An actor who barely changed his look but constantly transformed himself.
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Gene Hackman was a virtuoso of the smile.
It was an interrogation tactic to disorient suspects by hammering them with nonsense.
Other times, the Hackman smile masked confusion, treachery, cowardice, or brokenness.
smile that amounts to a silent laugh track.
He was one of those men who looked about 50 whether he was 30 or 70.
He had broad shoulders, meaty hands, narrow eyes, a borderlineW.C.
Fields nose, and a paunch modest enough to hide in a windbreaker.
Along the way, there were trophies and citations from everyone else imaginable.
Hackman rarely changed his appearance beyond adding or subtracting glasses or facial hair.
Its Hackmans sharpest comedic performance since Lex Luthor in the Superman series: an unpeeling onion of naivete.
No one will dance with me, says the senator, with a faraway look.
I think its this dress.
I told them white would make me look fat.
Hes revolting and terrifying and he looks more or less exactly the same as the other two Washingtonians.
Each new assignment was a chance to revisit the familiar and make it feel brand new.
Im talkin about puttin a brick through the other guys windshield.
Im talking about takin it out and choppin it up!
Hackman seemed to know himself.
I wasnt going to let those fuckers get me down, he said.
I insisted to 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.
Hackman was at home in every budget level, style, genre, and decade of his acting life.
He was a sledgehammer talent, shattering any complacency that filmmakers and fellow actors mightve brought into a project.
His final exit, after years of distance from the public eye,was uncharacteristically mysterious.
Hackman had so many great ones that his short list would not be short at all.
Alive even in death: That was Hackman.
Its enough to put a smile on your face.
