Between his big-screen acting debut in Robert Rossen’s vastly underrated “Lilith” and his swan song “Welcome to Mooseport,” Gene Hackman had a reputation for being a prolific and, at times, nowhere-near-choosy-enough actor given his considerable talents. But when you look over that 40-year career, you don’t see an egregious number of turkeys. The Dan Aykroyd buddy-cop comedy “Loose Cannons” or his third go-round as Lex Luthor in “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” are probably the twin nadirs of his career, but mostly Hackman had a propensity to make many mediocre movies watchable. He was the reason you’d find yourself halfway through Nicholas Meyer’s ho-hum spy thriller “Company Business” without any real complaints. Could it be better? Absolutely. But it had Hackman.
The movies — great, average, or garbage — haven’t had Hackman since 2004, which never ceases to stink. Now 94, there’s a good chance he would have retired in the 2020s if not before, but his former New York City roommates Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall are still plugging away. As long as he’s here, those of us who grew up knowing that every year or so there’d be at least one good Hackman flick hitting theaters can’t shake the hope that he’ll quietly step out of retirement for one blessed curtain call.
While you can never say never, the more you examine the reasons for Hackman’s exit, the more resolute you can be in the knowledge that his acting days are over — unless you can talk your way into his Key West estate. Let’s take a look back at his extraordinary career, and why he chose to call it a day when he did.