Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American retired actor. He came to fame during the 1970s, after his role in The French Connection, and continued to appear in major roles in Hollywood films, his most famous role being Lex Luthor in Superman.
Gene Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Lydia (n?e Gray) and Eugene Ezra Hackman. He has a brother, Richard. Hackman's family moved from one place to another until finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his maternal grandmother, Beatrice, and where Hackman's father worked as a journalist and operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local paper.