The actor had a "troubled youth" and spent many years struggling to find a footing in the industry before becoming a sensation.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 3, 2020. It has since been updated.
There are some actors who leave an indelible mark on the world. Their talent and charisma make them stand out and get them the limelight. When such celebrities withdraw from Hollywood or retire, their fans are just left wanting for more. And, what shaped them into the classics that they were? Each actor has a unique story and Gene Hackman's story shows that if you want something badly enough, you can have it.
93-year-old Hackman, who has been in 79 movies, has long retired from the industry but not before he became a star. He wanted to be an actor from a young age while growing up in Danville, Illinois. His father, Eugene Hackman, was a pressman for the local newspaper and his mother was a waitress.
When he was five or six, he watched Jack Oakie in a comedy film, and the life he saw onscreen left a mark. At 13, when The Chamber actor was playing on the street, his father passed him and waved. That was the moment his father left his family.
''It was a Saturday, and my dad and I would do things on a Saturday, if he could. That day, he drove by and waved at me, and I knew from that wave that he wasn't coming back. It was very peculiar because there had been no troubles in the house, but somehow or another, I sensed from that wave it was over, and I ran home to ask my mom what was the matter. That wave, it was like he was saying, 'O.K., it's all yours. You're on your own, kiddo'," he told NYTimes. His father had abandoned the family.
"I hadn't realized how much one small gesture can mean," he once said, looking back on it, as per NYTimes. "Maybe that's why I became an actor," he said. Of his father, the actor said that he "never made enough money to buy a house of our own, or even rent one, so we were living with my grandmother." His maternal grandmother, Beatrice Grey, was an unyielding person and criticized her talented daughter, Lyda, for marrying beneath her.
After his father walked out, he couldn't live up to his mother's expectation that he would be a parent to his younger brother. At 16, he signed up for the Marines and was discharged in 1952 after tours in Asia and the Pacific. He studied journalism at the University of Illinois for a short while before dropping out and going to New York to attend the School of Radio Technique. He then moved to California to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, and became friends with Dustin Hoffman. They were once voted by his classmates as "least likely to succeed," according to Washington Post.
Hackman's mother had encouraged him to be an actor but she died before she could see him be a star. It was reported that she had passed out in bed with a lit cigarette, starting a fire that killed her, as per GQ.
In 1956, he returned to New York and started getting parts in off-Broadway shows and live television. Eventually, Warren Beatty gave him a substantial role in Lilith, and then he starred in his breakout role in 1967 in Bonnie & Clyde that propelled him gradually into stardom. After two Oscar wins and multiple films, the actor is tired and retired. He lives with his wife Betsy Arakawa, a classical pianist, in Santa Fe.
He was married previously to Fay Maltese from 1956 to 1986. They have a son Christopher and daughters Elizabeth and Leslie together. "I lost touch with my son in terms of advice early on,” he admitted to GQ. “I was doing location films when he was at an age when he needed support and guidance," he added. He reconciled with them in recent years.
As per Closer Weekly, a source close to him said, "He wishes he’d been around more for his children, but now he’s close with them and their kids."
Hackman told GQ that he had a "troubled youth" and at 90, after a lifetime of success, he's in good health. "He still bicycles, does yard work and he’s a great handyman,” an insider told Closer Weekly. "After all the drama of Gene’s career, he loves the peaceful life he shares with the lovely Betsy," they said.
References:
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/19/magazine/hollywood-s-uncommon-everyman.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/review96/fhackman.htm
https://www.gq.com/story/gene-hackman-gq-june-2011-interview
https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/gene-hackman-now-actor-is-living-peaceful-life-with-wife-betsy/
