Gene Hackman

Eugene Allen Hackman made his credited debut in Lilith in 1964 and spent the next forty years becoming the kind of actor other actors studied. He won his first Oscar playing Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection in 1971, collected nominations for Bonnie and Clyde, I Never Sang for My Father, and Mississippi Burning, then took a second statue for the villainous sheriff in Unforgiven in 1992. Between those bookends he became Lex Luthor across three Superman films, survived The Poseidon Adventure, unraveled in The Conversation, and moved through Hoosiers, Crimson Tide, Get Shorty, The Birdcage, Enemy of the State, and The Royal Tenenbaums without a single wasted gesture. He retired after Welcome to Mooseport in 2004, turned to writing novels, and never looked back. He died around February 18, 2025, having spent two decades proving he didn't need the work - the work had needed him.