ESPN News Services
Feb 27, 2025, 06:35 AM ET
Gene Hackman, the prolific Oscar-winning actor whose studied portraits ranged from reluctant heroes to conniving villains and included what is considered one of the greatest sports movies of all time in "Hoosiers," has died at the age of 95.
Hackman was found dead with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog when deputies performed a welfare check at their New Mexico home around 1:45 p.m. Thursday, Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Denise Avila said.
Foul play was not suspected, but authorities did not release circumstances of their deaths and said an investigation was ongoing.
Loosely based on an Indiana high school basketball team in the 1950s, the 1986 film "Hoosiers" features Hackman starring as coach Norman Dale, a man who was given a second chance at coaching after his first one ended for striking one of his players years earlier. Hackman leads the small-school Hickory Huskers on an unlikely run through the Indiana high school basketball tournament, winning the title over big-city South Bend Central on a buzzer beater by Jimmy Chitwood.
Hackman famously thought the movie would end his career, but the film instead was widely lauded. It was voted as the best sports movie of all time by The Associated Press in 2020 and is the No. 4 sports film according to the American Film Institute.
Hackman was a frequent and versatile presence on screen from the 1960s until his retirement. His dozens of films included Academy Award favorites "The French Connection" and "Unforgiven," a breakout performance in "Bonnie and Clyde," a classic bit of farce in "Young Frankenstein," a turn as the comic book villain Lex Luthor in "Superman," and the title character in Wes Anderson's 2001 "The Royal Tenenbaums."
He was a five-time Oscar nominee, and his wins for "The French Connection" and "Unforgiven" came 21 years apart. His death comes just four days before this year's Academy Awards ceremony.
Although self-effacing and unfashionable, Hackman held special status within Hollywood. He embodied the ethos of doing his job, doing it well and letting others worry about his image. Beyond the obligatory appearances at awards ceremonies, he was rarely seen on the social circuit and made no secret of his disdain for the business side of show business.
He was an early retiree -- essentially done, by choice, with movies by his mid-70s -- and a late bloomer. Hackman was 35 when cast for "Bonnie and Clyde" and past 40 when he won his first Oscar.
When not on film locations, Hackman enjoyed painting, stunt flying, stock car racing and deep sea diving. In his later years, he wrote novels and lived on his ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on a hilltop looking out on the Colorado Rockies, a view he preferred to his films that popped up on television.
"I'll watch maybe five minutes of it," he once told Time magazine, "and I'll get this icky feeling, and I turn the channel."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
