Legendary two-time Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman gave an ignominious final bow to his illustrious career 20-plus years ago with the critically panned comedy Welcome to Mooseport, filmed in the Durham Region community of Port Perry.
Hackman, who will turn 95 on Jan. 30, has enjoyed a legendary career with a pair of Oscar wins and five nominations in total, but Welcome to Mooseport turned out to be a bit of a dud. The film bombed critically and commercially. It boasts a 13 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and made only half its $30 million budget back.
It did, however, put Port Perry on the map as a prime filming location, with the local post office and businesses like the Piano Inn & Cafe receiving star turns in the movie, as well other locations in Scugog Township and in nearby York Region.
But before Mooseport, Hackman had himself a career.
Hackman was born in San Bernadino, California to American Eugene Hackman and Canadian Anna Hackman, who was from Sarnia, Ontario. Though he decided to become an actor at age 10, he lied about his age to get into the United States Marine Corps at 16, seeing service in pre-communist China, Japan and Hawaii before returning to California to pursue his passion for acting in 1961.
While there, he met fellow thespian Dustin Hoffman at the Pasadena Playhouse. The two legends were not well-liked among their peers and were even voted “least likely to succeed.” They now have four Oscars and ten nominations between them.
The pair left California for New York, where they shacked up with fellow actor (and future Oscar winner) Robert Duvall in the early 1960s. The trio shared accommodations as they struggled to get started while Hackman worked at a restaurant, got some TV bit parts and featured in off-Broadway plays. He made his proper Broadway debut in 1963 and made his first credited film appearance in Robert Rossen’s Lillith (1964) starring Warren Beatty.
Hackman appeared with Hoffman in The Graduate (1967) as Mr. Robinson. However, he was fired from the film after a few days when director Mike Nichols decided he was too young for the role.
Also that year, Hackman landed a part in Arthur Penn’s seminal Bonnie and Clyde, playing the titular bank robber’s brother Buck Barrow, a role that landed him an Oscar nomination. The film is now considered a landmark title and the beginning of the New Hollywood movement in the late 60s and early 70s and also featured Gene Wilder in his film debut.
The film pioneered a comedic take on extreme (for the time) violence. It was among the first American productions to use ‘blood squibs,’ exploding bags of stage blood which simulate the impact of a bullet wound.
The film was nominated for nine Oscars in total, winning two.
Gene Hackman as ‘Popeye’ Doyle in the ‘French Connection’
Hackman received his second Oscar nomination for the drama I Never Sang for My Father in 1970, and the following year, he earned his first of two Oscars when he starred as abusive Detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle in The French Connection, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest films ever made.
Following his Oscar win, Hackman appeared in 11 movies over the next three years, including Francis Ford Coppola’s acclaimed thriller The Conversation (which won the Palme d’Or) and disaster epic The Poseidon Adventure.
Among his numerous late 1970s appearances was the role of Lex Luthor in Superman.
Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor in ‘Superman’
He remained the busiest actor in Hollywood through the 1980s.
In 1988, he starred alongside Willem Dafoe in Mississippi Burning, again as a no-nonsense cop though this time as an FBI agent investigating the murders of three civil rights workers. He earned another Academy Award nomination for the role.
He remained busy into the 1990s including a major turn in Clint Eastwood’s revisionist western masterpiece Unforgiven as corrupt Sheriff ‘Little’ Bill Daggett.
Following his final Oscar win, Hackman starred inCrimson Tide, The Quick and the Dead and The Birdcage. In the 200s, he appeared in the Wes Anderson’s comedy The Royal Tenenbaums.
The 2004 film Mooseport had Hackman starring in his final role as the former President of the United States vying against Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) to become mayor of the small town of Mooseport, Maine, portrayed by Port Perry.
Hoffman was initially offered the role but turned it down when negotiations fell through. Hackman was once more, and for the last time, the second choice.
Following this role, Hackman retired from acting, citing health problems in a rare interview with Larry King.
Mooseport, Maine (AKA Port Perry, Ontario)
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