The Late, Great Gene Hackman Was a Proper Race Car Driver
Award-winning actor Gene Hackman was found dead on Thursdayalongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa, late last night in their New Mexico home. The two-time Oscar winner was 95 years old.
Serving as a more regular, familiar voice among the haute Hollywood scene, Hackman made his mark with films like Unforgiven, Bonnie and Clyde, A Bridge Too Far, and Mississippi Burning. But it was his work in William Friedkin's New York-based neo-noir film The French Connection that earned him his first Academy Award, for Best Actor as Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle — who engages in a weaving race with an elevated New York City subway car after he commandeers a 1971 Pontiac Le Mans.
Hackman, however, was also a racing driver, who competed in numerous endurance races alongside the likes of the legendary Dan Gurney.
"Would I have chosen racing over acting? I've thought about it quite a bit. I have a feeling I wouldn't have stayed in racing. I don't think I have the personality to be a real racing professional," Hackman told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. "You can learn some of the skills of racing, you can learn all the mechanical things, but there's a certain part of it that really no one can teach you — that killer instinct. You have to be very competitive. You need to have that edge about you. The good ones all have that."
Hackman said his driving interests were piqued when he was invited to compete in a celebrity race in Long Beach in the mid-1970s. Then, the California-born actor took to Sports Car Club of America events, specifically driving Formula Fords at Bob Bondurant's driving school in North California, before joining Gurney's team on the endurance racing circuit. Hackman was slated to enter the 1978 and 1981 24 Hours of Daytona, but dropped out from both teams before the start of the race.
He made his IMSA GTU debut in February 1983 at Daytona behind the wheel of Dan Gurney's All American Racers, sharing a caged, striped, and stroked 1983 Toyota Celica sporting the number 99 with two Japanese drivers, Masanori Sekiya and Kaoru Hoshino. The notchback Celica racers made around 300 horsepower from a 2.1-liter inline-four paired with a five-speed manual transmission, though the 1983 entrant retired from Daytona due to a gearbox failure. Hackman returned to the Celica later that season, racing the number 97 car at Riverside Raceway.
"You must be extremely careful. You have to think in a very orderly fashion. What you do is try to slow everything down instead of getting yourself all excited and expending a lot of energy. Instead, you try to slow it all down so you can go quicker. It's a very strange process," Hackman told the Los Angeles Times.
1984 marked another year of IMSA racing for Hackman, this time inside the number 55 Mazda RX-7 for Preston & Son Enterprises at 12 Hours of Sebring. Hackman and art director and collector Whitney Ganz shared the car at Sebring and then later in the season at Riverside, though both races resulted in DNFs. These hiccups didn't trouble Hackman, as the actor continued driving in celebrity series, and managed to win numerous Toyota ProCelebrity races at Long Beach and Watkins Glen.
Even so, Hackman admitted that the racing schedule and mindset took a toll he wasn't willing to pay forever. "At what point did I realize I was good at it? Well, I won a couple of races and I thought I could do it," he said. "But, then, I realized that if I wasn't really serious about it, and if I couldn't commit to 15-18 races a year, that I couldn't really compete at a professional level. At least at a decent national-class level. I never went through a period when I felt I could really do it."
Despite his understanding of his racing aspirations, Hackman's stint in performance driving shaped his relationship with danger and with regular car ownership. Hackman said that the stunt driving in The French Connection, which he claims he did about 60% of, was much more frightening than any sort of track driving. (Notably, director Friedkin and his team declined to close the surrounding Brooklyn streets during filming, and didn't even have permits.) He also owned Ferraris and Porsches before he started racing, but swapped the sports cars for Toyota and Nissan pickup trucks afterwards, claiming it was easier to stick to the speed limit in a pickup.
Hackman is survived by his three children — Christopher, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne— whom he had with his former wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017.
You Might Also Like
You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox
Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners
The Man Who Signs Every Car
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘To the North's' Mihai Mincan Talks ECAM Forum Bound Coming-of-Age Mystery ‘Milk Teeth,' Sound Designed by Oscar-Winner Nicolas Becker (EXCLUSIVE)
One of the hottest works in progress at ECAM Forum's second co-production market, unspooling June 10-13 in Madrid, the Romanian coming-of-age mystery/fantasy drama 'Milk Teeth' reunites filmmaker Mihai Mincan with much the same team of his calling card debut 'To the North' which bowed at Venice Orizzonti 2022: Oscar-winning sound designer Nicolas Becker ('Sound of Metal'), cinematographer George Chiper-Lillemark ('Immaculate'), and editor Dragos Apetri ('Animal'). Also on board are four of 'To the North' production partners: Romania's deFilm, France's Remora Films, Greece's StudioBauhaus, Bulgaria Screening Emotions, joined by Denmark's Oscar-nominated producer Monica Hellström ('Flee') of Ström Films. More from Variety Madrid's ECAM Forum Ups International Scope With 23 Feature Projects for Second Edition Bertrand Bonello to Be Honored at Madrid's Second ECAM Forum Co-Pro Showcase (EXCLUSIVE) Spain's ECAM Forum and Conecta Fiction & Entertainment Unite for International Collaboration The story, penned by Mincan, is again inspired by true events that serve as starting point for the helmer to grapple with painful memories of Romania's post-communist era, when dreams of a better life after the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 turned into disillusion. Here, the events are set in the final days of Ceausescu's Romania. The central character Maria, 10, becomes the last witness to her sister's mysterious disappearance and must find the courage to grow up in a collapsing world. The idea for the pic first emerged about seven years ago when he read about the tragic case of the kidnapping in 1989 of a little girl in Romania, Mincan said. What intrigued him were a few lines about the sister of the missing girl from the police, describing her as 'the mute'. 'That triggered something in me,' said the director who gradually incorporated into the script elements of his own experience of growing up in a society where people felt metaphorically speaking 'mute' or without a voice of their own. 'We basically did what we were told as we felt there was no foreseeable future for our country and for us Romanians,' said the director who was Maria's age in 1989' ''Milk Teeth' is a powerful allegory of Romania's transition between the communist era and the promise of a new society after the fall of communism in 1989,' added deFilm's Iona Lascār who produces alongside Radu Stancu. 'By representing darkness and void as visual symbolic elements, the film portrays the uncertainty and fear experienced during this period.' Visually, Mincan said the pic will borrow from two different traditions of coming-of-age dramas: on one hand, the social realistic tradition of Ken Loach ('Kes'), Lynne Ramsay ('Ratcatcher') or Sean Baker ('The Florida Project') and on the other the blurring of reality and fantasy in Carlos Saura's 'Cria Cuervos.'Anti-nostalgia 'When I saw 'Cria Cuervos,' I became obsessed with it and Saura's vision of childhood,' the helmer confessed. 'For me, childhood is a period of great confusion, where you don't have a will of your own. That's why I wanted to make an anti-nostalgia film, in which a little girl struggles to make sense of the world around her after her sister goes missing. The story therefore turns less and less linear and progresses into a vague dimension.' To convey the sense of confusion felt by Maria, Mincan said the camera work from George Chiper-Lillemark is mostly raw hand-held, while the sound – currently being designed by expert Nicolas Becker – will 'create a balance between the world outside the character, where you can hear things in the distance, and a sensation of pure silence and empty spaces.' 'Romania in 1989 was that way – very very quiet. There were few cars, a 10 p.m. curfew which meant people would spend a lot of time in their flats, with electricity cuts, TV programs perhaps only two hours a day,' recalled the director. In the starring roles as Maria is the young newcomer Emma Mogos, cast opposite professional actors Marina Palii ('Manor House') and Igor Babiac who play Maria's mother and father. 'I was looking for actors who would remind me of my own parents at the time, face-wise,' said €2.3 million ($2.6 million) project, recipient of the 2023 Torino Film Lab Production Award, was backed by the five co-production countries' national film centres, in association with Arte Kino, ERT in Greece, TVR, Avanpost Media and Radio Romania. Lascār said she is thrilled to be part of ECAM Forum's 'Last Push' section with 'Milk Teeth.' 'I've worked in film for 15 years, but this is my first time presenting a work in progress project in Spain. I'm looking forward to chatting with local producers and cooking up some great collaborations.' Most recently attached as minority co-producers on the Cannes Un Certain Regard entry 'I Only Rest in the Storm' by Portuguese helmer Pedro Pinho, deFilm's Lascār and Stancu are currently negotiating sales and distribution on the feature due to premiere later this year. A total of eight Spanish and international films in post-production will be pitched at ECAM Forum, next to 15 films in development, 11 shorts and 13 series in development. Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Luke's Lost The Force: Mark Hamill's Trump Attacks Turn Jedi Legacy Into Political Grudge
Actor Mark Hamill, best known for portraying Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, ignited a social media firestorm this week after unleashing a string of politically charged comments targeting President Donald Trump. In an interview published by the Los Angeles Times, Hamill, 73, titled 'Mark Hamill starred in the ultimate battle of good and evil. Now he just wants to make America normal again,' the piece explored Hamill's evolving career, his personal struggles after the January 2025 Malibu wildfires, and his outspoken criticism of Trump during the former President's second term. Shared on X by the LA Times, the post quickly ignited a firestorm of backlash, with users excoriating Hamill as a 'whack job liberal' and implicitly mocking the outlet as a far-left mouthpiece. The interview veered from promoting his latest film to railing against Trump's second term in office, likening the President to a fictional Sith Lord and framing himself as part of 'the Resistance.' The remarks—delivered with signature sarcasm and wrapped in Star Wars metaphors—drew swift criticism from audiences across the political spectrum, with many accusing the veteran actor of using his platform to peddle partisan vitriol. Proof this guy is full of SITH. — Mark Hamill (@ 2025-05-04T19:44:09.954Z 'Proof this guy is full of SITH,' Hamill wrote on Bluesky, mocking an AI-generated image of Trump holding a red lightsaber, the iconic weapon of Star Wars villains. He has also referred to his political opponents as fascists and openly mocked Trump supporters online. While Hamill's fans praised his outspokenness, critics blasted the LA Times for platforming what they described as a divisive political tirade disguised as entertainment journalism. 'The has become nothing more than a far-left megaphone,' one commenter wrote. 'This isn't reporting. It's partisan propaganda dressed up in a puff piece.' Others questioned why a legacy media outlet would run a glowing feature that offered little scrutiny of Hamill's increasingly aggressive rhetoric. Hamill, who also described himself as a supporter of 'MANA — Make America Normal Again,' admitted he obsessively tracks his follower count and spends hours muting dissenting voices on social media. He acknowledged that his political commentary often overshadows his acting, saying, 'I didn't want to talk about politics — I know when I talk about it, that's the headline,' before launching into yet another attack on Trump. Critics say the actor's efforts to align himself with anti-Trump resistance movements reflect the broader trend of celebrity activism encroaching into political discourse without real-world accountability. 'You're an actor, not a policymaker,' one user replied to a viral clip of the LA Times interview. 'Stick to playing pretend.' Even some longtime Star Wars fans expressed disappointment, lamenting the politicization of a character originally meant to represent universal themes of good versus evil. Hamill's latest film, The Life of Chuck, is based on a Stephen King novella. The actor plays a small but emotional role as a dying grandfather. But for many, the off-screen theatrics have distracted from any on-screen nuance. 'Hollywood can't help itself,' another social media user posted. 'They'd rather alienate half the country than keep politics out of movies and interviews.' For many Americans, the episode is just another reminder that the line between fiction and politics has all but disappeared in today's media landscape.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
ECAM Forum Coordinator Alberto Valverde on an Expanded Second Edition: ‘The Winning Teams From Cannes Are Also in Madrid'
After last year's golden blueprint which set the roadmap for coming years, the second ECAM Forum Co-Production Market, unspooling June 10-13 in Madrid, will drive deeper into its international reach and industry talks as part of its mandate to strengthen the ties between the Spanish talents and its blooming industry with the rest of the world. Lured by upbeat industry buzz from the first edition and Spain's sustained film-TV golden age, industry players and projects are almost twice as many this year to bid for a spot at the industry platform spearheaded by Madrid's prestigious ECAM film school. More from Variety 'To the North's' Mihai Mincan Talks ECAM Forum Bound Coming-of-Age Mystery 'Milk Teeth,' Sound Designed by Oscar-Winner Nicolas Becker (EXCLUSIVE) Madrid's ECAM Forum Ups International Scope With 23 Feature Projects for Second Edition Bertrand Bonello to Be Honored at Madrid's Second ECAM Forum Co-Pro Showcase (EXCLUSIVE) More than 700 accredited delegates ,compared to 400+ in 2024, are expected to fill the halls of its Matadero and Cineteca Madrid venues; 70 international guests, vs. 50 in 2024, will sample 47 films in development and post-production, as well as shorts and series in development. Among 15 programming reps from Toronto, Locarno, Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, London to Marrakech fests are first-time attendees Christian Jeune from the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlinale's Michael Stuetz. On the sales front, the dozen registered companies range from Le Pacte, Goodfellas, Co-Production Office, Film Boutique and Charades to Spain's art-film specialist Bendita Film Sales. At press time, all titles were available for pick up including the next bets by hot talents Mihai Mincan ('To the North') and Francisca Alegría ('The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future') and the anticipated debuts by Nadine Luque, Claudia Estrada Tarascó and Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe. Highlights of this year's beefed-up program of talks and industry events include a masterclass with French auteur Bertrand Bonello, a presentation of the Göteborg Film Festival's industry reference Nostradamus report by Johanna Koljonen, conversations with top Spanish writers, poets and philosophers over The State of Things and Finde, a first industry meeting on financing, investment for indie producers co-organized by Madrid Audiovisual Cluster. To consolidate ECAM's international ties, new partnerships were sealed this year with Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, which runs a week later in Cuenca, near Madrid, and with ACAU and Proimagenes Colombia, the film-TV state agencies in Uruguay and Colombia. ECAM Forum closes Friday June 13 with an awards ceremony. In this interview, ECAM Forum coordinator Alberto Valverde unpacks his 2025 program. How does it feel to stage ECAM Forum a few weeks after a stellar year for Spanish films and co-productions in Cannes? It was an exceptional year for Spanish cinema. Having two filmmakers [Oliver Laxe and Carla Simón] in main competition, a spot usually taken by Pedro Almodovar, was historical. Their respective films 'Sirât' and 'Romería' are international co-productions that illustrate the reason why we exist. Indeed last year the two producers of 'Sirât'– Andrea Queralt and Xavi Font – came to ECAM to present a new project in the middle of shooting their film in Morocco. Xavi submitted Álvaro Pulpeiro's 'Petróleo' at the Films to Come and Andrea came with Silvina Schnicer's 'La Quinta' for The Last Push. Then Elástica's María Zamora, producer of Romería, was here as well. The winning teams from Cannes are also here. In recent years we've witnessed how the Spanish audiovisual industry has morphed and internationalized, with established and new talent working at home and globally. Before launching ECAM Forum, we've been in constant dialogue with all these Spanish players and talent, precisely to connect them to the world and foster new collaborations. Last year you had an almost clean sweep with seven out of eight works in progress going on to premiere at A festivals. That was quite a coup… Yes, we are over the moon. We want to consolidate our works in progress as a relevant space to discover gems for the year ahead, and those results help a lot. It was rewarding talking to the teams behind the works in progress and knowing it was key for them to secure certain premieres and selections that literally were signed during ECAM Forum. Last year's Last Push titles included very different films, from the fragile ones like the winning documentary 'Gods of Stone' to the more solid ones like 'Los Tortuga'('The Exiles') that both ended having nice premieres [respectively in Rotterdam and Toronto] and reached world audiences, literally the number one objective of our work. Could you reiterate what made your 2024 inaugural event a blueprint for the editions to come and outline the key novelties this year? One of the best things last year was to get the feedback from international guests who were dazzled by the quality of the projects. Then on the Spanish side, professionals were equally impressed by the top names in the international delegation. This year the list of international delegates will be even stronger, for instance with the presence of Christian Jeune from Cannes and Michael Stuetz from the Berlinale. The challenge for the first five editions is perhaps to be coherent with the size of our event, the type of projects and professionals invited. We want to maintain the same high quality, attention and care that goes into the selection and overall organisation. Then obviously as this is the second year, we're expanding a bit the scope of our activities, partnerships and ambitions. The event is growing but we still want it to be sustainable for the next editions. How many delegates will attend this year from how many territories? The numbers reflect the increased interest in our event. This year we have 730 accredited professionals, versus around 400 in 2024. It's been an exponential growth from last year. Then we had about 50 international guests in 2024 and this year we're hosting 70 people. From Spain, we're inviting around the same number, about 70 key decision-makers. So we have about 140 invited guests for the meetings. Countries represented (between 18-20) span from Spain to Canada, U.S., France, Romania, Estonia and Latin America. It was perhaps unintentional – based on the projects selected – but we will have a strong European and Latin American presence this year. With a more ambitious program, what type of budget do you have and can you comment on the significance of your new institutional partnerships? I won't detail our specific budget but it hasn't changed drastically. Our main key partners are the same: ECAM Foundation Comunidad de Madrid. Then Matadero, Film Madrid, Madrid Film Office, Cineteca, the rights collection agency Dama and AC/E, the international promotional body of Spanish cinema, are other partners. We're continuing our collaboration with Filmin, Rotterdam, Series Mania and have new strategic partnerships with Conecta Fiction & Entertainment and the key audiovisual agencies ACAU in Uruguay and Proimagenes in Colombia. For the ECAM school and Foundation, facilitating those collaborations are just natural to exchange talent and create a bridge between Europe and Latin America. We hope to announce new partnerships this fall. This year you've opened your Pitch sessions to international projects. What extra challenges did you meet in your selection process? Our main goal is to promote Spanish cinema internationally and attract international talent to work with Spain. We understand that presenting a selection, and making exciting international talents coexist with promising Spanish projects is a better way to promote their films. It's great to have Spain's Maria Herrera, Alba Esquinas and Elena Molina with Maryam Tafakory [from Iran], Francisca Alegría [from Chile] or Mihai Mincan [from Romania]. Opening to international projects was a challenge as we tried to attract distinctive voices and talents but we did! We are extremely happy with the selection and could easily have picked another 15 projects that couldn't make the cut. We had to make some difficult decisions. I'd like to add that in the short section, last year we had only six national projects. This year we have 11 projects – six from our own training program and five international shorts through new partnerships with Chile Shorts, Bogo Shorts in Colombia, La Femis in France, DISFF in Greece, and FAMU in the Czech Republic. How would you define the 2025 feature length slate in terms of themes, unique auteur-viewpoint and diversity? The selection covers a rich variety of narrative and aesthetic approaches, with a presence of comedies, genre and science fiction approaches, documentaries, and classic fiction works. The projects demonstrate a passion for challenging the boundaries of genres and storytelling, a strong commitment to creative risk and authorship. We love to see a lot of first and second films with super strong visions, that are backed by producers with certain experience, both national and international. I genuinely think it's a super exciting slate with new voices to discover. It is also a more diverse selection when it comes to representation both in the narrative and creators themselves, so, yes, it's a step forward. Something quite remarkable when we look at the Films to Come, is the fact that the 15 projects came out of three different selection processes, and when we ended up with the final list, we realised all were directed by women (with one co-direction). Could you comment on your industry talks and high-brow cycle of conversations? The industry talks targeting the 700+ accredited professionals, focus on the challenges in the audiovisual industry right now, and many sessions offer practical tools and tips, about financing, co-production promotion. Our goal is to strengthen Spanish cinema and we're happy to bring top speakers from Spain and the rest of the world. We're also glad to present the Nostradamus report to our audience, straight after Cannes. The report is key to look at where we're going, how each sector in the industry is integrating the challenges, both within and outside the sector. Then the three Conversations about The State of Things [in Spanish language] is a particularly beautiful strand that we've designed over several months with my colleague Brais Romero and Luis E. Parés from Cineteca Matadero. We tried to map out important topics that touch us as individuals, not only in the industry but as a society, via inspirational talks with filmmakers, writers, poets, musicians, philosophers. It's a beautiful mix of strong voices in Spain. We look forward to hearing their take our world today, the value of creating images. Then one angle to be tackled is nostalgia and its danger. The comfort and inherent creative laziness that goes with sticking to formulas, well know concepts – be it in literature or will be interesting also to hear Bertrand Bonello who masterfully has been avoiding nostalgia, its comfort and safety in his work. Another novelty this year is the new FINDE industry meeting about Financing, Investment and Independent Filmmaking, co-organised with Madrid Audiovisual Cluster. Could you summarise what it's about? This is an extension of ECAM's educational curriculum. We wanted to offer practical tools to hone the skills of our emerging talent in financing. We see producers surrounded by great talent and yet struggling to finance their projects. So hopefully this will be an illuminating session. We've designed this initiative with French producer based in Madrid Sophie Erbs and Teresa Azcona, director of Madrid Audiovisual Cluster. We see this is a pilot year and we will evaluate afterwards the program's formula. On a personal level, how does it feel to run the hottest new Spanish co-pro market? It feels soooo good. Last year, we had a blank canvas which needed to be painted. We didn't know if it would be abstract, or not. This year, we reaped the good seeds from the first edition, and our team is stronger. The whole is even more coherent because we had more time to design our program. But our focus is still to have a great time through a very friendly, focused professional event, with a high standard of projects and guests. Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
