Gene Hackman Movies

Gene Hackman in 1986's Hoosiers
Gene Hackman in 1986’s Hoosiers

Want to know the best Gene Hackman movies?  How about the worst Gene Hackman movies?  Curious about Gene Hackman’s box office grosses or which Gene Hackman movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Gene Hackman movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Do you realize that it has been sixteen years since we last saw a new Gene Hackman movie? Growing up it seemed like every movie either starred Hackman or Michael Caine. I find it sad that we might have seen the last new Gene Hackman movie. This page will look at all of Hackman’s 76 movies that he made over a forty year span….1964-2004.

Gene Hackman (1930-) he was nominated for five Oscars® for acting (winning twice) and eight Golden Globe® awards (winning three times). He first came to fame in 1967 with his Oscar® nominated performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde. He received his second Oscar® nomination for 1970’s I Never Sang for My Father. His role as Popeye Doyle, in The French Connection, won him his first Oscar® and solidified his status as a movie star. The rest of the 1970s would see him appear in the blockbuster hits…. The Poseidon Adventure, Young Frankenstein, A Bridge Too Far, and Superman. The 1980’s saw him return to his Lex Luthor role in Superman II, star in one of the best sports movie ever….. Hoosiers.  He earned his 4th Oscar® nomination for Mississippi Burning and play the bad guy in No Way Out.

By 1990 Hackman started appearing mostly in supporting roles. In 1992 he won his 2nd Oscar® for his role in Unforgiven. The rest of the 1990’s would see many box office hits for him, movies like…..The Firm, Crimson Tide, Get Shorty, The Birdcage and Enemy of the State. In 2001 he appeared in The Royal Tenenbaums which looks like his last great role. He won the Golden Globe® award for Best Actor for the role, yet somehow did not get an Oscar® nomination. To date his last performance was 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport.

His IMDb page shows 101 acting credits from 1961-2004. This page will rank 76 Gene Hackman movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.

Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in 1995's Crimson Tide
Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in 1995’s Crimson Tide

Gene Hackman Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Gene Hackman Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Gene Hackman movies by his co-stars
  • Sort Gene Hackman movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Gene Hackman movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Gene Hackman movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Gene Hackman movie received.
  • Sort Gene Hackman movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

 

Gene Hackman in 1971's The French Connection
Gene Hackman in 1971’s The French Connection

The Best of Gene Hackman:

Young Frankenstein (1974) Mel Brooks was on a roll in 1974, as he had two movies finish in the Top 3 in box office grosses. Young Frankenstein finished 3rd for the year, while Blazing Saddles finished 2nd for the year. Young Frankenstein was a parody of classic horror films. Gene Wilder played Dr. Frankenstein and Peter Boyle played the monster.  The highlight of the film has to be Hackman’s blind hermit interacting with Boyle’s monster. Young Frankenstein ranks No. 28 on Total Film magazine’s “List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time”.

Superman (1978) Gene Hackman would play super criminal Lex Luther in three Superman movies. Superman 1 is his biggest box office hit with over 600 million in adjusted for inflation dollars. Superman 2 (best movie of the franchise) is his third biggest box office hit.  He would not appear in the third Superman movie, but he did come back for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Superman IV is probably the worst superhero movie ever made. But going back to Superman 1, it is also ranked as Hackman’s 6th highest rated movie according to critics and audiences.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Bonnie and Clyde was actually the second time Hackman worked with Warren Beatty. They first appeared in the 1964 movie Lilith. Bonnie and Clyde was a game changing movie. Its success motivated other filmmakers to be more forward about presenting sex and violence in their films. Bonnie and Clyde is Hackman’s 5th biggest box office hit, and earned him his first ever Oscar® nomination. Trivia….all five of the main actors in the movie would receive Oscar® nominations for their parts.  Those five were Warren Beatty, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons (she won).

Unforgiven (1992) Unforgiven is ranked #97 on IMDB’s greatest movie poll. Hackman won his second Oscar® for playing Sheriff Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s classic western. Unforgiven was nominated for nine Oscars®, winning four times, including the Best Picture Oscar®.  Unforgiven is Hackman’s 10th biggest box office hit, but it is his highest rated film according to critics and audiences. Trivia…Hackman initially refused the part because he felt his character was too violent….Eastwood eventually talked him into playing the role, which turned out to be one of his best parts.  Gene Hackman and Clint Eastwood would work together again when they both starred in Absolute Power (1997).  Absolute Power was not as successful as Unforgiven but it is still a pretty good movie.

The French Connection (1971)  Gene Hackman won the Oscar® for Best Actor in The French Connection. His role as Popeye Doyle is one of his most memorable roles. The movie was also nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning 5 Oscars®, including the Best Picture Oscar®.  It is Hackman’s 7th biggest box office hit with over 248 million in adjusted for inflation dollars. The movie is well known for one of the most spectacular car chase scenes to ever be filmed. Hackman would return as Popeye Doyle in the very disappointing sequel, The French Connection 2.

Check out Gene Hackman’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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64 thoughts on “Gene Hackman Movies”

  1. That’s more like it Cogerson. 🙂

    Hackman’s one of the greats, always worth watching. Superman at the top of the box office chart, nice. By coincidence I’m waiting for the Superman blu-ray box set to arrive from Amazon.

    I didn’t even know he was in Hawaii (the film not the State). I watched him in a film recently playing an astronaut marooned in space, the film was um… forgot the title… Marooned. Is that in your list let me check… 35th not bad.

    French Connection top scorer, he was so good as Popeye Doyle and very good in Unforgiven too. Deserved his Oscars. And one of my all time favourite comedies Young Frankenstein, classic!

    It is sad if we’ve seen the last of Gene, but than again he is 80 or thereabouts? Cogerson you have all the statistics on here except date of birth, I’m flabbergasted whatever that means – I don’t think he was born in 1964. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the comments….he plays a doctor in Hawaii….a supporting part…but he really sticks out in the movie now that he is the Gene Hackman we know. As for Marooned…35th means it is in the upper half of his movies…it was made at the peak of the moon landing…I will have to check but I am pretty sure he was in fact born in 1964 and he went straight to playing middle aged men right after birth….lol……for the record Hackman turned 84 last January. Enjoy your blu-ray Superman movie when it gets there…..thanks for reading the page

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  2. WOW – Did not know he made that many movies. I believe he is a very good actor – so many good movies – especially Absolute Power where he played a sleezy president. Crimson Tide and The Firm were so good too. I had heard somewhere last year that he was retiring from making movies – do not know if that is true. VERY GOOD MOVIE PAGE COGERSON.

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    1. Hey BERN1960……he said in 2008 that he was retired….he is now 81 and has turned to writing novels as well as the voice over work he does for United Airlines….on IMDB he has no projects listed….so I am thinking we have seen the last Gene Hackman movie…..but maybe like Sean Connery he will have a change of mind and do something else in the future…but his career is filled with many many awesome movies.

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    1. Hey mentalist acer….I read that he viewed Enemy of the State…to be kinda of a sequel to his classic movie The Conversation….so when I watch the movie I always think this is were his character from The Conversation would end up…in Enemy of the State

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  4. Yay for Gene Hackman!! Bonnie and Clyde now that is a GREAT movie!! Like Fay said I also had no idea he had so many movies under his belt! Kudos to Gene and to you cogerson!! Thanks for the fan-freakin-tastic movie page!

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    1. Thanks for the compliment Sunshine625….when I was researching the hub…I saw your favorite Hackman movie The Poseidon Adventure was his 2nd biggest hit….that was something I did not know….thanks for reading my page.

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  5. Good morning Cogerson.

    Gene Hackman is another one of those actors who doesn’t immediately come to mind when you think of Hollywood. That is unless someone asks for one of the best performances of all time and you have to say, “French Connection”. I also loved him in “Enemy of the State”.

    I had no idea he had made so many movies.

    Reply

    1. Thank you Fay, Hackman was like a machine….he made almost 2 movies a year for 40 years….and that does not even account for all his tv work he did in the 1960s. Before doing the hub, I knew he had been successful….but I was not aware he had been this successful. Thanks for stopping by and reading my page.

      Reply

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