Born Eugene Hackman in San Bernardino, California, he endured a nomadic childhood before finally settling in Illinois where he was raised by his maternal grandmother. Unchallenged by school, he dropped out at age 16, lied about his age and enlisted in the US Marines. Trained as a radio operator, he served in China where his radio background help land him work as a disc jockey. While recuperating from a 1950 motorcycle accident, Hackman decided to pursue a career as a radio announcer, moving to NYC after his discharge to study at the School of Radio Technique. For much of the early part of the decade, he worked his way across America's heartland, developing his resonant vocal abilities (which later served him in good stead as a voice-over performer in commercials). By the time he was approaching 30, Hackman decided to translate his radio experience into a career in acting. Enrolling at the famed Pasadena Playhouse, he was several years older than the average student, a misfit like classmate Dustin Hoffman. (The pair received the honor of being dubbed "the least likely to succeed.") Despite landing a supporting role in a play starring ZaSu Pitts, Hackman was not asked to return to continue his studies.

Undaunted, he returned to NYC where he blossomed under the tutelage of George Morrison, a former instructor at the Lee Strasberg Institute who trained the actor in the famed 'Method' approach. Hackman made his stage debut in "Chaparral" and began finding employment in various small screen productions like the "U.S. Steel Hour" and the premiere episode of the CBS series "The Defenders". Both student and teacher cite 1961 as the real breakthrough for the actor, when he joined The Premise, an improvisational troupe directed by Morrison. ("He learned how to make people laugh, got the kind of technical skills that you have to get in front of an audience--timing, delivery, voice," Morrison told The New York Times Magazine, March 19, 1989). Within a few years, Hackman had truly arrived as a stage actor, earning plaudits for his supporting performance in "Any Wednesday". That same year saw him land his first stand-out screen role, a brief but indelible turn as a romantic rival to Warren Beatty in "Lilith" (1964).

When it came time to cast the role of Buck, the older brother of outlaw Clyde Barrow, in 1967's seminal "Bonnie and Clyde", Beatty remembered Hackman and offered him the role. Bringing a Brandoesque spin to the role, Hackman turned what could have been just a murderous rube into a character infused with a righteous innocence, earning his first Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. He was excellent as the driven Olympic coach in the documentary-like "Downhill Racer" (1969) and picked up a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod as he mined the autobiographical parallels of a son who cannot communicate with his dad in "I Never Sang for My Father" (1970). The following year brought the once-in-a-lifetime role, that of the uncompromising NYC narcotics cop Popeye Doyle in "The French Connection" (1971). While the film is perhaps best remembered for a brilliantly staged car chase, Hackman managed not to be overshadowed, skillfully crafting a warts-and-all portrait of a vulgar sadist. Accolades rained on Hackman and his performance and his banner year was capped by his taking home the Best Actor Academy Award.

Now established as a leading man, Hackman began to undertake a series of roles that further demonstrated his range and versatility. He proved effective as the de facto leader of a group of survivors of a sea disaster in the enjoyably cheesy "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) and partnered with Al Pacino in the buddy road movie "Scarecrow" (1973). Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" (1974) offered one of his richest characterizations as a surveillance expert who takes one case a bit too personally. Mel Brooks finally tapped into the actor's comedic abilities casting him as the blind hermit in the horror spoof "Young Frankenstein" (also 1974). By the time he was showcasing his high camp villain Lex Luthor in "Superman" (1978), Hackman had announced his "retirement". After nearly non-stop work for close to seven years, he was physically drained and the toll was taken on his personal life.

After a couple of years, Hackman was seduced back by Warren Beatty who tapped the actor to play magazine editor Peter Van Wherry in the epic "Reds" (1981). While he was miscast opposite Barbra Streisand in the triangular romantic comedy "All Night Long" (also 1981), the actor brought depth and conviction to his performance as a straying husband undergoing a mid-life crisis in "Twice in a Lifetime" (1985, perhaps drawing on his own 1982 separation from his first wife). Re-energized, the actor went on to etch several memorable characterizations in the 80s, including a small-town high school basketball coach in "Hoosiers" (1986), a cold-hearted Secretary of Defense in the thriller "No Way Out" (1987) and a good ol' boy FBI agent investigating the murders of civil rights workers in the 60s-era drama "Mississippi Burning" (1988), for which he picked up yet another Best Actor Oscar nomination.

At the dawn of the 90s, Hackman alternated between leads (the lawyer up against his own daughter in "Class Action" 1991) and finely carved cameo appearances (the film director in "Postcards From the Edge" 1990). Surgery in 1990 for heart problems provoked another hiatus but the actor roared back with yet another fascinating role, the sadistic, smiling sheriff Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's revisionist Western "Unforgiven" (1992). Infusing this effective lawman with a streak of decency, the actor sketched a character that was profoundly ambiguous, one that could be either heroic or villainous. Critics and audiences embraced the film and Hackman's character and he earned not only stellar reviews but numerous prizes capped by a second Oscar, this time as the year's Best Supporting Actor.

Healthy and in-demand, the prolific character player embarked on another round of seemingly non-stop roles. While Sydney Pollack cast him as the burnt-out lawyer and mentor to Tom Cruise who is powerless to help his protege in "The Firm" (1993), the majority of his roles were in Westerns. Hackman was the sympathetic general in "Geronimo: An American Legend" (1993), the moral compass of "Wyatt Earp" (1994) as the family's patriarch, and an almost-spoof of Little Bill as the gunslinger in the loopy "The Quick and the Dead" (1995).

Loosening up a bit, Hackman displayed his assured comedic gifts as the hack filmmaker of "Get Shorty" (1995) and the conservative politician who plays straight man (on more than one level) to Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in "The Birdcage" (1996). The actor was also more willing to explore darker figures as well, playing a sinister surgeon in "Extreme Measures" and a racist killer on death row in "The Chamber" (both 1996). The ambiguity at which he excels could be viewed in his turn as a US President embroiled in a murder investigation in "Absolute Power" (1997) and, in a nod to "The Conversation", as a renegade NSA agent in the thriller "Enemy of the State" (1998).

Having completely conquered Hollywood, Hackman turned his sights on the world of publishing, completing the manuscript for his first novel in 1998 with plans for others. 1999 marked both the year the actor's novel was published and one of the few years in decades that the actor hadn't starred in a released feature. The following year he returned to the big screen as an NFL coach heading up "The Replacements", a ragtag collection of players filling in for a striking team. Later he was featured in "Under Suspicion" Stephen Hopkins' nervy reworking of the French film "Garde a vu", playing a wealthy attorney suspected of rape and murder, flawlessly evincing his characters personal turmoil and working well within Hopkins' interesting and unconventional use of flashback sequences.

Hackman started out a busy 2001 with an uncredited cameo in "The Mexican", followed by a charming role as a billionaire reeled in by mother-daughter beauties Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt in the unremarkable con-women comedy "Heartbreakers". He headed up the impressive cast of David Mamet's "Heist" with yet another note-perfect and seemingly effortless performance lending both bravado and vulnerability to his almost untouchable veteran master thief. Next up for the actor was a role as a steely admiral who risks his career when he puts people over politics in an effort to save a maverick navigator (Owen Wilson) shot down "Behind Enemy Lines" in Bosnia. Hackman reteamed with Wilson on the actor-screenwriter's "The Royal Tenenbaums", playing the rascally titular patriarch of a dysfunctional family of geniuses. Director Wes Anderson admitted to creating the funny but touching role for Hackman though the actor has vocally opposed such endeavors. The finished product (and Hackman's acclaimed and award-winning performance) served as proof that the helmer had had the right idea. Hackman reunited with his "Tenenbaums" co-star Owen Wilson for the decidedly more conventional (and less involving) military thriller "Behind Enemy Lines" (2001), playing a Navy admiral bucking his orders and the military bureaucracy to save a downed pilot (Wilson). After receiving a special Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes ceremony in 2003, the actor was next seen on screen in "Runaway Jury" (2003), an adaptation of author John Griham's bestselling legal potboiler, in which he played Rankin Fitch, a high-priced and morally bankrupt jury "consultant" who will stop at nothing to control the outcome of a crucial trail verdict. For the first time, Hackman played opposite his friend of many decades, Dustin Hoffman.