He came to acting in his late twenties, studying at the Pasadena Playhouse. He and his room-mate Dustin Hoffman were voted joint "Least Likely to Succeed". (Ironic, then, that Hackman lost out on the ...
Gene Hackman was never going to be a dreamboat like Robert Redford or Paul Newman. As a young actor, he didn't have the piercing blue eyes, the chiselled jaw or the boyish golden locks.