Gene Hackman

(30 January 1930 to 17? February 2025)

He was Mr. Reliable, and never selector’s choice as a leading man, but after several obscure but worthy performances, he gained stardom in The French Connection as an obsessed, driven narcotics cop. In later decades, he usually slipped into supporting roles, with the odd standout star role, such as in Mississippi Burning and Narrow Margin.

The circumstances of his demise currently a mystery, we instead will nominate his best amongst his almost 80 films:

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

The Gypsy Moths (1969)

I Never Sang for My Father (1970)

The French Connection (1971)

Scarecrow (1973)

The Conversation (1974)

Night Moves (1975)

Hoosiers (1986)

No Way Out (1987)

Bat*21 (1988)

Another Woman (1988)

Mississippi Burning (1988)

Narrow Margin (1990)

Unforgiven (1992)

Crimson Tide (1995)

Get Shorty (1995)

The Birdcage (1996)

Many of his films were ho-hum, by the numbers, but he rarely failed to enhance and enliven them. We weren’t, for example, enchanted by The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), but Hackman’s performance is a masterpiece.