Oscar-winning actor Jean Hackman, who has messed up classics like “French Connection,” “Conversation,” and “Relentless,” has become one of Hollywood’s most respected performers, and passed away Thursday.
He was 95 years old.
He was found dead alongside his wife, Betsie Arakawa, 63, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. “We don’t think foul plays are a factor in their deaths, but the exact cause of death has not been determined at this time,” the agency told Sky News.
NBC News contacted the Sheriff’s Office and Hackman representatives for comments.
In a remarkable six decades of acting career, Hackman has established himself as one of the most distinctive and trustworthy film stars of his generation. He was part of a major unconventional group of men who helped define the “new Hollywood” films of the 1970s, but was equally well-known throughout the ’80s and ’90s.
He won his first Oscar for his portrayal of ferocious detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s “French Connection” and has the wheels for perhaps the most moving car chase in film history. He riveted audiences in Francis Ford Coppola’s paranoid thriller The Conversation, delighting younger viewers as “Superman” villain Lex Luther.
Hackman seemed attracted to a project that explored moral grey areas, but won his second Oscar for his support as the brutal sheriff Little Bill Duggett, Clint Eastwood’s revisionist western drama “Relentless.”
Overall, Hackman won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actor Guild Award and two British Academy Award for Best Film (BAFTAS). He also landed nominations for the role of Oscar in the Oscar drama “Bonnie & Clyde,” character study “I Never Sing for My Father,” and the divisive thriller “Mississippi Burning.”
Hackman was born on January 30, 1930 in San Bernardino, California. He roamed the country with his father Eugene and mother Leida, taking root in Illinois. Hackman dropped out of school at the age of 16 and played fi about his age to join the US Marines. He was trained as a radio operator and worked in China where he picked up work as a disc jockey.
He brought his talent into the radio industry and after being discharged from the military, he moved to New York City, where he studied trade at the Radio Technology School. He eventually decided to switch gears and pursue acting, registering with Pasadena Playhouse in Southern California.
Eventually, Hackman left Pasadena and returned to New York, where he made the efforts of his fellow striving for Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duval. George Morrison, a former instructor at the famous Lee Strasburg Theatre & Film Institute, took Hackman under his wings and taught him to portray from his personal experiences in acting.
Hackman began gigs in theaters and in various TV shows, including the first episode of the CBS courtroom drama The Defenders, and landed the first meat film part in the psychological drama “Lilith” in 1964 with Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg.
Beatty and Hackman have once again collaborated for Hackman’s breakout role in Bonnie & Clyde, an incredibly violent crime drama that mixes with classic outlaw archetypals with the energy of the French New Wave and the pac spirit of American counterculture. Hackman brings unexpected pity to some of Buck, the older brother of Beatty’s bank robber Clyde Barrow.
Hackman won more films in the late 1960s, including the quietly intense Olympic coach of “downhill racers.” But with “French Connections,” Hackman was hit by new heights of fame and admiration. In the role of the vulgar, prejudiced New York City drug role, Hackman delivered the masterclass with sheer live wire energy.
“The French Connection” won five Oscars, including Hackman’s Best Picture and Best Actor. The thriller drove Hackman into memorable turns with Poseidon Adventure, Shumcrow, the sequel to 1975’s French Connection, Night Maubes, Overreach of the Bridge, and the blockbuster Superman.
Harry Cole’s portrayal of obsession expert Harry Cole in “Conversation” was a highlight of his 1970s cinematography. Hackman thwarted the rage of the volcano that fueled the “French Connection” and produced an introverted character who was destroyed by paranoia and doubt. The film and Hackman’s tragic performances brilliantly captured the uncertainties of the Watergate era.
He entered one of the busiest stretches of his career in the 1980s, incorporating key roles and support parts combinations of various drama, action flicks and romances. He played magazine editor in Beatty’s epic “Reds,” a small town basketball coach in “Hoosiers,” and the secretary of defense in Neurish’s political thriller “No Way Out.”
Hackman concluded his busy run with the 1980s “Mississippi Burning.” The FBI agent is based on real-life investigator John Proctor, who was considering the mystical disappointment of three civil rights volunteers in fictional Mississippi County. Hackman was praised for his performance, but the film appeared in whitewashed history and was heavily criticized for alienating black characters.
Released in 1992, “Unforgiven” brought Hackman some of the best notifications of his career. The film won four Oscars, including Hackman’s Best Picture Award and Best Supporting Actor, and six years later the film won a spot on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 American films ever made.
In the 1990s, Hackman continued to work with stable clips, frequently performing Grizzled Foil on younger stars, including Tom Cruise in “Company,” Denzel Washington in “Crimson Tide,” Robin Williams in “Bird Cage,” and Will Smith in “The Enemy.”
Hackman loved himself to a new generation of film fans as the deeply flawed but charming family patriarch in Wes Anderson’s 2001 ensemble film Royal Tenenbaum, where he loved himself to a new generation of film fans, showing off the more mischievous side of his comedy shop and his public persona.
Three years later, Hackman left Hollywood and made his final film appearance in the largely forgotten Ray Romano vehicle “Welcome to Mooseport.” In a rare 2004 interview, Hackman told the late Larry King that there were no film projects in the pipeline, predicting that his screen acting day would be behind him.
However, he remained creative even in his retirement, writing four historical novels: Wake of the Perdido Star, Noming of Justice, Escape from Andersonville: A Civil War Novel, Recovery at Morning Peak: A Novel of the American West, and the 2013 police thriller, Chase.
After spending her last year in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Hackman was survived by three children (Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie) from marriage to Faymalta.
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