I first remember him from his performance as Lex Luthor in the Superman films of the late 70s. Comic nerd that I was, I first objected to the idea of a Luthor with hair. But he won me over quite quickly ("Miss Teschmacherrrrr!") and then I began to see other things, like Popeye Doyle in The French Connection and Col. Jason Rhodes in Uncommon Valor and Coach Norman Dale in Hoosiers and Special Agent Rupert Anderson in Mississippi Burning. Even bit parts like Pete Van Wherry in Reds and lesser parts like Defense Secretary David Brice in No Way Out. Not all of those were great movies, but Hackman's part of all of them was almost always top tier and that's not even getting into more of the acknowledged bouts of excellence, like "Little Bill" Daggett in Unforgiven and Royal Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums. It's about as rich a career as it's possible to have in modern cinema and he was almost always one of the names that you would perk your ears up at when you heard that he was doing another project. He's been absent (retired) for much of the past two decades but his legacy will last a long time. But, oddly, the one role that stuck with me and which I still kind of enjoy more than any other is the one for which he was uncredited:
I've watched that scene I don't know how many dozens of times (I'm a lifelong Mel Brooks fan) and I still convulse with laughter every time I see it. There's no debate that Peter Boyle does his share of heavy lifting here, but it's the subtlety that Hackman brings where, as with almost all his characters, he totally sells the perspective of whomever he's inhabiting while still riding the wave of the absurdity of it all, that does it for me. Acting was fun for him and you could see him having fun in almost every role that he took. It strikes me as a life that was well-lived and is, thus, a parting that was well made.
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