One of the remarkable aspects of GENE HACKMAN's (Jack Ames) emergence as one of the major actors of his generation, is that there is no such thing as a Gene Hackman role. He won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for his portrayal of the vicious sheriff in "Unforgiven." He previously received an Oscar® for Best Actor for "The French Connection," a Best Actor nomination for "Mississippi Burning" and Best Supporting Actor nominations for "I Never Sang For My Father" and "Bonnie and Clyde."

Recent roles have seen Hackman playing a right-wing conservative senator in "The Birdcage," with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, a manipulative movie producer in "Get Shorty," with John Travolta, and a charismatic by-the-books military commander in "Crimson Tide" with Denzel Washington. Other films include "The Quick and the Dead," "Extreme Measures," "The Chamber" and "Absolute Power" with Clint Eastwood.

Hackman's teaming with Tom Cruise as a smooth-as-silk corporate lawyer in "The Firm," his follow-up to Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," gave him two back-to-back $100 million winners at the U.S. box-office.

Gene Hackman has been celebrated as an actor who literally seems to disappear into the characters he plays. "Unforgiven," directed by and co-starring Clint Eastwood, gave us a conscienceless brute who saw himself as civilized. As a direct contrast to the kind of law Hackman practices in "The Firm," is the compassionate attorney he played in "Class Action." His versatility is further evidenced in his critically acclaimed return to his New York stage roots, in Mike Nichol's "Death and the Maiden," with Glen Close and Richard Dreyfuss.

Two projects, "Geronimo" with Robert Duvall and "Wyatt Earp" with Kevin Costner, are both westerns reflecting the resurgence of the form kicked off by the success of "Unforgiven," casting him in historical roles in each case.

The driven, almost monomaniacal energy of his Oscar® winning portrayal of Popeye Doyle in "The French Connection," bears no relationship to the laconic, good old boy FBI agent he created in "Mississippi Burning" for which he earned his most recent Best Actor nomination. It has been noted frequently that he literally seems to disappear into the characters he plays in (repetition of earlier sentence) such film as "Hoosiers," Another Woman," "The Package," Mike Nichol's "Postcards from the Edge" (with Meryl Streep) and in Peter Hyam's "The Narrow Margin."

Even a brief list of Hackman's films recall the dazzling virtuosity and variety of his choices and achievements, "Bonnie and Clyde," "Scarecrow," "The Conversation," "Under Fire," "All Night Long," "Reds," "Twice in a Lifetime," "No Way Out." The common denominators are talent and his daring.

Diversity has always been a Hackman hallmark, a fact established early in the career by the contrast between two Oscar® nominated performances: Melvin Douglas' tortured son in "I Never Sang For My Father" and the brutal Popeye Doyle in "The French Connection," shortly followed by two of his most respected and most dangerously off-beat portrayals: the raucous and trigger-tempered panhandler in "Scarecrow" and the pathologically withdrawn eavesdropper in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation."

Gene Hackman was born in Riverside, California and brought up in Danville, Illinois where his father was a newspaper printer. Lying about his age, he joined the Marines at the age of sixteen and became a radio operator. Odd as it may seem, this is what led him into a show business career. He was stationed in Tsingtzu, China, when the unit's radio announcer was injured and Hackman volunteered to take his place. He admits he wasn't very good at it, but it was a challenge and he decided he would get better.

After his discharge from the service, Hackman moved from radio to television and worked at various small town TV stations all over the United States. He eventually returned to the West Coast and enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he and another student were considered the two least likely to succeed. The other would-be actor was Dustin Hoffman and the two have remained friends ever since. It was at the Playhouse that Hackman made his stage debut with Zazu Pitts in "The Curious Miss Caraway."

After a period of summer stock, he finally moved to New York. He studied with George Morrison and began getting small parts in television and stage productions. He then won the Clarence Derwent Award for his performance in Irwin Shaw's "Children At Their Games"-even though the play lasted one night. His first starring role on Broadway was with Sandy Dennis in the comedy hit "Any Wednesday." Other successes followed and at one point Hackman even had his own production company, Chelly, Ltd.

He made his screen debut in the 1964 film "Lilith," with Warren Beatty. Three years later, when Beatty was casting "Bonnie and Clyde," he remembered Hackman's talent and offered him the role of Clyde Barrow's slow-witted brother, Buck - a performance that brought him his first Academy Award™ nomination. Over a decade later, he worked again with Beatty in "Reds" - another of Hackman's searing cameo performances.

In the meantime, Hackman appeared in "Hawaii," "The Gypsy Moths, "Downhill Racer" and "Marooned" before he won a second Oscar® nomination for his touching performance as the dutiful son who fails to connect with his father in "I Never Sang For My Father."

The year 1971 brought his landmark performance in "The French Connection." Hackman's portrayal of the lonely, bellicose policeman obsessed with cracking a heroin ring, is considered by many to be one of the greatest performances in screen history. Yet many film cognizenti consider his reprise of the character in "French Connection II," to contain an even better performance. If "The French Connection" made Gene Hackman a superstar, subsequent films confirmed his international reputation in quick succession, starting with the record-setting box-office success "The Poseidon Adventure." In 1973, he portrayed a haunted drifter in "Scarecrow." The next year, he starred in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation," brilliantly portraying a surveillance expert with a paranoid fear for his own privacy. And later that year he delivered an uproarious comic scene as the blind hermit in Mel Brook's "Young Frankenstein" - a role that further showed off his astonishing versatility. The virtuosity of that comedy cameo startled many people who did not know that Hackman's reputation on Broadway was earned initially in a series of rich and critically acclaimed comedy stage performance. This facet of his talent was discovered anew with his later creation of Lex Luthor in "Superman" and "Superman II and IV." In 1975, he gave an acclaimed performance in Arthur Penn compelling detective story "Night Moves."

In the 1980's, he continued to star in films which achieved critical and popular success - "Under Fire," "Uncommon Valor," "Twice in a Lifetime," "Hoosiers," "Another Woman," "Bat 21," "No Way Out" and "Mississippi Burning," among others.

In addition to his two Oscars® and three Academy Award™ nominations, Hackman's long list of awards includes British Oscars® , two Golden Globes, The Cannes Festival Best Actor Trophy, two National Association of Theater Owners Awards and a comprehensive set of awards from leading critics groups. His "Unforgiven" performance was honored by all but one of the top critics organizations. He has received retrospective tributes from such entities as the British Film Institute, the San Francisco Film Festival and the American Film Institute.

Gene Hackman loves flying and races automobiles in prestigious events like Sebring and Riverside. He is also a dedicated and talented painter and an avid film collector. He has three children and currently maintains a home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Among the projects now in development for Hackman is one which may realize his long-evolving interest in motion picture directing.