The Oscars paid tribute to Gene Hackman during Sunday’s ceremony, with the actor’s “Unforgiven” co-star Morgan Freeman introducing an honor for the late star. The speech preceded the ceremony’s in memoriam, honoring the industry figures who have died in the previous year.
“This week, our community lost a giant. And I lost a dear friend, Gene Hackman,” Freeman began in his speech. “I had the pleasure of working alongside gene on two films, ‘Unforgiven’ and ‘Under Suspicion.’ Like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man whose gifts elevated everyone’s work.”
“Gene always said, ‘I don’t think about legacy. I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work,’” Freeman continued. “I think I speak for us all when I say, ‘Gene, you will be remembered for that, and so much more.’ Rest in peace, my friend.”
Hackman, 95, was found dead Wednesday, alongside his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65. The couple’s bodies were discovered inside their Santa Fe, N.M. residence.
Hackman drew plenty of awards attention through his filmmaking career. He won two trophies from the Academy. The first came in 1972, for starring as the obsessive narcotics investigator Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s thriller “The French Connection.” The heralded turn cast Hackman’s trajectory as one of the defining American actors of the second half of the 20th century. His second win came in 1993, for his supporting turn as another rancid officer of the law, Sheriff Little Bill Daggett, in Clint Eastwood’s Western “Unforgiven.”
Along with those two wins, Hackman earned three other Oscar nominations, in supporting for “Bonnie and Clyde” in 1968 and “I Never Sang for My Father” in 1971, as well as a lead nod for “Mississippi Burning” in 1989.
Among the many tributes that poured in for Hackman, Eastwood remembered his “Unforgiven” co-star in a statement to Variety, writing that, “There was no finer actor than Gene. Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much.”
The deaths of Hackman and Arkawa remain under investigation. In a press conference Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adam Mendoza shared that both Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies tested negative for carbon monoxide poisoning. Full results from autopsy and toxicology reports are pending. The couple’s bodies were discovered by neighborhood security Wednesday afternoon, after a concerned maintenance worker called in a wellness check.
See the full list of winners from the Oscars ceremony here.
From Variety US