Gene Hackman, 94, is living somewhere in New Mexico. He’s lost a dramatic amount of weight, for all the right reasons, and looks damn-near unrecognizable.
The New York Post snapped up some very rare pictures of the actor. getting gas and coffee in Santa Fe. However, they went on to criticize him for wearing the same clothes as when when they last spotted him four weeks ago. Give me a break.
Fans on Twitter, aka X, were outraged. Hackman’s name was, and is still, trending on the platform. One user, hilariously, pointed out that maybe Hackman discovered a way to wash clothes and use them again. Funny.
For years I had held out a tiny glimmer of hope that Hackman would return as an actor, but that hope started dwindling in the late aughts as I realized he was really done for good.
It’s been forever since we last saw the legendary actor on the big screen. Hackman unofficially retired from acting after 2004’s “Welcome to Mooseport” (don’t make fun of that). He’s been missed ever since. I say, leave the man alone.
In 2021, Hackman had given his first interview in over a decade to, ironically, the New York Post, this in relation to the 50th anniversary of “The French Connection.” His retirement wasn’t mentioned, but the best tidbit I got out of the interview was how Hackman hasn’t seen the 1972 classic since “the first screening in a dark, tiny viewing room in a post-production company’s facility 50 years ago.”
The essential roles in Hackman’s vast and impressive filmography are “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The French Connection,” “The Conversation,” “Night Moves,” “Superman II,” “Hoosiers,” “Mississippi Burning,” “Unforgiven,” “Get Shorty,” and “The Royal Tenebaums.” He’s one of the giants of the acting craft. Long live, Gene Hackman!