logo
Gene Hackman's 5 most memorable Hollywood roles, from 'The French Connection' to 'Superman'

Gene Hackman's 5 most memorable Hollywood roles, from 'The French Connection' to 'Superman'

Fox News01-03-2025

During his illustrious 40-year Hollywood career, legendary actor Gene Hackman left his mark on cinema. With his versatile range, Hackman took on famous roles, from tough guy parts to villainous characters, heroes and even a coach.
The two-time Oscar-winning actor was found dead along with his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa and their dog in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home Wednesday afternoon.
Hackman was 95 at the time of his death, and his wife was 63.
Hollywood mourned Hackman, who boasted over 100 acting credits from his storied career, as one of the greats. Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman, Francis Ford Coppola and others publicly paid tribute to Hackman as questions surrounding the movie star's death remain.
Hackman's movie credits include "The Birdcage," "Unforgiven," "Mississippi Burning," "Crimson Tide," "The Poseidon Adventure," "Bonnie and Clyde," "I Never Sang for my Father," "Young Frankenstein," "Reds," "The Quick and the Dead" and "Enemy of the State."
Here's a look back at a few of his memorable roles.
In the 1971 film, directed by William Friedkin, Hackman portrayed narcotics detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle.
Hackman was recognized for his Oscar-winning performance in the film by actor Viola Davis, who paid tribute to the legendary actor after his death.
"Loved you in everything! 'The Conversation,' 'The French Connection,' 'The Poseidon Adventure,' 'Unforgiven' — tough yet vulnerable. You were one of the greats. God bless those who loved you. Rest well, sir," she wrote on social media.
In the 1974 film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Hackman took on the role of Harry Caul, an audio surveillance expert in San Francisco who stumbles upon a murder plot.
Coppola mourned the loss of Hackman.
"The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity, I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution," he wrote on Instagram with a photo of Hackman on a movie set.
Hackman leaned into his sports side when he portrayed a basketball coach in the 1986 movie "Hoosiers."
Directed by David Anspaugh, Hackman played Norman Dale, a basketball coach who failed at the college level and got another shot at an Indiana high school.
In 2001, Hackman took on the role of Royal Tenenbaum, a disbarred lawyer trying to reconnect with his estranged children through an elaborate lie, taking his grandsons out for a day of mischief, riding on the back of a trash truck, go-karting through New York, crossing the street on a don't-walk sign, shoplifting milk at a bodega, throwing water balloons at passing taxis — set to Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard."
Hackman's co-star, Luke Wilson, paid tribute in a statement to Fox News Digital after his death.
"Marine. Actor. Legend. Gene Hackman could do it all. He stands alone on the mountain with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson," Wilson said.
Hackman portrayed notorious villain Lex Luthor in the 1978 film "Superman." Starring alongside Christopher Reeve, the action-comedy smashed the box offices at the time. Hackman went on to reprise his role in 1980's "Superman II" and 1987's "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace."

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

This weekend, the Nantucket Book Festival draws readers and literary luminaries to the island
This weekend, the Nantucket Book Festival draws readers and literary luminaries to the island

Boston Globe

time38 minutes ago

  • Boston Globe

This weekend, the Nantucket Book Festival draws readers and literary luminaries to the island

Advertisement 'There are so many lived experiences in our authors this year,' said Tim Ehrenberg, the foundation's president. Most authors will be accompanied in conversation by a counterpart, ranging from colleagues to friends to new acquaintances. Literary panels and free online workshops are also woven throughout the program. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Thursday's programming kicks off at 10 a.m. with a conversation between 'Jackie' author Starting at 8 p.m., guests can mingle with several visiting authors during an after-hours event called Authors in Bars, hosted at Breeze Bar in the Nantucket Hotel. Advertisement Friday begins with Pulitzer Prize-winning author '[It] matters to be able to present diversified points of view,' says Haft. 'With everything that you read, you become more, and that can't be taken from you — the information, the perspective, the culture, walking in another's shoes, walking into another world that you would never have known." Saturday's programming will include a conversation between journalist and presidential chronicler Bob Woodward and Linda Henry about his 2024 book, 'War,' and his long career in investigative reporting at The Washington Post. More events that day feature Nantucket authors, author and poet Ocean Vuong, writer and political podcaster Molly Jong-Fast, and human-rights activist the Tharon Dunn Scholarship Award, followed by a discussion with Newbery Medal-winning children's authors Carl Hiaasen and Jason Reynolds. The final half-day of sessions on Sunday includes Patrick Radden Keefe speaking to his career, comprising 'investigations into power, corruption, and hidden histories,' according to the festival site. Advertisement 'Every year we pinch ourselves,' Haft said. 'We've woven this world together ... and it's an inspiring experience. Our passion goes beyond the days of the festival, it is our ongoing work with our island children ... so it's just a big world of words that we feel are powerfully important.' The full festival itinerary and author reading schedule can be found at . Haley Clough can be reached at

Susan Choi Recommends a Book So Engrossing It Made Her (Almost) Lose Her Luggage
Susan Choi Recommends a Book So Engrossing It Made Her (Almost) Lose Her Luggage

Yahoo

time39 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Susan Choi Recommends a Book So Engrossing It Made Her (Almost) Lose Her Luggage

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Welcome to Shelf Life, books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you're on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you're here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too. What began as a short story in The New Yorker is now Susan Choi's sixth and latest novel, Flashlight, about a man who goes missing—and the resulting trauma for his family. Like the family in the book, Choi lived in Japan for a short period during her childhood. (Nor is this the first time she's shared autobiographical details with her characters: Her father was a math professor, like a character in 2003's A Person of Interest; she went to graduate school, the setting of 2013's My Education; and she attended a theater program in high school, as do the protagonists in 2019's National Book Award-winning Trust Exercise, for which she wrote at least 3 different endings.) Her second novel, 2004's American Woman, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and adapted into a film, and she has also written a children's book, Camp Tiger. Choi teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, yet one literary goal remains elusive: 'Trying to read 50 books a year,' she says. 'I've never achieved the goal and some years I don't even come close, but I love trying.' The Indiana-born, Texas-raised, New York-based bestselling author studied literature at Yale University; was once fired from a literary agency for being too much of a 'literary snob'; was a fact-checker at The New Yorker and co-edited Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker with editor David Remnick; won an ASME Award for Fiction for 'The Whale Mother' in Harper's Magazine; and has two sons. Likes: theater; fabric stores; kintsugi; the Fort Greene Park Greenmarket; savory buns; flowers. Dislikes: being on stage; low-hovering helicopters. Good at: rocking her gray hair. Bad at: cleaning menorahs; coming up with book titles. Scroll through the reads she recommends below. It's not exactly a missed-the-train moment, but I was re-reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov while waiting on a train platform [once], and when the train pulled in I stood up, still reading, boarded the train, still reading, and sat down, still reading…until at some point, after the train pulled away, I realized that I had left my luggage on the platform. Philip Roth's Everyman. I never would have thought a novel about the bodily decline and eventual death of a hyper-masculine Jewish guy who mistreats many of the women in his life—a lot like Philip Roth—could make me literally heave-sob at the end. But this is why Roth is such an incredible writer: He makes us feel enormous compassion for people we don't even like. Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation, which kaleidoscopically compresses the stormy history of 20th-century Germany into barely a hundred pages, while holding the focus steady on a single plot of land. It's one of those books that makes you want to write. All of Proust. Or even just some decent amount of Proust. I love the prose but also find it so exquisite it's almost unbearable to continue reading for any length of time, at least for me, which makes me feel like a total failure as a reader. I might have to set aside a year of my life just to read Proust. Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall is impossible to put down, and it's also so tensely coiled from the very beginning that reading it I sometimes forgot to breathe! In some ways it's a 'small' story—about a girl and her parents doing a crazy-seeming reenactment of prehistoric life in the English countryside—but then it turns out to be about the biggest things, like what it means to be a people, or a nation, or even human. Rachel Khong's Real Americans, which I am so riveted by that as soon as I finish these questions, I'm picking it back up. It's a story about three people who, despite how deeply they feel for each other—and how deeply we feel for them—cannot manage to be a family. My heart is already half-broken and I'm only halfway through it. Paul Beatty's The Sellout. I was sitting on the beach in Maui (the one time I have ever been to Maui), reading that book instead of swimming, and a stranger came up to me to ask what it was because apparently I was laughing so hard I'd attracted general attention. In Francisco Goldman's The Ordinary Seaman, two young guerilla fighters, boy and girl, fall madly in love and start having trysts in the back of an ambulance. The girl also has a pet squirrel that she's been carrying around in her bra, and, during the trysts, the squirrel runs frantically around the back of the ambulance. These are some of the funniest, wildest, most heartfelt sex scenes ever put on paper. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read it every few years because it feels new every time and, at the same time, it feels so familiar, like returning to a favorite place. I love every single sentence in it, even the sentences that are totally over-the-top (and there are a lot of them!) because they remind me that Fitzgerald was actually a fallible human being, capable of writing very over-the-top sentences sometimes. Sigrid Nunez's A Feather on the Breath of God shocked me the first time I read it because it really felt like the book was looking at me, like it knew exactly who I was. The protagonist has, like me, a real culture-clash background, and up to the point in my life when I read the book—the '90s—I'd never encountered that in fiction, so it was very emotional when I finally did. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie. Just read it. You'll thank me. Renee Gladman is one of my absolute favorite living writers/artists, yet I was totally unaware of her until maybe six years ago when I was recommended her work by an employee—I am so sorry I don't know his name—at my local indie bookstore. Now it feels unimaginable to me that I ever lived my life without Renee Gladman! Everything by Ali Smith, and Ali Smith herself. She is such a brilliant, compassionate, elating observer of us humans and the strange things we do. The London Library. A friend who's a member showed it to me a few years ago, and I never wanted to leave. Maybe they'll set up a hammock for me! PEN America, because they support freedom of expression, which none of us can take for granted anymore.$14.40 at at at at at at at at at at You Might Also Like The 15 Best Organic And Clean Shampoos For Any And All Hair Types 100 Gifts That Are $50 Or Under (And Look Way More Expensive Than They Actually Are)

Danica Patrick sets record straight on dating life after detailing ‘emotionally abusive' Aaron Rodgers relationship
Danica Patrick sets record straight on dating life after detailing ‘emotionally abusive' Aaron Rodgers relationship

New York Post

timean hour ago

  • New York Post

Danica Patrick sets record straight on dating life after detailing ‘emotionally abusive' Aaron Rodgers relationship

Danica Patrick is opening up about the current status of her personal life. Speaking recently with Haley Dillon, the wife of NASCAR driver Ty Dillon, on the 'Believe in the Good' podcast, the 43-year-old Patrick — who was previously involved with new Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers — shared she's unattached after being quizzed about her relationship status. 'Are you single right now?' Haley asked, to which Patrick replied, 'Yeah.' 5 Danica Patrick addressed her relationship status on the 'Believe in the Good' podcast. YouTube/Haley Dillon As the conversation continued, Haley quipped,' I'm going to be interested to see who's sliding into my DMs to get to your DMs.' Patrick has been open about her relationships over the years, including her two-year romance with Rodgers, 41. The former professional racer spoke candidly about their 2020 breakup on 'The Sage Steele Show' in May, claiming the 'emotionally abusive' relationship with Rodgers 'wore me down to nothing.' 'It felt like it was my life. So when you live with somebody, it's your whole life … And because the nature of the relationship was emotionally abusive, so that wore me down to nothing,' Patrick said. 5 Danica Patrick dated Aaron Rodgers from 2018 to 2020. Getty Images 5 The former NASCAR driver opened up about their breakup in a candid May 2025 interview. Getty Images Through that darkness, Patrick found light in learning to 'show up' for herself again. 'It gave me the greatest gift, which is myself. It gave me the greatest gift of how much I needed to show up for myself and take care of myself,' she shared. Patrick later dated businessman Carter Comstock in 2021. She confirmed their split one year later. 5 Danica Patrick told Sage Steele in May 2025 how the breakup with Aaron Rodgers 'gave me the greatest gift of how much I needed to show up for myself and take care of myself.' FilmMagic Reps for Rodgers did not immediately return Page Six's request for comment in the aftermath of Patrick's remarks. The four-time league MVP is focused on new beginnings both personally and professionally. On Saturday, Rodgers officially joined the Steelers on a one-year, $13.65 million deal after a lengthy free agency saga. 5 Aaron Rodgers officially signed with the Steelers in June 2025 after two seasons with the Jets. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post Upon putting pen to paper, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback was photographed wearing a band on his left ring finger, fueling marriage rumors. Rodgers confirmed in December 2024 that he is in a relationship with a woman named Brittani. He was previously engaged to actress Shailene Woodley, with the pair ending things in 2022. Rodgers is coming off a two-year run with the Jets. He appeared in all 17 games last year after being sidelined for much of 2023 with an Achilles injury. He'll face the Jets in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store