section_path: Death/Tributes and legacy
section_name: Tributes and legacy
paragraph_text: Tributes and legacy
  
  Numerous members of the film industry paid tribute to Hackman following his death. Clint Eastwood, who directed Hackman in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Absolute Power (1997), wrote in a statement: "There was no finer actor than Gene. Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much." Francis Ford Coppola, who directed him in The Conversation (1974), wrote: "Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity. I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution."
  
  Morgan Freeman paid tribute to Hackman at the 97th Academy Awards, saying, "Like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer whose gifts elevated everyone's work" and that he would be "remembered and so much more." Others who paid tribute include Dustin Hoffman, Glenn Close, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Bill Murray, Mel Brooks, Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Barbra Streisand, Nathan Lane, Josh Brolin, John Cusack, Ben Stiller, Antonio Banderas, Hank Azaria, George Takei, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote that Hackman's death marked the end of American new wave cinema. He described Hackman as "really a star; in fact the star of every scene he was in – that tough, wised-up, intelligent, but unhandsome face perpetually on the verge of coolly unconcerned derision, or creased in a heartbreakingly fatherly, pained smile."
  
  Numerous members of the film industry paid tribute to Hackman following his death. Clint Eastwood, who directed Hackman in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Absolute Power (1997), wrote in a statement: "There was no finer actor than Gene. Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much." Francis Ford Coppola, who directed him in The Conversation (1974), wrote: "Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity. I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution."
  
  Morgan Freeman paid tribute to Hackman at the 97th Academy Awards, saying, "Like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer whose gifts elevated everyone's work" and that he would be "remembered and so much more." Others who paid tribute include Dustin Hoffman, Glenn Close, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Bill Murray, Mel Brooks, Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Barbra Streisand, Nathan Lane, Josh Brolin, John Cusack, Ben Stiller, Antonio Banderas, Hank Azaria, George Takei, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote that Hackman's death marked the end of American new wave cinema. He described Hackman as "really a star; in fact the star of every scene he was in – that tough, wised-up, intelligent, but unhandsome face perpetually on the verge of coolly unconcerned derision, or creased in a heartbreakingly fatherly, pained smile."