with guest appearance in the debut episode
of the CBS series "The Defenders"
(1961) Feature film acting debut, small role as a cop in "Mad Dog Coll"
(1961) Appeared with the improvisational troupe The Premise in Greenwich
Village Asked to leave Playhouse school; returned to NYC
(1963) Broadway debut, "Children at Their Games"
(1964) First major film role, "Lilith"; also first screen collaboration with Warren Beatty
(1964) Rose to prominence in Broadway production of "Any Wednesday",
opposite Sandy Dennis
(1967) Hired by Beatty to play Buck Barrow in "Bonnie and Clyde"; received
first Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor; also initial
collaboration with Arthur Penn
(1968) TV-movie debut, "Shadow on the Land" (ABC)
(1969) Appeared as one of the astronauts trapped in space in "Marooned"
(1970) Earned second Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for
"I Never Sang for My Father" Family moved frequently in his early childhood
(1971) Breakthrough screen role, NYC detective Popeye Doyle in "The French Connection";
reportedly almost quit film over its violent content; earned Best Actor Oscar
(1972) Headed the all-star cast of "The Poseidon Adventure" as a defrocked minister who
becomes the de facto leader of those who survived the underwater disaster
(1974) Portrayed a specialist in planting bugging devices in Francis Ford
Coppola's "The Conversation"
(1974) Offered hilarious cameo as the blind hermit in Mel Brooks' horror
spoof "Young Frankenstein"
(1975) Reprised role of Popeye Doyle in "French Connection II"
(1975) Reteamed with director Arthur Penn for "Night Moves"
(1977) Appeared as part of the all-star cast of Richard Attenborough's WWII
epic "A Bridge Too Far"
(1977-1981) "Retired" from acting for four years
(1978) Offered deliciously sly turn as the villainous Lex Luthor in "Superman";
reprised role in 1980's "Superman II" (shot simultaneously with the first)
(1981) Returned to features after "retirement" in supporting role of editor Peter
Van Wherry in Beatty's epic "Reds"
(1981) Had misfire as comic lead opposite Barbra Streisand in "All Night Long"
(1983) Delivered fine turn as a news anchorman in "Under Fire"
(1985) Played a middle-aged man going through a midlife crisis resulting in an
affair in the underrated "Twice in a Lifetime"
(1987) Reprised role of Lex Luthor in the disappointing "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace"
(1988) Earned Best Actor Academy Award nomination as an FBI agent investigating
the murders of civil rights workers in "Mississippi Burning"
(1988) Acted opposite Gena Rowlands in Woody Allen's "Another Woman"
(1989) Starred opposite Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as father-daughter lawyers on
opposite sides of a case in "Class Action"
(1990) Had surgery for angina provoking a two-year hiatus from acting (date approximate)
(1990) Played a film director in Mike Nichols' "Postcards From the Edge", adapted from
Carrie Fisher's roman-a-clef
(1992) Delivered fine villainous turn as a corrupt sheriff in Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven";
received Best Supporting Actor Oscar
(1992) Returned to Broadway in "Death and the Maiden" alongside Richard Dreyfuss
and Glenn Close
(1993) Portrayed a burnt-out lawyer in "The Firm", based on the John Grisham novel
(1994) Cast as the patriarch of the family in "Wyatt Earp"
(1995) Showed comic side as a hack director in "Get Shorty"
(1995) Provided formidable opposition to Denzel Washington as the captain of a submarine
in the taut thriller "Crimson Tide"
(1996) Second appearance in a film based on a John Grisham novel, "The Chamber"; played
a white supremacist defended by his grandson (played by Chris O'Donnell)
Settled in Danville, Illinois; raised by maternal grandmother
(1996) Was the straight man as a conservative US senator in "The Birdcage", directed by
Mike Nichols
While serving in China, worked as a disc jockey for US Armed Forces Radio
(1997) Portrayed the US President possibly caught up in murder in "Absolute Power"
(1998) In a nod to "The Conversation", played a surveillance expert who assists Will Smith
in "Enemy of the State"
In the 1950s, worked throughout the Midwest as a radio announcer and in NYC at various jobs
(1998) Voiced the character of the fascistic General Mandible in the animated feature "Antz"
(1998) Was a dignified movie star married to Susan Sarandon in "Twilight", starring Paul
Newman as a retired detective
(1999) Published first novel, "Wake of the Perdido Star" written with Daniel Lenihan
(2000) Starred as a football coach in "The Replacements"
(2001) Had featured role in "Heartbreakers", a comedy about a mother-daughter con artist team
(2001) Appeared in "The Mexican" in an uncredited cameo
(2001) Appeared opposite Owen Wilson in the war drama "Behind Enemy Lines"
(2001) Played the rascally patriarch of a dysfunctional family of geniuses in "The Royal
Tenenbaums"; Owen Wilson co-wrote script with director Wes Anderson and co-starred
as a family friend
(2003) Played a ruthless jury consultant in the thriller feature "Runaway Jury"
(2004) Played a former president who runs for Mayor of a small town against a local
candidate in "Welcome to Mooseport"
