Opinion: Remembering Gene Hackman
The actor Gene Hackman has died, at the age of 95. He was found this week in his home in Santa Fe, along with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and a family dog. Authorities are still trying to figure out what happened.
Gene Hackman was long retired from Hollywood, but the characters he played in his four decade career will stick with us. It felt like he could turn himself into almost anyone.
He was a barbarous and riotous cop in The French Connection; a blunt-headed, bank robbing brother alongside Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde; a savage small-town sheriff in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven; and a minister who leaps through flames to lead passengers to safety in The Poseidon Adventure, even as the man of God himself is left to dangle from a valve-wheel.
Gene Hackman played Superman’s arch-villain, Lex Luthor, with a comic glint. “There’s a strong streak of good in you, Superman,” he tells Christopher Reeve. “But then nobody’s perfect…”
You might see why Gene Hackman would try to find a life playing other people. His father used to beat him, and left the family when Gene was 13. At 16, he lied about his age and ran off to join the Marines.
“I just had to get out,” he once told the Los Angeles Times.
He played a son who looks back on a difficult relationship with his father in Robert Anderson’s I Never Sang For My Father, which Gene Hackman opens by saying, “Death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship, which struggles on in the survivor’s mind…”
He was friends with Dustin Hoffman when they were young actors at the Pasadena Playhouse in the 1950’s, and voted “the least likely to succeed.” Gene Hackman, of course, went on to win two Oscars, nine Golden Globes, and many other awards; his friend has done pretty well, too.
Gene Hackman leaves a lot of memories for us movie-goers. I think one that sinks most into me is in Hoosiers. He plays a strict basketball coach who spurs a small-town high school team to glory. But he sets aside all his macho bluster to tell them as they take the court for the last time, “I love you guys.”
You can feel how hard, and how necessary it is for that flinty coach to force himself to say that. Gene Hackman could utter just four simple words, and make a great film moment.
Transcript:
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The actor Gene Hackman has died at the age of 95. He was found this week in his home in Santa Fe along with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and a family dog. Authorities are still trying to figure out what happened.
Gene Hackman was long retired from films, but the characters he played in his four-decade career will stay with us. It felt like he could turn himself into almost anyone. He was a barbarous and riotous cop in “The French Connection,” a blunt-headed bank-robbing brother alongside Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in “Bonnie And Clyde,” a savage small-town sheriff in Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” and a minister who leaps through flames to lead passengers to safety in “The Poseidon Adventure,” even as the man of God himself is left to dangle from a valve wheel. Gene Hackman played Superman’s archvillain, Lex Luthor, with a comic glint. There’s a strong streak of good news, Superman, he tells Christopher Reeve, but then nobody’s perfect.
You might see why Gene Hackman would try to find a life playing other people. His father used to beat him and left the family when Gene was 13. At 16, he lied about his age and ran off to join the Marines. I just had to get out, he once told the Los Angeles Times. He played a son who looks back on a difficult relationship with his father in Robert Anderson’s “I Never Sang For My Father,” which Gene Hackman opens by saying death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship, which struggles on in the survivor’s mind.
He was friends with Dustin Hoffman when they were young actors at the Pasadena Playhouse in the 1950s and voted the least likely to succeed. Gene Hackman, of course, went on to win two Oscars, nine Golden Globes and many other awards. His friend has done pretty well, too.
Gene Hackman leaves a lot of memories for his movie-goers. I think one that sinks most into me is in “Hoosiers.” He plays a strict basketball coach who spurs a small-town high school team to glory, but he sets aside all his macho bluster to tell them as they take the court for the last time, I love you guys. You can feel how hard and how necessary it is for that flinty coach to force himself to say that. Gene Hackman could utter just four simple words and make a great film moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALLAH-LAS’ “HOUSTON”)
More than 20 dead after tornadoes sweep through Kentucky and Missouri
Powerful storms and tornadoes tore through several Midwestern and Southern states overnight Friday, leaving carnage and flattened buildings in their wake.
Opinion: A wealth of wisdom for a bargain price
NPR's Scott Simon reflects on the discovery that what Harvard University thought was a copy of the Magna Carta is actually an original.
Bessemer residents want answers about a four-million-square-foot data center coming to their backyards
Residents in and around Bessemer are furious over Project Marvel, a plan to build a 4.5-million-square-foot data processing facility on 700 acres of wooded land. Public officials have been sworn to silence.
Amid global competition for production business, Hollywood is hurting
Hollywood's plummeting film and TV production levels have studio executives and grassroots groups pushing for better incentives to keep business in California.
A Russian drone strike in northeastern Ukraine kills 9 people, officials say
The drone hit a bus evacuating civilians from a front-line area in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region Saturday, hours after Moscow and Kyiv had held their first direct peace talks in years.
Trump’s DOJ focuses in on voter fraud, with a murky assist from DOGE
President Trump and his allies have long made false claims of widespread noncitizen voting. Now, as the GOP pursues new restrictions, experts worry isolated arrests will be used to push the new rules.
