The Best of Gene Hackman

We’re not here to speculate on the circumstances around the death of Gene Hackman, found dead in his New Mexico home with his wife and his dog yesterday. That sad story will unfold as it unfolds. Instead, we’re going to join the chorus of appreciation for one of the greatest of the Greatest Generation, and one of the greatest American actors to have ever appeared on screen. Hackman brought wit, grittiness, intelligence, and deep life experience to every performance. Though he retired from active work 20 years ago, Hackman’s  performances are as vital now as they were when we first watched them decades ago.

Here we present more than a handful of clips from an outstanding body of work.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Hackman’s first major role, after a few years of mostly TV guest-star appearances, came as Warren Beatty’s loser brother in Bonnie and Clyde, a completely transformative film that heralded the start of a new era of Hollywood grit, realism, and moral complexity, attributes that would come to represent Hackman’s dramatic hallmark. These scene does a lot of work, including showcasing a funny, early Gene Wilder performance, but you feel Hackman oozing sleazy charm as he tells his signature “joke” to his captives.

 

The French Connection (1971)

Hackman’s signature role, the one that sealed his reputation as a Hollywood legend, was that of Popeye Doyle, a forerunner of the cop-as-antihero archetype. Popeye was a brutal racist with questionable methods. The French Connection is not a movie for the easily-triggered. The film’s greatest scene is its mid-run car chase, but I prefer the work Hackman does in this final shootout scene, which really blurs the line between hero and villain.

Scarecrow (1973)

Hackman’s personal favorite performance was as an ex-con and drifter in this gritty 1970s road-trip movie, where he shares billing with an equally effective Al Pacino. This one is available to stream on Max and is definitely worth watching.

The Conversation (1974)

Hackman won a BAFTA for this Francis Ford Coppola classic of Deep State paranoia and moral decay, which remains as relevant now as it was when it came out five decades ago. Here he is, spying, and bickering with John Cazale.

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Suddenly, the world learned that Gene Hackman is a great comic actor, absolutely stealing this scene from Peter Boyle’s monster as a blind man with a penchant for accidental sadism in Mel Brooks’s classic, probably the greatest comedy ever to come out of Hollywood.

Night Moves (1975)

True Hackman-heads know that his best performance was as Harry Moseby in this sweaty noir from director Arthur Penn. Like a lot of noirs, the story dots don’t really connect, but Hackman, as a ex-football player adrift in the shifting morals of the 70s, provides the glue. He is the ultimate Man In Trouble. Here watch him get into it with a young James Woods.

Superman (1978)

Hackman bridged the gap from the gritty realism of the 70s to the blockbuster era with this performance as Lex Luthor, far and away the greatest portrayal of Superman’s nemesis. No one will ever top his turn, and he did it again in two other Superman movies, always stealing the show. Why does the phone always ring when you’re in the bathtub?

Unforgiven (1992)

Hackman won his second Oscar playing the bad guy in Clint Eastwood’s Best Picture-winning revisionist Western. Here he is kicking the shit out of Richard Harris.

The Birdcage (1996)

In a movie stuffed with straight men doing outrageous and hilarious gay vamping, Hackman once again took control, as a Republican senator who gradually comes to appreciate the benefits of life in drag.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Not his last performance, but his last great one, Hackman showed he can hang with any generation as the family patriarch in Wes Anderson’s quirk classic. This tweet says it all:

No one has ever looked better ripping a cigarette in front of four children pic.twitter.com/sIo8NRhIc4

— Jeremy Gordon (@jeremypgordon) February 27, 2025

Gene Hackman, RIP.