'Our community lost a giant': Morgan Freeman honours 'dear friend' Gene Hackman at the Oscars

MORGAN FREEMAN HAS paid tribute to Gene Hackman at the Academy Awards.

The 95-year-old veteran actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead, along with one of their dogs, at their home in New Mexico on 26 February. Their causes of death have yet to be determined,

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Freeman starred alongside Hackman in Under Suspicion and Unforgiven, a film for which Hackman won a best supporting actor Oscar for his role as small-town sheriff ‘Little Bill’ Daggett. 

“This week, our community lost a giant and I lost a dear friend,” Morgan said. 

Speaking of working with Hackman, he said that “like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man who elevated everyone’s work.

He received two Oscars, but more importantly, he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.

“Gene always said, ‘I don’t think about legacy. I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work’.

“So I think I speak for us all when I say Gene, you’ll be remembered for that, and for so much more. Rest in peace my friend.”

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Hackman won the best actor Oscar for his performance as New York cop Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle in the 1971 crime thriller The French Connection. He earned three more Oscar nominations during a five-decade career in which he appeared in more than 80 films.

After a career spanning over four decades, he made his final film in 2004 before officially retiring from acting in 2008.

Police continue to investigate the deaths of Hackman and Arakawa, which they have dubbed “suspicious” but maintained on 28 February that no foul play was suspected.  They have said that tests of a pacemaker belonging to Hackman have found that the last event was recorded on 17 February. 

Others remembered in the Oscars ‘in memoriam’ segment included Maggie Smith, Kris Kristofferson, Donald Sutherland, Shelley Duvall, David Lynch and James Earl Jones. 

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