Few of Hollywood’s leading actors made such an unlikely journey to stardom as Gene Hackman, who has died aged 95. He had no early contact with show business, came from a fraught family background and had looks that might generously be described as “homely”.
He did not decide on acting as a career until his late 20s and was in his late 30s when he had his breakthrough, as the elder brother in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Yet within four years he had won the first of his two Oscars, playing the cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection (1971).
