Gene Hackman: an actor’s dream who could be a director’s nightmare
Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Gene Hackman, who passed away at the age of 95, spent the majority of his career being celebrated as one of his generation’s finest talents, which is exactly what he was.
Capitalising on the industry-wide shift instigated by the ‘New Hollywood’ era, Hackman didn’t look like a conventional leading man, but he was simply too talented to be restricted to character parts. From his early struggles alongside fellow aspiring thespians Robert Duvall and Dustin Hoffman to the top of the A-list, the star could always be relied on to give a performance that was never anything less than totally committed.
Like many of his peers, he wasn’t above taking a role solely for the money, but even when he did, the end results were Oscar-nominated classics like The Poseidon Adventure, enduring comic book favourite Superman, and the beloved sports comedy Hoosiers, so Hackman could never be accused of phoning it in.
Incredibly well respected by his contemporaries, he was the sort of actor others looked towards for inspiration and tried to emulate. After all, if Clint Eastwood, himself a storied Hollywood legend, said his Oscar-winning Unforgiven antagonist was perfect, then who’s to argue?
Morgan Freeman, Tom Cruise, Paul Newman, and Burt Reynolds are just some of the legendary names who worked with Hackman and were blown away by his dedication, commitment, and natural talent. On the other hand, despite being an actor’s dream, he could also be a director’s nightmare.
Hackman was always a forceful personality who suffered no fools, which led to several filmmakers suffering his wrath. That said, the recurring theme – which can often be a rarity in Hollywood – is that the movies in question never reflected the behind-the-scenes tension, with the star still bringing his best to the table despite his disagreements with the directors.
His feud with Wes Anderson on The Royal Tenenbaums has become the stuff of legend, which did nothing to affect either the offbeat family drama’s quality or Hackman’s work in it. Barry Sonnenfeld was terrified of working with the veteran on Get Shorty, and the actor wasn’t convinced he was up to the task of making the picture, but it was impossible to tell that Hackman was so apathetic to his role.
He had his issues with William Friedkin on The French Connection, too, not that anybody noticed when the seminal crime thriller won him his first Oscar for ‘Best Actor’ and earned trophies for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’. He was often a difficult and prickly personality, yet Hackman never let it affect the quality of either his performances or the films he was giving them in.
He named Eastwood, Sidney Pollack, Arthur Penn, and Francis Ford Coppola as the best directors he ever collaborated with, and it’s no coincidence that those films – Bonnie and Clyde, Unforgiven, The Conversation, and The Firm included – rank among the best of his career.
Even when he wasn’t getting along with the person behind the camera, Hackman remained more than capable of holding up his end of the bargain and reaffirming his credentials as one of American cinema’s all-time greats.
