Dustin Hoffman Remembers Gene Hackman: ‘A Giant Among Actors’
Dustin Hoffman paid tribute to Gene Hackman, his former roommate and co-star, following the actor’s death at 95. In a statement shared with Deadline, Hoffman recalled first meeting Hackman while both were attending acting school in California.
“I met Gene in acting school, at the Pasadena Playhouse, when he was 27 and I was 19,” Hoffman said. “We used to play congas together on the roof, trying to be like our hero Marlon Brando. And Gene was like Brando, in that he brought something unprecedented to our craft, something people didn’t immediately understand as genius: He was expelled from our school after three months for ‘not having talent.’ It was the first time they ever did that. He was that good. Powerful, subtle, brilliant. A giant among actors. I miss him already.”
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Prior to retiring from acting, Hackman co-starred with Hoffman in 2003 film Runaway Jury, an adaptation of the John Grisham novel of the same name. It marked the pair’s first onscreen collaboration despite their many years of knowing each other, including once being roommates in New York City.
“I slept on his floor because he had this small bedroom,” Hoffman said while doing press for Runaway Jury. “He had this little teeny bit larger room where there was the stove with a board over it where you would use to dry dishes. Next to the stove was a tub which was also the sink and it had a board over it. So, I would have to take a bath while they were making breakfast, and there was also a toilet next to the bath, and all he’s thinking about is that when I had to have my morning bathroom, I didn’t care whether they were making eggs or not. He’s held that against me for forty years.”
He added that the pair almost collaborated on The Graduate, but Hoffman was fired from the film. “The first time that we would have worked together would’ve been The Graduate,” Hoffman shared in 2003. “Gene was cast as Mr. Robinson and we were in the third week of rehearsal, we rehearsed for three weeks and it was at Paramount. Gene and I are in the Paramount bathroom, and I think, in my memory, about six urinals separate us and he looks over at me as he’s taking a leak, saying, ‘I’m going to get fired,’ and I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘I’m getting fired today, I can feel it,’ and he did, and that opened his career up because Warren Beatty said, ‘He’s not doing it?’ And he put him in Bonnie and Clyde.”
Hackman, his wife of 34 years, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog were found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home on Wednesday. In a statement, Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies added that “the bodies of Mr. Hackman and his wife were located in separate rooms” and that a cause of death will be determined by the Office of the Medical Investigator. According to the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, the couple’s deaths were ruled “suspicious,” but “the official results of the autopsy and toxicology reports are pending.”
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” Hackman’s family said in a statement. “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”
Multiple actors and filmmakers have paid tribute to Hackman in the wake of his death, including Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, and Viola Davis. Coppola, who directed Hackman in 1974’s noir thriller The Conversation, shared on Instagram, “The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity. I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”
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