How much is Gene Hackman worth?
| Net Worth: | $55 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actor |
| Date of Birth: | January 30, 1930 (age 93) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 6 ft 1 in (1.87 m) |
About Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen Hackman was born on January 30, 1930 and is an American retired actor, novelist, and United States Marine with an estimated net worth of $55 million. Gene Hackman starred in several classic movies in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and though he no longer works in the industry, the 90 year old has left a legacy that few other actors will ever have. The actor is a two time Academy Award winner, four time Golden Globe winner, and has won dozens of other high regarded awards.
In his retirement, Hackman has become a successful writer of historical adventure novels, and sometimes records voice overs for documentaries. The actor is most well known for The French Connection, Unforgiven, Bonnie and Clyde, and his role as Lex Luther in the Superman series.
After performing in off-broadway productions and getting bit roles in tiny TV shows, Hackman scored his first major role in 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde. The movie is famous for being one of the first films of the New Hollywood era for heavily portraying sex and violence more than any other film that came before it. Bonnie and Clyde’s most famous scene is the finale, which is iconic for being one of the bloodiest death scenes in the history of cinema.
Despite it being one of Hackman’s earliest movie roles, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Buck Barrow.
The actor’s success continued in the late 60s as he started earning more major roles, but Hackman’s next flagship movie came in 1971, where he led The French Connection as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, a New York police detective trying to track down a french heroin smuggler. The scene is most famous for the line, “Did you ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?”, which was improvised by Hackman. It was the first role for which Hackman won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Though it was less successful, The French Connection spawned a sequel due to the original’s popularity amongst audiences.
In the late 70s, Hackman starred in the first ever superhero franchise, Superman. Being released decades before superhero movies became the highest grossing movies of all time, and being the only one of its kind, Superman: The Movie was one of the biggest success stories in the industry of the 70s. Because of this, it is surprising that no other superhero franchise was green lit until over ten years later with Tim Burton’s Batman.
Movies would adopt the approach producers took with Superman over thirty years later, by developing tonnes of sequels.
Besides those tent pole movies, Hackman has had leading roles in movies that have become cult classics, such as The Conversation, a movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, the Sam Raimi western The Quick and the Dead, and the quirky comedy The Royal Tenenbaums. In his later years, Hackman saw a career resurgence by starring in the action thrillers The Firm, with Tom Cruise, and Enemy of the State, with Will Smith, both of which were two of the highest grossing movies in the actor’s career.
Many of Hackman’s salaries are undisclosed and impossible to find, but from looking at the box office performances of his filmography, the actor has clearly made tens of millions of dollars in the film industry. All racked up, Hackman’s films have made more than one billion dollars worldwide, as he has been a bankable star dating all the way back to his very first major movie, Bonnie and Clyde. The 1967 classic grossed $70 million at the box office. Though that might only sound like pennies by today’s dollars, in 2022, that amount would be more than $589 million, adjusted for inflation.
His next tent pole movie, The French Connection, made $51.7 million worldwide, which again would be close to half a billion dollars today. The Unforgiven earned $159.2 million.
That number is more impressive than any given that The French Connection had a microscopic budget of just $1.8 million. Superman: The Movie reached $300.5 million, which would be in the region of $1.3 billion today, in 2022. In his final roles in action movies, he saw the most financial success of his career, as The Firm made $270.2 million and Enemy of the State closed in on $250.8 million, though these figures may have been helped by the rising movie stars Tom Cruise and Will Smith.
It might be due to having spent some time as a marine in his earlier years, but Hackman has a tendency to take on roles that come with a tough guy image, such as playing the “bad cop” in The French Connection. Not only that, but his rugged exterior and stoic face control earned him major roles as a high ranking officials, such as an admiral in Behind Enemy Lines, a captain in Crimson Tide, and a FBI Special Agent in Mississippi Burning.
Back in the 70s, developing a sequel to popular movies wasn’t a thing that producers even thought about, but Hackman had the foresight to jump on board of the first Superman movie and even return for two sequels as one of the most famous villains of all time, Lex Luther, who Hackman popularized. Though there are several Jokers in the Batman movies that people argue are the best, there’s only one Lex Luther that fans stand united on, and that is Gene Hackman’s take the iconic character.
Summing-Up
Hackman was voted the least likely to succeed by his acting school classmates over sixty years ago, but nobody has heard of them, and while the actor has a fist of of classic movies that have stood the test of time and iconic roles that are now embedded in pop culture, the actor has racked up an astonishing net worth of $55 million. Though the celebrated actor has retired from the industry for good, he leaves behind him a rich filmography.
His movies have not only made many filmmakers rich beyond their wildest dreams, but they are cherished by fans of cinema and casual movie-goers alike.
