Gone is one of my favorite actors, Gene Hackman. Few details of how he, his wife and his dog passed. If I had to guess, carbon monoxide poisoning would be my prime suspect, as it seems they were all found together with no signs of foul play. A fitting tribute to his career is at this link. I haven't seen him act recently, and wasn't even sure he was still alive as of yesterday. I'll miss him. RIP, Gene
So many roles that he played so superbly. A misguided submarine commander, a basketball coach with skeletons in his closet... Even a well played comedic role as a conservative congressman whose daughter was marrying into a not so conservative family and so many others. Anxious to hear the circumstances. He will be missed.
That's a bummer. In addition to the films already mentioned, I liked him in French Connection and he played a pretty good Lex Luthor in the early Superman movies with Christopher Reeves
Great villain rolls in The Quick and the Dead and also, one of the greatest movies of all time, Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood.
That was Jack Nicholson. "We still have two out of three branches of the government working for us, and that ain't bad." Awesome movie, though.
I should have assumed early reports would be unreliable. The three were not found together. No matter how they died, it is a crying shame. Gene Hackman was a giant in his industry . . . an actor who strove to optimize his craft while others achieved notoriety and success on less work and more genetic advantage. Watch one or two . . .
He was definitely the antagonist in Unforgiven but wouldn't really call his role the villain. In most movies, his character would be the one you're rooting for. It's just that movie in particular was one with a non-heroic protagonist. The antagonist in a story is not necessarily a villain, evil, or immoral; sometimes they're morally or legally more in the right than the protagonist, often they're entirely neutral and have no malicious motivations, or are just doing their job, or are just an entirely innocent rival of the protagonist. It just means their goals are in opposition to the protagonist.
An often times overlooked one is Narrow Margin, which’s a remake of an old, B&W film noir. Here’s a little taste…
