Gene Hackman starred in multiple classic films – but there was one the actor refused to watch back.
On Thursday (27 February), the Hollywood star was found dead, aged 95, in his Santa Fe home alongside his wife, classical musician Betsy Akaway, 64, and their pet dog.
Tributes are pouring in for the two-time Oscar winner, whose credits included, among many others, The Conversation, Unforgiven and The Royal Tenenbaums.
Perhaps most memorable, though, was Hackman’s performance as grizzled detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s 1971 crime drama The French Connection – and despite it being one of his most famous roles, it was one the actor never cared to revisit.
The actor watched the film just once, shortly after it was completed – but that was enough for Hackman, who won an Oscar for the role.
He told New York Post via email in 2021: “I haven’t seen the film since the first screening in a dark, tiny viewing room in a post-production company’s facility 50 years ago.”
Hackman added: “If the film has a legacy, I am not sure what that would be. At the time, it seemed to me to be a reverent story of a cop who was simply able to solve and put a stop to a major crime family’s attempt to infiltrate the New York drug scene.”
He did acknowledge that the film was “a moment” in what he admitted was “a checkered career of hits and misses”, stating: “The film certainly helped me in my career, and I am grateful for that.”
However, while the film’s car chase is celebrated by film aficionados, Hackman said “there was a better one filmed a few years earlier with Steve McQueen”, referencing the 1968 film Bullitt.
He reprised the role of Doyle in John Frankenheimer’s underrated 1975 sequel French Connection II.
Writing about Hackman’s performance as Doyle for The Independent, Geoffrey Macnab said: “The cop behaves atrociously throughout the film, beating up suspects, arguing with superiors, getting drunk, lusting over female cyclists, stealing cars and putting his colleagues’ lives at risk. Nonetheless, Hackman gives him a soulful quality and just a hint of vulnerability.
“It’s a warts and all performance that seems infinitely richer than those of sleeker, more conventional leading men. For Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle, being a New York detective isn’t just a job but a sacred cause.
“More than 50 years on, you can’t help but admire the manic seriousness and passion with which he goes out on the beat.”
