A steady force
In praise of the great Gene Hackman Appreciation: A chameleonic everyman with charisma. 28 Feb 2025 - The Washington Post BY TY BURR Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr’s Watch List at tyburrswatchlist.com. Most people have a favorite Gene Hackman performance. I have two. The actor, a chameleonic everyman with a movie star’s charisma, was found dead Wednesday with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog in their New Mexico home. (An investigation into their deaths is ongoing.) Hackman was 95 and had stopped acting after playing a fictional former president in the 2004 satirical political film “Welcome to Mooseport.” He had a long and well-deserved retirement, and by all accounts a happy one. He also had the love and admiration of audiences who felt that one of their own had somehow clambered up there on the screen, with a face like a beer mug and an unassuming sense of his own Hackman, in a famous robbery scene, leap over a bank counter while very much l...