Gene Hackman in 1996.Photo:Ron Davis/Getty
Ron Davis/Getty
Gene Hackmanis being remembered for his legendary career in the wake ofhis deathat the age of 95.
Hackman is known for his iconic roles that earned him five Oscar nominations and two wins. But in 1999, he got candid about the one regret he had with his decade-spanning career.
Sylvia Gassel (left) and Gene Hackman in the stage production “The Basement”.Friedman-Abeles/NYPL
Friedman-Abeles/NYPL
“I’d have to be comfortable,” Hackman said of a potential return. “I’ve lived a soft life too long to camp out.”
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From left: Gene Hackman, Glenn Close and Richard Dreyfuss in the Broadway play ‘Death and the Maiden.'.Matha Swope/NYPL
Matha Swope/NYPL
When the film star accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement award at theGolden Globesin 2003, he shared, “I never wanted to be anything but an actor.”
Throughout his impressive career, Hackman said he was always striving to improve his craft. During an interview promoting his 1986 hit filmHoosiers, Hackman said he believed his job only got “harder.”
“I think it does because you start to realize — at least I have — I started realizing that I have this kind of responsibility about being good,”he explained at the time. “This is self-imposed, but I have the need to excel and a kind of compulsion about it, almost, that I wanted it to be good. I want it to be the best I can make it.”
As for what it takes to be a “good” actor, Hackman said it’s all about confidence.
“You have to have some sense of ego about yourself to be in this business,” he continued. “I have a degree of confidence about myself as an actor. That doesn’t mean that I think I’m king of the hill, or anything else, but I think you have to have that. That sense that when you walk on stage and you take stage — and I mean that in film also — that there’s a sense of command about what you do. Not that you want to push out other actors but you want that to be right.”
Gene Hackman in the 1986 film ‘Hoosiers.'.Orion/Kobal/Shutterstock
Orion/Kobal/Shutterstock
Though Hackman spent his final decades out of the spotlight, he did give a rare interview in 2011 toGQsaying he wanted to be remembered “as a decent actor.”
“As someone who tried to portray what was given to them in an honest fashion,” he added. “I don’t know, beyond that. I don’t think about that often, to be honest.”
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, Hackman and his wifeBetsy Arakawawere found dead in their Santa Fe, N.M. home alongside their dog, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed to theSanta Fe New Mexicanearly on Thursday, Feb. 27.
The county sheriff’s public information officer, Denise Womack-Avila, said in a statement to NBC News that there is “an active and ongoing investigation” into the couple’s deaths.
Womack-Avila added that “foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time, however, the exact cause of death has not been determined.”
PEOPLE has reached out to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office for comment and updates on the investigation.
source: people.com
