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This comprehensive profile explores the extraordinary life and career of Gene Hackman, from his challenging childhood and Marine Corps service to his rise as one of America's most respected actors. Despite early rejections and years of struggle, Hackman's breakthrough in "Bonnie and Clyde" launched a remarkable career spanning over four decades. The profile examines his Academy Award-winning performances in "The French Connection" and "Unforgiven," his versatility across genres, and his distinctive naturalistic acting style that helped redefine American cinema in the 1970s. It details his ...

Eugene Allen Hackman (January 30, 1930 - February 17, 2025), a former US Marine, was an American actor with a career that spanned over four decades, winning two Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. Hackman's two Oscars were for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's action thriller The French Connection (1971) and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a villainous sheriff in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). The following recordings are of his two Academy Award acceptance speeches.

July 1864. Union officer Nathan Parker has been imprisoned at nightmarish Andersonville prison camp in Georgia along with his soldiers. As others die around them, Nathan and his men hatch a daring plan to allow him to escape through a tunnel and make his way to Vicksburg, where he intends to alert his superiors to the imprisonment and push for military action.

Jack O' Reilly is a 17-year-old New Englander who in 1805, sails with his parents on the Perdido Star to Cuba, his mother's birthplace, to claim the land she inherited. But for Jack, the trip that began with high hopes and the excitement of a new life, becomes a descent into violence and revenge.

Musician Ravi Shankar, actors Vince Vaughn and Gene Hackman on this edition of Fresh Air. Today, we learned that former Beatle George Harrison has died.