Gene Hackman
American, Actor
Add new record
- It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on screen. I think of myself, and feel like I'm quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.
- I do not like assassins, or men of low character.
- I suppose I wanted to be an actor from the time I was about 10, maybe even younger than that. Recollections of early movies that I had seen and actors that I admired like James Cagney, Errol Flynn, those kind of romantic action guys. When I saw those actors, I felt I could do that. But I was in New York for about eight years before I had a job. I sold ladies shoes, polished leather furniture, drove a truck. I think that if you have it in you and you want it bad enough, you can do it.
- I came to New York when I was 25, and I worked at Howard Johnson's in Times Square, where I did the door in this completely silly uniform. Before that, I had been a student at the Pasadena Playhouse, where I had been awarded the least-likely-to-succeed prize, along with my pal Dustin Hoffman, which was a big reason we set off for New York together. Out of nowhere, this teacher I totally despised at the Pasadena Playhouse suddenly walked by HoJo's and came right up into my face and shouted, "See, Hackman, I told you that you would never amount to anything!" I felt one inch tall.
- (on aging) It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on-screen. I think of myself, and feel like I'm quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.
- When you're on top, you get a sense of immortality. You feel you can do no wrong, that it will always be good no matter what the role. Well, in truth, that feeling is death. You must be honest with yourself.
- I wanted to act, but I'd always been convinced that actors had to be handsome. That came from the days when Errol Flynn was my idol. I'd come out of a theater and be startled when I looked in a mirror because I didn't look like Flynn. I felt like him.
- If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being.
- (on accepting his Best Actor Oscar) I wish all five of us could be up here, I really do.
- (on seeing Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and becoming determined to be an actor) He made it seem something natural.
- (Dustin Hoffman on he and Hackman as young stage actors and roommates in New York) Psychologically, Gene/myself, we did not think about making it in the terms that people think about. We fully expected to be failures for our entire life. Meaning that we would always be scrambling to get a part. We were actors. We had no pretensions. There was more dignity in being unsuccessful.
- Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.
- If I start to become a "star", I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play best.
- People in the street still call me Popeye, and The French Connection (1971) was 15 years ago. I wish I could have a new hit and another nickname.
- The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways.
- I was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press.
- As roommates, Dustin Hoffman and Hackman would often go to the apartment rooftop and play the drums. Hoffman played the bongo drums while Hackman played the conga drums. They did it out of their love for Marlon Brando, who they had heard played music in clubs. They wanted to be like Brando and were big fans of his.
- Dustin Hoffman came to New York after finishing his training at the Pasadena Playhouse. The two of them roomed together in New York at Hackman's one-bedroom apartment on 2nd Ave. & 26th St. Hoffman slept on the kitchen floor. Originally, Hackman had offered to let him stay a few nights, but Hoffman would not leave. Hackman had to take him out to look for his own apartment.
- Was in the Marine Corps. Toured in China. Based his role in The Conversation (1974) on one of his uncles and a fellow Marine he had known well. He characterized the Marine as someone "who probably became a serial killer.".
- Has appeared in three films adapted from novels by John Grisham: The Firm (1993), The Chamber (1996) and Runaway Jury (2003).
- Brother of Richard Hackman.
- Father of Christopher Hackman. He also has 2 daughters named Leslie Hackman and Elizabeth Hackman.
- 2001: Was involved in a road-rage incident when two young men attacked him for hitting their car in Hollywood.
- Revealed on "Inside the Actors Studio" (1994) that two of the most important factors in deciding on which films he will work on are the script and the money.