Legendary Actor and Marine Corps Veteran Gene Hackman Dead at 95

Gene Hackman, the beloved star of stage, movies and television who served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the turbulent years following World War II, has died at 95.

The actor and his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the afternoon of Feb. 26, 2025. Authorities were alerted by a neighbor's request for a wellness check. The cause of their death has not yet been determined.

"Foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time, however [the] exact cause of death has not been determined," the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. "This is an active and ongoing investigation."

Hackman, arguably the greatest actor of all time, appeared in some 79 films in a career that spanned more than 40 years.

Eugene Allen Hackman was born Jan. 30, 1930, in San Bernardino, California. His family moved to Danville, Illinois, to ride out the Great Depression when he was still a young child. After seeing his first movie at age 10, he knew he wanted to be an actor, but he took an unconventional career path to get his start in Hollywood and joined the Marine Corps. He was only 16 years old and had to lie about his age, which even the Department of Defense admits was a pretty common practice at the time.

After joining the Corps in 1947, he first served as a radio operator before making a move into broadcast journalism, becoming an announcer on Armed Forces Radio. But the Marines of Hackman's era weren't just reporting the news. He was sent first to Qingdao, then Shanghai in the middle of the Chinese Civil War with the mission of destroying Japanese military equipment to keep it out of the hands of the communists.

Hackman participated in Operation Beleaguer, the Marine Corps' occupation of China's Hebei and Shandong provinces that sought to repatriate displaced Korean and Japanese people after World War II. In Shandong, where he was stationed, the communists were far stronger than other areas of China and controlled most of the countryside outside of Qingdao. The operation was not without incident: Thirteen Marines were killed and 43 were wounded in ambushes and skirmishes with the Chinese communists.

The United States withdrew from China after the Nationalist government lost control of the continent and escaped to Taiwan. Hackman would spend the rest of his career in Japan and Hawaii. He was discharged from the Corps in 1951 after a motorcycle accident, briefly moved to New York City and began using his GI Bill to study journalism and television production at the University of Illinois. When that didn't work out, he moved to California and joined the Pasadena Playhouse in 1957 to pursue acting.

From there, Hackman's life became a lesson in persistence. Along with fellow Playhouse alum Dustin Hoffman, Hackman was voted "The Least Likely to Succeed." The two moved to New York, working odd jobs amid acting gigs with their pal Robert Duvall. One time, an officer Hackman knew from the Marine Corps saw him working as a doorman and called him a "sorry son of a bitch." Comments like that only steeled his resolve.

"It was more psychological warfare," Hackman told Vanity Fair in 2013. "Because I wasn't going to let those fuckers get me down. I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you're really interested in acting, there is a part of you that relishes the struggle."

Hackman got some work, starring in off-Broadway roles and television parts in the early 1960s. His first film was the Warren Beatty feature "Lillith." It would lead to his casting as Buck Barrow opposite Beatty's Clyde Barrow in 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde," with his performance earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He would get another nomination in that category for 1970's "I Never Sang for My Father," which just goes to show how much officers know.

Hackman's breakout role was that of detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in 1971's "The French Connection," for which he won the Best Actor Oscar that year. He followed that success with a string of films in the 1970s, including "The Poseidon Adventure," "The Conversation," "Scarecrow," "Young Frankenstein" and his turn as the definitive silver screen Lex Luthor in "Superman."

Over his career, he revisited the U.S. military a few times, appearing in "A Bridge Too Far," "Uncommon Valor," "Bat*21," "Crimson Tide" and "Behind Enemy Lines." His most memorable and acclaimed films in his later career include "Hoosiers," "Mississippi Burning," "Unforgiven," "Get Shorty," "The Birdcage" and "The Royal Tenenbaums." His performances garnered five Academy Award nominations and two wins, along with eight Golden Globe nominations and three wins, among others.

Hackman retired from making movies after his 2004 film "Welcome to Mooseport" in favor of writing books, citing stress-related health issues. He briefly came out of retirement to narrate two documentaries related to the Marine Corps, "The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima" in 2016 and "We, the Marines" in 2017 -- a fitting end to the long and storied career of one of the U.S. military's greatest alumni.

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