Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman, unquestionably one of the finest actors of his generation, has died. So has his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, and one of their dogs. My first thought, and apparently it was also the fire department's, was that the cause was some accidental gas inhalation but that's been ruled out. Hackman was found in a mudroom (for mud baths) and Arakawa was found in the bathroom where there were pills scattered about. Death seems to have occurred a day previous to discovery. Maybe Hackman, who was 95, died of natural causes and Arakawa retreated to the bathroom with a nervous breakdown and accidentally overdosed in a self-medicating effort. But, then, how to explain the dog?

Anyway, Hackman's performances were invariably captivating. Flawlessly natural yet invariably communicative. What a long career, too. From the stoic surveillance agent in Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation to the gasbag patriarch of Wes Anderson's Royal Tenenbaums. He was the best actor to play Lex Luther by a long shot (well, Kevin Spacey was pretty good).

I most recently watched him in The French Connection in which that film's terrific action sequences were made so in part due to the impression of ferocious tenacity Hackman conveyed.

He left us an amazing filmmography, that's for sure.