[5] Hackman's family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother, Beatrice.

A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors and close friends, sharing NYC apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s.

[19]Hackman got various bit roles, for example in the film Mad Dog Coll and on the TV series Tallahassee 7000, The United States Steel Hour, Route 66, Naked City, The Defenders, The DuPont Show of the Week, East Side/West Side, and Brenner.

Hackman began performing in several Off-Broadway plays, starting with The Saintliness of Margery Kempe in 1959 and including Come to the Palace of Sin in 1963.

That same year he starred in the CBS Playhouse episode "My Father and My Mother" and the dystopian television film Shadow on the Land.

He starred in Doctors' Wives (1971) and The Hunting Party (1971) then won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as New York City Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971), marking his graduation to stardom.

[12] After The French Connection, Hackman starred in ten films (not including his cameo in Young Frankenstein) over the next three years, making him the most prolific actor in Hollywood during that time frame.

He followed The French Connection with leading roles in Cisco Pike (1972), Prime Cut (1972), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Scarecrow (1973) alongside Al Pacino, which was Hackman’s favorite role of his career and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival,[24] and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), which was nominated for several Oscars and also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes.

[12] That same year, Hackman appeared in what would become one of his most famous comedic roles, as Harold the Blind Man in Young Frankenstein.

Hackman played one of Teddy Roosevelt's former Rough Riders in the Western horse-race saga Bite the Bullet (1975).

He reprised his Oscar-winning role as Doyle in the sequel French Connection II (1975), and co-starred with Burt Reynolds and Liza Minnelli in Lucky Lady (1975), a notorious flop.

After making The Domino Principle (1977) for Stanley Kramer, Hackman was part of an all-star cast in the war film A Bridge Too Far (1977), playing Polish General Stanisław Sosabowski, and was an officer in the French Foreign Legion in March or Die (1977.)

Hackman showed a talent for both comedy and the "slow burn" as criminal mastermind Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie (1978), a role he would reprise in its 1980 and 1987 sequels.

Hackman provided the voice of God in Two of a Kind (1983) and starred in Uncommon Valor (1983), Misunderstood (1984), Twice in a Lifetime (1985), Target (1985) for Arthur Penn, and Power (1986).

After Class Action (1991) and Company Business (1991) Hackman played the sadistic sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett in the Western Unforgiven directed by Clint Eastwood and written by David Webb Peoples.

Hackman had pledged to avoid violent roles, but Eastwood convinced him to take the part, which earned him a second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actor.

[12] In 1993, he appeared in Geronimo: An American Legend as Brigadier General George Crook, and co-starred with Tom Cruise as a corrupt lawyer in The Firm, a legal thriller based on the John Grisham novel of the same name.

In 1996, he took a comedic turn as conservative Senator Kevin Keeley in The Birdcage with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

Hackman did Twilight (1998) with Paul Newman for director Robert Benton, did one of the voices for Antz (1998), and co-starred with Will Smith in Enemy of the State (1998), his character reminiscent of the one he had portrayed in The Conversation.

Hackman co-starred with Morgan Freeman in Under Suspicion (2000), Keanu Reeves in The Replacements (2000), Owen Wilson in Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Sigourney Weaver in Heartbreakers (2001), and appeared in the David Mamet crime thriller Heist (2001),[31] as an aging professional thief of considerable skill who is forced into one final job.

In 2003, he also starred in another John Grisham legal drama, Runaway Jury, at long last getting to make a picture with his long-time friend Dustin Hoffman.

In 2004, Hackman appeared alongside Ray Romano in the comedy Welcome to Mooseport, his final film acting role to date.

[33] On July 7, 2004, Hackman gave a rare interview to Larry King, where he announced that he had no future film projects lined up and believed his acting career was over.

[41] His first solo effort, a story of love and revenge set in the Old West titled Payback at Morning Peak, was released in 2011.

In 2011, Hackman appeared on the Fox Sports Radio show The Loose Cannons, where he discussed his career and his novels with Pat O'Brien, Steve Hartman, and Vic "The Brick" Jacobs.

At the time, the home blended Southwestern styles and crested a twelve-acre hilltop, with a 360-degree view that stretched to the Colorado mountains.

[51] In the late 1970s, Hackman competed in Sports Car Club of America races, driving an open-wheeled Formula Ford.