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Gene Hackman, star of The Conversation, Superman: The Movie, and The Royal Tenenbaums, dies aged 95

The actor and his wife were found dead in their home in New Mexico Wednesday

Gene Hackman, the Academy Award-winning actor who appeared in everything from The French Connection, The Conversation, Enemy of the State and Unforgiven to The Birdcage, Superman, and The Royal Tenenbaums, has been found dead in his home in New Mexico, accompanied by his wife. He was 95 years old.

Both were discovered along with their dog by authorities Wednesday afternoon; reports state that Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa were discovered in separate rooms, accompanied by one dead dog and two living ones, with no sign of trauma to either body. Foul play was not suspected in the deaths, and an autopsy is expected to reveal more about cause of death.

Eugene Allen Hackman was born January 30, 1930; by his mid-twenties, he was pursuing acting in California alongside Dustin Hoffman — amusingly, the two were voted “least likely to succeed” by peers, according to Hackman’s interviews in later life — before the two moved to New York City in an attempt to break into the business. It paid off; before too long, he was appearing in off-Broadway plays and television shows in small roles, building a reputation that led him to movies and, eventually, stardom.

It was in the 1970s that Hackman fully broke through; he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor award for 1970’s I Never Sang for My Father (his second; he’d also been nominated for Bonnie and Clyde, three years earlier); he’d win the Best Actor award a year later for The French Connection, launching a run of starring roles that would define his career: Prince Cut, Scarecrow, and The Conversation would be released over the next handful of years, in addition to projects like The Poseidon Adventure, Cisco Pike, and 1978’s Superman: The Movie, in which he recreated Lex Luthor in fine fashion as a prima donna evil genius as obsessed with his own reputation as destroying the Man of Steel, a rare (and appreciated!) comedic role.

Although Hackman’s output started to slow in the 1980s and ‘90s, his work remained top-notch, with movies such as Mississippi Burning, Postcards From The Edge, The Firm, The Quick and the Dead, and The Birdcage; in the early 2000s, he slowed down even more before retiring in 2004, with his last great movie being 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums, in which he played the irrepressible patriarch, Royal. His retirement at age 74 was health-related, he revealed in an interview years later.

Hackman’s career was a model for an actor who kept being driven by his curiosity and a desire to keep pushing himself. He was the same in his personal life, pursuing unexpected alternate careers on the side — he was both a race car driver in the 1970s and an architect in the 1990s, somewhat surreally — and remaining curious and active all the way until his death. No wonder he’s been named as an inspiration by so many fellow actors and filmmakers.

Hackman is survived by three children.

Graeme McMillan

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

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