‘He let us hate him’: Gene Hackman had a rare power – he didn’t need to be liked

‘Not all of those fellows were as hard as Hackman’ … Gene Hackman as Jimmy Doyle in William Friedkin’s 1971 film The French Connection. Photograph: Collection Christophel/Alamy

It’s the dog that gets me about Gene Hackman. Decades ago he went off to New Mexico, away from the bright lights of fame. And the dog went with him and his wife. Hackman was a firm man – you might say hard. He had been a marine, and seldom bowed to all the suck-up stuff about being lovable and a movie star. He was 95. Clint Eastwood is 94, Robert Duvall the same. Jack Nicholson is only 87, still the kid.

Dustin Hoffman is 87 too, Robert Redford 88, Warren Beatty 87. Harrison Ford is 82, and he seems older, or worried. We can’t expect these guys to go on for ever, just because they’re geezers, veterans and not forgotten.