The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Dead at 95.  One of the best ever.  What's your favorite role/movie he's in?

This is an actor who is like glue for me.  I think that his best role where he's the highlight, for me, might be The French Connection.  I doubt anyone is gonna go back and watch old things, but if you do, there's a car chase in The French Connection that is so good -- it's not like it's crazy, in terms of effects. ...it's a cop in a car chasing people running from him in the L-Train.  But the action is so clear, it's visceral.  You can just tell where everyone is despite it going across half a city...really incredible.  That's not specifically on Hackman, and he plays a good guy, but with a lot of racist, bad qualities -- banger of a movie, really.

Hoosiers is a classic and he's very believable in that.  Incredible career.

The Birdcage is one of my favorite movies of all time.  He is the straight man in that movie, which goes unappreciated, but it's great.

I liked Bonnie and Clyde and Enemy of the State and Unforgiven.

And I loved Get Shorty.

The dude is all over the place, and he played Lex Luthor. 

I hear very good things about The Conversation, that I will watch fairly soon.

I'm intrigued.   Him, his wife and his dog all found dead, and in less than a day, the police have determined it to be a suicide.   No autopsy and no forensic reports.   

Something doesn't add up here.

I think what does add up is your sources. AP and NBC has no mention of suicide and police don't suspect foul play.

Then what else could it be?  No foul play, no gas leakage, nothing that would contribute to the death of two people and one animal at the same time unless there was something in the air.

The death was ruled as suspicious and there's no obvious sign of gas leak.  Also, I saw something about pills.

The Quick and the Dead, Unforgiven, Enemy of the State and The Birdcage would have to be at the top of a very very long list of great Hackman roles.

Saw somewhere today that they were partially mummified and the dog died of starvation/dehydration.  I guess they'd been there a while.

For someone who was so prolific right up until he retired, it was almost as much a surprise that he has been retired from acting for about 21 years as that he passed away in the last 24 hours.

The small role in Young Frankenstein is just so warm in this tough time, and probably my favorite. It was against his typecast, and just perfect. Yeah, you can also say his roles in Get Shorty and Superman were basically comic relief, and effectively done, but without the simple heart and joy of what Mel Brooks & Gene Wilder captured.

The final clip on the news story here about his passing was from an interview promoting the Royal Tenenbaums, which was his third-last movie... he said it's harder now to remember the lines, the dialogue. That was truly important to him as an actor... he knew he was fading, and chose to walk away and direct his efforts into another passion, writing.

Both his situation and that of Bruce Willis are sad... Gene Hackman I think retained a bit more dignity though. It was his decision, he was still in demand and effective. Bruce... that's a whole other can of worms as to why he was still acting while being so limited? Was he taken advantage of?

Crimson Tide was another good one

I enjoyed that one.   Matter of fact, if I had to name my top five, it would be Crimson Tide, Mississippi Burning, The Replacements, Enemy of the State, and Unforgiven

I'd replace The Replacements with Behind Enemy Lines and leave the rest the same in my top 5.

My first great memory is him playing Rev. Frank Scott in the Poseidon Adventure but he was a really good Lex Luther in the Christopher Reeve Superman. I also really loved Uncommon Valor where he played Colonial Jason Rhodes. He made a ton of great movies.

Rest In Peace Mr. Hackman.