It has been a tragic day for Hollywood as legendary actor Gene Hackman was reportedly found dead along with his wife and dog. The Superman star was reportedly 95 and while no foul play was suspected, the police mentioned that the investigation was ongoing. Hackman had stepped away from acting back in 2004.
Hackman was an iconic actor who starred in films such as Superman, The French Connection, The Royal Tenenbaums, and more. He won two Oscars in his career: Best Actor for The French Connection, and Best Supporting Actor for Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. The actor would have missed out on the latter had he kept his promise to his family.
Gene Hackman almost skipped Unforgiven as he had made a promise to his family
The tragic death of Gene Hackman has brought his career back into focus again. For almost fifty years, the actor starred in legendary films and delivered incredible performances. He has worked with the most celebrated auteurs such as William Friedkin, Arthur Penn, Francis Ford Coppola, and even Wes Anderson.
Hackman won two Oscars in his career. He first won the Academy Award for Best Actor in the action film The French Connection. He won his second twenty years later in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. Hackman played the Sheriff, Little Bill Daggett in the Western, which also won Best Picture and Best Director.
While Hackman received immense appreciation and awards for the role, he was reportedly ready to reject it as he was not keen on doing another violent film. He had reportedly promised his daughters that he would not be in that zone anymore. Screenwriter David Webb Peoples mentioned in an interview with Daily News (via Slash Film),
Things could have been different. Gene’s daughters didn’t like all the violent movies he was doing … He was at a stage in his career where his family was more important than his work … And God bless Gene; he listened to Clint and together they produced something awesome.
However, it was reportedly Clint Eastwood who convinced the actor to break his promise to his family and come and do one more role adding another feather to his hat.
Clint Eastwood’s treatment of violence in Unforgiven convinced Gene Hackman
While Gene Hackman has done versatile roles, some of his most celebrated parts have been leaning towards the more antagonistic side. Be it his role as Detective Popeye Doyle in The French Connection, the gangster Buck in Bonnie and Clyde, or the greatest criminal mind Lex Luthor in Superman, Hackman played evil like no one else.
However, the glamorization of these characters reportedly troubled the actor as his family was not very happy with his heel turn all the time. So, when Clint Eastwood approached him with Little Bill, his first answer was a big no. However, the Gran Torino star reportedly told him that the violence in the film, especially by Bill, would not be romanticized.
This reportedly convinced the actor to take the role. In a DVD interview for the film, Hackman reportedly appreciated Eastwood’s treatment and said (via Flickering Myth),
I swore I would never be involved in a picture with this much violence in it. But the more I read it, the more I came to understand the purpose of the film, the more fascinated I became.
The violence in Unforgiven represented the worst of humanity and there was a clear moral line in what Little Bill’s brand of justice was portrayed to be.
Unforgiven is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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