Though everything that came next may inspire some to label those critics as “Hackman haters,” there was conventional wisdom in their words. Stars are rarely born in their late 30s from such a coarse cocoon. If you were going to advise your friend Gene Hackman to continue being an actor, you would likely preach reason. You’d tell him to be happy being the surly dad, the heavy, or whatever “Police Office #3” roles he could get. Anything more than that surely seemed out of reach.
Yet, Hackman embodied a creed that working people like him have preached from their heart during the toughest times, “All I need is a chance to prove myself.”
And so he did. Granted, Hackman was fortunate to break through in an era of movies when subverting traditions was not only en vogue but in-demand. There were few other periods when the guy who looked like he was born in a barn to become your grandpa’s perfect fishing buddy could have risen to star status.
Yet, even that special time for films produced few leading men like Gene Hackman. When you think of Hackman, your mind may go to his iconic work in films like The French Connection, Hoosiers, and Unforgiven. Each of those movies (and many more) saw Hackman play the kind of gruff powerhouse that exudes gravitas. It’s those kinds of roles that sometimes define the actor and, admittedly, may have made Hackman a prolifically powerful performer in any era.
To truly appreciate what made Hackman a special and different leading man, though, you have to embrace his willingness to be vulnerable in a way that so many other leading men were not. Unlike other actors who were just itching to treat vulnerability as the wound that allowed them to unleash a cornered animal, Hackman was comfortable with letting us linger in a quiet, uncomfortable pain that didn’t need to be converted into fuel for rage. Just watch him hang around the margins in The Conversation as he slowly tries to understand the people he listens in on with such apparent detachment. He doesn’t need to be larger than life when he makes life so fascinating.
Once he established himself as one of the most “real” performers in a famously fake industry, Hackman utilized his stature in the most wonderfully wild of ways. You could certainly argue Hackman is the most underrated comedic actor ever. His role in The Birdcage saw him play the kind of uptight, conservative presence in a wacky scenario you may expect from an actor like Hackman, but that only scratches the surface of his comedic chops. He could be wacky in Young Frankenstein or sleazy and scheming in Get Shorty without compromising his raw presence. In Superman, he perfectly portrayed Lex Luthor as equally campy and maniacal in ways that will likely never be replicated.
