As both a leading man and supporting character actor, very few Hollywood performers had more talent than Gene Hackman. The two-time Oscar winner was easily one of the most diverse and believable actors to ever grace the big screen, which made his retirement in 2003 all the more upsetting. Simply put, the world of cinema is far-worse off without the presence of Hackman.
After spending five years honing his craft on various television series, Hackman hit the big time following his breakout role as Buck Barrow in the violently trailblazing Bonnie and Clyde. Over the following four decades, Hackman amassed exactly 100 acting credits. Below are Hackman's 10 Best Movie Roles!
10 Lex Luthor - Superman (1978)
As the bald-headed baddie in the original Superman film, Hackman played the larger-than-life Lex Luthor opposite Christopher Reeve in the title role. As a result, Hackman earned a BAFTA nomination for his performance!
Plot-wise, the film charts Jor-El's (Marlon Brando) decision to send his orphaned son, Kal-El (Reeve), to Earth from his home planet of Krypton. As the nerdy Clark Kent reports for a newspaper by day, he fights Lex Luthor as Superman by night. Hackman plays a villain with a ferocious fervor like few of his contemporaries could even dream of.
9 Harry Zimm - Get Shorty (1995)
In one of the most hilarious performances of his eclectic career, Hackman steals the show from some serious heavyweight performers in the stylish mob-comedy Get Shorty.
The story revolves around Chili Palmer (John Travolta), a New York wiseguy working as a lone-shark in Miami. With designs on cracking the film business, Chili approaches washed-up producer Harry Zimm (Hackman) to invest in an original screenplay. Harry gets in way over his head, injuring himself and the cause at every turn, as he poses as a grizzled gangster. Hackman's hysterical!
8 Norman Dale - Hoosiers (1986)
Hackman arguably delivers the most emotionally-fraught performance of his career as Coach Norman Dale in the heartwarming tear-jerker, Hoosiers.
In the hugely inspiring basketball film, Hackman plays a disgraced coach who earns a shot at redemption when he molds his young basketball squad into national championship contenders. With the help of town drunk, Shooter (Dennis Hopper, who scored an Oscar nod), Coach Dale atones for past sins by teaching kids how to compete at the highest level.
7 Gene Garrison - I Never Sang For My Father (1970)
Hackman earned the second Academy Award nomination of his career for his brilliant work in the little-known coming-of-age tale, I Never Sang For My Father. See this movie if you haven't already!
The complex character study examines the psychological hold a domineering father has over his individualistic son. Hack plays Gene Harrison, a young man who wants to flee his home, head west to California, and marry his girlfriend. However, Gene can't quite move away from his father Tom's (Melvyn Douglas) towering shadow.
6 Buck Barrow - Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
Hackman's career launched into a stratosphere of superstardom following his role as Buck Barrow in the seminal criminal road-movie, Bonnie and Clyde. As such, Hackman earned his very first Oscar nomination!
When dissatisfied waitress Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meets and instantly falls for hardened bank robber Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty), the two set off on a hyper-violent crime spree across the country. While the film Oscars for Best Cinematography and Supporting Actress (Estelle Parsons), the film is most notable for its pioneering graphic depiction of on-screen violence.
5 Rupert Anderson - Mississippi Burning (1988)
The sign of a truly great actor comes when he/she plays a villainous character so loathsome that the audience hates their guts with a visceral passion. Exhibit A: Hackman's revolting turn as racist F.B.I. agent Rupert Anderson in Mississippi Burning!
Directed by Alan Parker, the film is set in the deep south during the turbulent Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. When a few black activists go missing, two feds are hired to investigate their disappearance. Anderson is a detestable racist with zero sympathies for the plight of disenfranchised black citizens. Hackman landed Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal.
4 Harry Caul - The Conversation (1974)
Released the same year as The Godfather Part II, The Conversation remains one of Francis Ford Coppola's most personal and underrated movies. Chief among the reasons why is Hackman's thoroughly immersive turn as paranoid surveillance expert Harry Caul!
The thrice-Oscar-nominated film centers on Caul, who is drawn into a web of intrigue upon recording what he thinks is a murder committed by his neighbors. The character is so strong that Hackman essentially reprised Caul as Brill in Tony Scott's Enemy of the State in 1998.
3 Royal Tenenbaum - The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)
In one of his funniest and most touching turns, Hackman won his third Golden Globe for playing the petty and peculiar patriarch in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. Two years and three movies later, Hackman hung up his acting spurs!
Anderson's third feature focuses on the brilliant but underachieving family of eccentrics who come together upon learning their father is gravely ill. Only Royal isn't ill at all but rather broke and in need of a place to stay. As he cons his family in order to get closer to them, his plan backfires and opens old scars.
2 Little Bill Daggett - Unforgiven (1992)
Hackman won his second Oscar 21 years after his first. The major difference in Unforgiven is that Hackman played a frightening villain en route to scoring a Best Supporting Actor award.
Clint Eastwood's near-perfect western tracks grizzled old gun-slinger William Munny's (Eastwood) reluctant final mission. With the help of his old pal Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman), Munny sets out to help avenge a harem of prostitutes victimized by slaughter. Hackman plays corrupt town Sheriff Bill Daggett, who adheres to his own brand of crooked justice.
1 Jimmy Popeye Doyle - The French Connection (1971)
Hackman won his first Academy Award for his Best Leading performance in The French Connection, in which he played iconic undercover narcotics officer Jimmy Popeye Doyle!
Five Oscars in total the film won, including honors for Best Picture and Best Director for William Friedkin. The film not only features the most epic car chase in the history of cinema but it also rewrote the rules of gritty, authentic, on-location NYC crime pictures. Hackman reprised his role of Popeye four years later in The French Connection II.
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