In Memoriam - Gene Hackman

 February 28, 2025
 
In Memoriam
 

Gene Hackman 

January 30, 1930 - February 26, 2025

 
We were told it would be a big star, and it was. When I first saw Gene Hackman, adorned in jeans, a white t-shirt, and an open button-down long-sleeve shirt, he was flanked by two equally casually-dressed adult men, one of either side. It created the dual picture of a man slightly wary of the public, but open enough to walk around campus in full view of potentially screaming invasive fans. He was in town filming Loose Cannons, a buddy picture with Dan Akroyd about a tough-as-nails police officer working with a partner with multiple personalities. It would not be one of his most successful films. As a working actor, he made a number of questionable films, but his presence elevated even the poorest of them, single-handedly elevating them from atrocious to strangely watchable. (See The Replacements for an example of this.) It’s an impressive feat that only a handful of actors can achieve.
 
Later, at a school-wide assembly, he would answer numerous questions from students on such topics as his views on acting to his role in Superman, and he regaled us with stories about his decision to become an actor and his college roommates, Robert Duvall and Dustin Hoffman. He had the room in the palm of his hand, yet his demeanor remained informal, that of a regular guy who just happened to be a member of an extraordinary profession. At the end of the period, he walked off to thunderous applause from a thoroughly star-struck audience.
 
If that had been it, it would have been understandable. It was after all his fiftieth birthday. And yet, after lunch, there he was, sitting in my acting class and offering aspiring actors tips on their monologues and two-person scenes. One of these interactions in particular has stayed with me all these years. My classmate Maggie had been working on a monologue in which a woman describes her experience at an unsuccessful job interview. The monologue is clever, and every time I’d seen it performed, it had been greeted with laughter and performed as if the speaker were doing stand-up. Mr. Hackman had a different view. After Maggie completed her performance, Mr. Hackman asked her a series of questions, the most intriguing of which was If this happened to you, would you think it was funny? Maggie had to admit she wouldn’t. Only someone without a care in the world would joke about not getting a job, and Maggie’s character was not such a character. Maggie was then asked to perform the monologue again, this time reflecting the fact that the woman’s disappointment in both her actions and their aftermath. The change was astonishing. The message was clear. Be real.
 
Herb Cain, the legendary columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, would later write that while it had been Gene Hackman’s birthday, it was really the students that had received the gift. When news of Mr. Hackman’s death broke, it was this event that I remembered first. I imagine that is true for all of us fortunate enough to be in the classroom that day. He will indeed be missed.
 
A Good Place to Start:
 
The French Connection (1971)
The Conversation (1974)
Hoosiers (1986)
Unforgiven (1992)
Crimson Tide (1994)
Get Shorty (1995)