Equally at home in dramatic and comedic roles, Gene Hackman has been a star for three decades and at 72, shows no signs of slowing down.
In the last year alone he's been an ageing con-man in "Heist", a tough-talking admiral in "Behind Enemy Lines" and a chain-smoking tycoon in "Heartbreakers". He recently landed a Golden Globe for "The Royal Tenenbaums" and even had time for a cameo in "The Mexican".
For a man with over 80 credits to his name, the acting bug hit Hackman relatively late in life; he'd already been a marine and a journalist before enrolling at the age of 30 in an acting class. (Legend has it he and his classmate Dustin Hoffman were considered "least likely to succeed".) Appearing with Warren Beatty in "Lilith" paved the way for his Oscar-nominated turn in "Bonnie & Clyde", though it was his Oscar-winning portrayal as Popeye Doyle in "The French Connection" that sealed the deal.
From then on he never looked back, churning out three pictures a year and becoming one of Hollywood's most bankable leading men. Though no stranger to larger-than-life villainy (as Lex Luthor in the "Superman" movies) or two-dimensional heroism ("The Poseidon Adventure"), he's a far more subtle actor than he's given credit for. Witness his conflicted surveillance expert in "The Conversation", his genial sadist in "Unforgiven" and his old-school G-Man in "Mississippi Burning".
Hackman is also a man you shouldn't mess with. In October 2001 he was seen fighting a man half his age in a road rage incident on Sunset Boulevard. Looks like there's lots more life in him yet.
