Gene Hackman ✝

He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde, when he received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His major subsequent films include: I Never Sang for My Father (1970), when he received his second Best Supporting Actor nomination; The French Connection (1971) and French Connection II (1975), when he played Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle; The Poseidon Adventure (1972); The Conversation (1974); Superman: The Movie (1978), when he played arch-villain Lex Luthor; Hoosiers (1986); and Mississippi Burning (1988), when he received his second Best Actor nomination.\n', ' His film roles during the 1990s featured: Unforgiven (1992); The Firm (1993); The Quick and the Dead; Crimson Tide (1995); Get Shorty (1995); The Birdcage (1996); and Enemy of the State (1998) Later roles included: Behind Enemy Lines (2001); and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Hackman\'s final film appearance to date was the romantic comedy film Welcome to Mooseport in 2004, co-starring comedian Ray Romano.\n', ' Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Eugene Ezra Hackman and Anna Lyda Elizabeth (née Gray). He has one brother, Richard. He has Pennsylvania Dutch (German), English, and Scottish ancestry; his mother was born in Lambton, Ontario. His family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother, Beatrice. Hackman\'s father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local paper. His parents divorced in 1943 and his father subsequently left the family. Hackman decided that he wanted to become an actor when he was ten years old.\n', '