The Two Movies Gene Hackman Regretted Starring In

Gene Hackman, one of the greatest actors of all time, is dead at 95. The Academy Award-winning star and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, were found dead in their house in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 26 February 26. The entertainment world is reeling from the news, as Hackman’s lengthy résumé had long established him as one of Hollywood’s true greats. From his Oscar-winning turns as Jimmy Doyle in “The French Connection” (1971) and Little Bill Daggett in “Unforgiven” (1992)  to his eye-catching turns as Lex Luthor in “Superman” (1978) and Royal Tenenbaum in “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001), he was one of those rare actors who could illuminate any screen he graced with his presence. 

Even so, a career that included roles in no less than 101 projects — the overwhelming majority of them movies — and spanned decades is bound to feature at least some disappointing projects … for the actor himself, if not the audience. In Hackman’s case, he told The Chicago Tribune in 1985 that he had two very particular acting regrets:

“I did ‘Lucky Lady’ strictly for the money. I did a film called ‘March or Die’. To this day, I can’t really believe that I did a film called ‘March or Die’.”

Hackman wasn’t wrong when she said that director Stanley Donen’s “Lucky Lady” (1975) and Dick Richards’ “March or Die” (1977) stand out among his roles. The former is a prohibition-era slapstick crime comedy about two alcohol smugglers (Hackman and Burt Reynolds) who both become infatuated with the same woman, Claire (Liza Minnelli). “March or Die,” in turn, is a French Foreign Legion movie where Hackman shares the screen with spaghetti Western star Terrence Hill. 

While Hackman was no stranger to either comedic stylings or war movies, these particular films clearly don’t belong in the discussion of the best Gene Hackman movies, and they definitely didn’t fit his view on what his career should be like. Since /Film has been known to argue that Hackman is the best actor ever, his own opinion about his most disappointing films carries plenty of weight — but it’s also worth keeping in mind that both “Lucky Lady” and “March or Die” came at a time in the actor’s career where he was finding out that despite his early successes, the film business could be very hard. Here’s how he described the era in the Chicago Tribune interview:

“In the early 1970s, I had some successful films. ‘The French Connection’ had prestige and commercial success. ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ wasn’t any kind of an acting stretch, but it was a big hit. I felt I could do anything I wanted to do. I had this great omnipotent feeling -and, believe me, I haven’t had it since. So I did all these films that meant something to me personally. And I was so disappointed – so crushed, really – at their receptions. So I started doing things that I didn’t want to do.”