Gene Hackman is one of those western stars who had a masterful performance defining role in a film, not necessarily western. Kurt Russell had Herb Brooks in Miracle on Ice. Kevin Costner’s Lieutenant John Dunbar in Dances with Wolves. For Gene Hackman it was Norman Dale in Hoosiers. That said Gene Hackman had a distinguished western filmography, starting with Bite the Bullet in 1975.

Hackman’s career plan included avoiding violent roles. In 1992, Clint Eastwood talked him over that line to play the vicious sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in Unforgiven. Good he did. Unforgiven won the Oscar for Best Picture, netting Hackman the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Whatever Eastwood said to get him over his violence aversion must have stuck. In 1998 he played outlaw baron and gunslinger John Herod opposite Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. That one stacked up bodies like cord wood. So much for non-violent content.

In addition to his acting career Hackman became a novelist. Hackman’s writing credits include Payback at Morning Peak and Escape from Andersonville along with a couple of thriller titles. I guess if you are a successful actor you can afford to be a writer. I digress.

Hackman’s early career has an interesting facet. After an unsuccessful attempt to break into Hollywood he went to New York for a time. There he encountered two other struggling west coast actors. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duval became lifelong friends. The trio lived as roommates during their New York years at various times and combinations.

Next Week: Suffering pandemic hangover? Let’s have some fun with a Patent Medicine reprise.
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Ride easy,
Paul