Gene Hackman, the Oscar-winning Everyman actor with an edge, dies at 95

Gene Hackman, the unpretentious actor whose performances in such films as “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers,” “Unforgiven” and “The Firm” elevated character roles to leading-man levels, has died. He was 95.

Gene Hackman, the unpretentious actor whose performances in such films as “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers,” “Unforgiven” and “The Firm” elevated character roles to leading-man levels, has died. He was 95. Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their home in New Mexico along with their dog, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. Hackman’s best roles were often of conflicted authority figures or surprisingly clever white-collar villains. Many held a hint – sometimes more than a hint – of menace. He won an Oscar for his portrayal of New York cop Popeye Doyle in 1971’s “The French Connection,” a detective who gets his man but at a high cost. His surveillance expert in 1974’s “The Conversation” is single-minded to the point of obsession, losing all perspective. Even in 1986’s “Hoosiers,” in which Hackman played perhaps his most heroic role – a small-town high school basketball coach – he seems to revel in the man’s flaws. Yet he was always watchable, even magnetic. His cackle alone, which film critic David Edelstein described as “that familiar, slightly sinister ‘heh-heh-heh,’” inspired a YouTube tribute.