Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is a retired American actor and novelist. Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde. His major subsequent films include The French Connection , in which he played Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle; The Poseidon Adventure ; The Conversation ; Superman , in which he played arch-villain Lex Luthor; Hoosiers ; Mississippi Burning ; Unforgiven ; The Firm ; Crimson Tide ; Get Shorty ; The Birdcage ;... Enemy of the State ; and The Royal Tenenbaums . Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Lyda and Eugene Ezra Hackman. He has a brother, Richard. His family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother, Beatrice. Hackman's father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local paper. Hackman's parents divorced in 1943 and his father subsequently left the family.
more