Vintage Photos Of Gene Hackman That Shed New Light On His Legendary Life And Career
Iconic actor Gene Hackman passed away in 2025 at the age of 95, leaving behind a legacy as one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars.
Hackman burst onto the scene as a symbol of the New Hollywood movement in the 1960s and went on to enjoy a prestigious career that spanned more than four decades.
He served in the military.
Hackman was born in 1930 in San Bernardino, California, and left home at the age of 16 to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps after lying about his age.
He was stationed in China, then Hawaii and Japan, spending four and a half years as a field radio operator.
After being discharged, he needed to figure out what came next.
Hackman was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1951, and the 21-year-old found himself without a job. He moved to New York and worked odd jobs throughout the early years of the decade.
Thanks to the G.I. Bill, Hackman’s schooling was paid for — but a brief stint at the University of Illinois, studying journalism and television production, ended with him dropping out.
He started acting in the mid-’50s.
Hackman joined the Pasadena Playhouse in southern California and forged a close friendship with Dustin Hoffman (the two are seen here, years later).
The struggling actors were voted “least likely to succeed” and supported themselves through low-level acting jobs after they moved to New York.
Bit roles eventually led to bigger things.
Hackman’s acting career started out with fits and starts, but by the mid-’60s, he’d made many appearances across TV and stage productions.
While not yet a star, he was primed for a breakout as the 1970s loomed. His roles in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde and 1970’s I Never Sang for My Father both garnered Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations.
He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
While Hackman wouldn’t win the Oscar the first two times he was nominated, he eventually took home a gold statue, winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The French Connection.
This established Hackman as a major box office draw, and he’d appear in various blockbuster movies throughout the decade, including The Poseidon Adventure.
He showed off his versatile skillset.
While Hackman may not have been classically trained, years of paying his dues at small playhouses and minor TV roles helped him become a versatile actor.
This was showcased not just in the dramatic roles that helped him make his name, but also in comedies like Scarecrow, which won a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Hackman quickly became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Along with other stars that emerged in the 1960s and ’70s like Warren Beatty, James Caan, Jack Nicholson and his good friend Dustin Hoffman, Hackman became synonymous with the New Hollywood movement.
This era of cinema marked a change in Hollywood, where directors wrested control from studios and told more intimate stories rather than the crowd-pleasing, studio-mandated films of years past.
He acted in blockbusters throughout the ’70s.
Now firmly entrenched in Hollywood, Hackman appeared in French Connection II, The Domino Principle, A Bridge Too Far, and March to Die.
As the decade drew to its close, Hackman appeared in one of his signature roles: Criminal mastermind Lex Luthor in 1978’s Superman: The Movie.
His success carried into the ’80s.
While Hackman hadn’t won an Oscar since The French Connection, he continued to win other acting awards and nominations. In the 1980s, he appeared in various roles.
In fact, between 1985 and 1988, Hackman was tied (with Steve Guttenberg) for the title of Hollywood’s busiest actor. During this period, he starred in nine different films.
Hackman’s roles became iconic.
He reprised his villainous role as Lex Luthor in Superman sequels, including 1980’s Superman II and 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
Hackman also played a high school basketball coach in 1986’s nostalgic sports drama Hoosiers, which is considered by many to be one of the greatest sports films of all time.
He was nominated for another Oscar.
As the 1980s drew to a close, Hackman once again entered the Academy Award conversation for his role in 1988’s Mississippi Burning.
His strong dramatic performance earned him another Oscar nomination for Best Actor. This time, he lost to his friend Dustin Hoffman, whose performance in Rain Man stole the show.
He had a family.
Hackman was first married in 1956 to Faye Maltese, and the couple had a son and two daughters.
Unfortunately, Hackman was often an absentee parent, as his busy acting schedule kept him on the road for much of his children’s early lives. Hackman and Maltese filed for divorce in 1986.
He acted with many legendary figures.
The New Hollywood generation is seen as a golden age of Hollywood, when the film industry finally entered the modern era.
During this time, he starred with legends like Al Pacino, Paul Newman, and James Coburn (seen above in 1975’s Bite the Bullet).
Hackman continued acting into the ’90s.
While he considerably slowed down the breakneck shooting schedule he’d established in the mid-’80s, Hackman remained a bankable star well into the ’90s.
He acted in blockbusters like The Firm, Wyatt Earp, Get Shorty, The Birdcage, and Enemy of the State, and branched into voice acting with Antz. He even returned to Broadway in the early ’90s.
He was an avid driver.
Stemming from his role in The French Connection, Hackman developed a keen interest in motorsports. In the late ’70s, he competed in various Sports Car Club of America races.
He won a celebrity auto racing event in 1980, and also drove in the 24 Hours of Daytona Race in 1983.
His interests were multi-faceted.
Politically, Hackman aligned himself with the Democratic Party, but he also expressed admiration for Republican president Ronald Reagan.
Another interest of Hackman’s was architecture and design. Thanks to his Hollywood earnings, he was able to finance, design, and build ten homes.
He was somewhat of a sportsman.
In addition to his car racing prowess, Hackman was also a keen football fan and supported the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. He also lent his voice to several NFL Films sports documentaries.
Hackman was also known to be an avid cycler, a hobby that he kept up with well into his 90s.
He remarried in 1991.
Hackman started dating classical pianist Betsy Arakawa in the mid-1980s, and the couple tied the knot on December 1, 1991.
The couple didn’t have any children, and moved into a stylish home in Santa Fe, New Mexico that Hackman designed.
He wound down his acting career in the 2000s.
Hackman crossed an item off of his bucket list when he finally appeared in a movie with his friend, Dustin Hoffman with 2003’s Runaway Jury.
The following year, Hackman had a role in Ray Romano’s comedy Welcome to Mooseport, which was his final acting role.
He confirmed this in 2004.
Hackman was relatively guarded when it came to his personal life, but in a rare 2004 interview with CNN’s Larry King, he said that his acting career was likely over.
Later that year, he made his final television appearance in an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, when host Guy Fieri travelled to Hackman’s home in Santa Fe.
His health was a concern.
Hackman was in good shape for his entire life, but an angioplasty in 1990 was cause for concern.
In 2009, when discussing his retirement, he said, “The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York. The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.”
He didn’t look back.
In 2011, he was asked whether he’d ever consider returning to acting. Hackman, by then in his 80s, replied in a tongue-in-cheek way.
He said he might consider it, “If I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people.”
He became an author.
During the twilight of his acting years, Hackman stepped into an authorial role. Along with undersea archaeologist Daniel Lenihan, Hackman co-authored three historical novels.
1999’s Wake of the Perdido Star took place during the 19th century Age of Exploration, 2004’s Justice For None took place during the Great Depression, and 2008’s Escape from Andersonville concerned a prison escape during the American Civil War.
He wrote two more novels by himself.
Hackman’s fourth and fifth books were solo efforts, without any co-authors. Payback at Morning Peak, a love story set in the Old West, was published in 2011.
Two years later, Hackman published his final novel, a pursuit thriller called Pursuit.
He was a popular figure on the talk show circuit.
Hackman maintained a relatively low profile as a celebrity, which made his rare interviews all the more special.
This image shows him with Italian actor Roberto Benigni during a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1993.
He lived in Santa Fe for decades.
Hackman and Arakawa lived a comfortable life in their New Mexico throughout the ’90s and into the 2020s.
While Hackman was in good health into his 90s and was frequently seen riding his bike around the neighborhood, it seems that he fell into poor health in the final months of his life.
Hackman and Arakawa passed away in February of 2025.
On February 26, Hackman and Arakawa — along with one of their dogs — were found dead in their Santa Fe home. While it was a sad ending, no foul play was suspected.
It seems likely that Arakawa died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, then Hackman — who was suffering from Alzheimer’s and heart disease — died around February 18th.
Tributes poured in.
Legendary actor and director Clint Eastwood described Hackman as a dear friend whose “intense and instinctive” acting style made him one of the best actors of all time.
At the 97th Academy Awards, Morgan Freeman said Hackman was “a generous performer whose gifts elevated everyone’s work,” remembering him as “someone who did good work and so much more.”
It was the end of an era.
Film scholars and critics noted that Hackman’s death marked the end of several eras: New Hollywood and American new wave cinema.
Critic Peter Bradshaw wrote that Hackman’s characters were “tough, wised-up, intelligent but unhandsome, perpetually on the verge of coolly unconcerned derision, or creased in a heartbreakingly, fatherly, pained smile.”
His legacy is unparalleled.
Hackman’s career spanned television, film, and theatre, with his first credits coming in 1959 and his final roles in the early 2000s.
While rarely a leading man, it’s hard to find another actor who could co-star or appear in a supporting role as ably as Gene Hackman.
