Gene Hackman, a celebrated actor whose death at 95 was announced on Thursday, stood out in Hollywood for his ability not to stand out.
Not until he was 42 did he make his star turn, winning the Oscar for best actor for playing a gruff narcotics detective in “The French Connection.” But at that point he already had more than 30 television and film credits and a reputation for charming intensity that would stay with him throughout his career.
A tall man with thinning hair and a deep voice that was befitting a former Marine, he is easily remembered for distinctive mustaches and tweed jackets. Yet he was equally convincing in roles as a paranoid communications expert, an archnemesis of a superhero, a big-hearted basketball coach, a sinister sheriff and an eccentric patriarch of a family of troubled geniuses.
And if he seemed to some to have appeared out of nowhere in the 1970s as a fully formed star, he disappeared just as abruptly, doing one final film in 2004 and then walking away without any formal declaration that he had retired. He spent his remaining years in Santa Fe, N.M., painting and sculpting and staying out of the spotlight.
He was Hollywood’s Everyman, but had a career — and a life — that few could even attempt to recreate.
Mr. Hackman made an impression on Warren Beatty in 1964 despite a small part in the film “Lilith.” Mr. Beatty subsequently brought Mr. Hackman along for “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), in which he managed to thrive in a cast that included, from left, Estelle Parsons, Mr. Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Michael J. Pollard. The performance earned Mr. Hackman an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
Mr. Hackman celebrating his first Oscar, for best actor, for “The French Connection,” which won best picture; alongside Jane Fonda, who won best actress for “Klute,” in 1972. They were flanked by Philip D’Antoni, a producer of “The French Connection,” and William Friedkin, its director, who also won an Oscar.
Mr. Hackman had a brief stint in professional auto racing in the 1980s, competing in a few events, but ultimately decided he wasn’t a fit for the sport. “I think that, to be really good, you have to be extremely selfish, which is probably true in a lot of professions, including acting,” he told The Los Angeles Times. “So I could maybe fulfill that part of it. But I think you need a tougher personality than I have. You have to be harder than I’m capable of.”
Mr. Hackman saved one of his most memorable roles for his final years of acting, bringing an irreverence to “The Royal Tenenbaums” in 2001. He stood out in an ensemble cast that included Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson and Bill Murray. Mr. Hackman’s antics with his grandsons showed a playful side that was sometimes missing from his earlier films. He also delivered showstopping lines like: “Hell of a damn grave. Wish it were mine.”
