section_path: Career/1956–1969: Career beginnings
section_name: 1956–1969: Career beginnings
paragraph_text: 1956–1969: Career beginnings
  
  Acting was something I wanted to do since I was 10 and saw my first movie, I was so captured by the action guys. Jimmy Cagney was my favorite. Without realizing it, I could see he had tremendous timing and vitality.
  
  In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman. Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were voted "the least likely to succeed",: 7 and Hackman got the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had yet given. Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman moved to New York City. A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors and close friends, sharing New York apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s.
  
  To support himself between acting jobs, Hackman was working at a Howard Johnson's restaurant when he encountered an instructor from the Pasadena Playhouse, who said that his job proved that Hackman "wouldn't amount to anything." A Marine officer who saw him as a doorman said, "Hackman, you're a sorry son of a bitch." Rejection motivated Hackman, who said:
  
  It was more psychological warfare, because I wasn't going to let those fuckers get me down. I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you're really interested in acting there is a part of you that relishes the struggle. It's a narcotic in the way that you are trained to do this work and nobody will let you do it, so you're a little bit nuts. You lie to people, you cheat, you do whatever it takes to get an audition, get a job.
  
  Hackman began performing in several Off-Broadway plays, starting with Witness for the Prosecution in 1957 at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, New York, and including Come to the Palace of Sin in 1963. He got various bit roles, for example, in the film Mad Dog Coll and on multiple television series: Tallahassee 7000, The United States Steel Hour, Route 66, Naked City, The Defenders, The DuPont Show of the Week, East Side/West Side, and Brenner. In 1963, he made his Broadway debut in Children From Their Games, which had only a short run, as did A Rainy Day in Newark. However, Any Wednesday with actress Sandy Dennis was a huge Broadway success in 1964. This opened the door to film work. His first credited role was in Lilith, with Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty in the leading roles.
  
  Hackman returned to Broadway in Poor Richard (1964–65) by Jean Kerr, which ran for over a hundred performances. He continued to do television – The Trials of O'Brien, Hawk, and The F.B.I. – and had a small part as Dr. John Whipple in the epic film Hawaii. He had small roles in features like First to Fight (1967), A Covenant with Death (1967), and Banning (1967). Hackman was originally cast as Mr. Robinson in the 1967 Mike Nichols independent romantic comedy film The Graduate, but Nichols fired him three weeks into rehearsal for being "too young" for the role; he was replaced by Murray Hamilton. Also in 1967, he appeared in an episode of the television series The Invaders entitled " The Spores " and as Buck Barrow in 1967 's biographical crime drama Bonnie and Clyde, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
  
  A return to Broadway that same year, The Natural Look, ran for just one performance. Additionally, he performed Off-Broadway in Fragments and The Basement. Hackman was in episodes of Iron Horse ("Leopards Try, But Leopards Can't") and Insight ("Confrontation"). In 1968, he appeared in an episode of I Spy, in the role of "Hunter", in the episode "Happy Birthday... Everybody". That same year, he starred in the CBS Playhouse episode " My Father and My Mother " and the dystopian television film Shadow on the Land. In 1969, he played a ski coach in Downhill Racer and an astronaut in Marooned. Also that year, he played a member of a barnstorming skydiving team that entertained mostly at county fairs, a film which also inspired many to pursue skydiving and has a cult-like status amongst skydivers as a result: The Gypsy Moths. Hackman supported Jim Brown in two films, The Split (1968) and Riot (1969). Hackman nearly accepted the role of Mike Brady for the TV series The Brady Bunch, but his agent advised that he decline it in exchange for a more promising role, which he did, but this story is said to have been exaggerated.
  
  Acting was something I wanted to do since I was 10 and saw my first movie, I was so captured by the action guys. Jimmy Cagney was my favorite. Without realizing it, I could see he had tremendous timing and vitality.
  
  In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman. Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were voted "the least likely to succeed",: 7 and Hackman got the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had yet given. Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman moved to New York City. A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors and close friends, sharing New York apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s.
  
  To support himself between acting jobs, Hackman was working at a Howard Johnson's restaurant when he encountered an instructor from the Pasadena Playhouse, who said that his job proved that Hackman "wouldn't amount to anything." A Marine officer who saw him as a doorman said, "Hackman, you're a sorry son of a bitch." Rejection motivated Hackman, who said:
  
  It was more psychological warfare, because I wasn't going to let those fuckers get me down. I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you're really interested in acting there is a part of you that relishes the struggle. It's a narcotic in the way that you are trained to do this work and nobody will let you do it, so you're a little bit nuts. You lie to people, you cheat, you do whatever it takes to get an audition, get a job.
  
  Hackman began performing in several Off-Broadway plays, starting with Witness for the Prosecution in 1957 at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, New York, and including Come to the Palace of Sin in 1963. He got various bit roles, for example, in the film Mad Dog Coll and on multiple television series: Tallahassee 7000, The United States Steel Hour, Route 66, Naked City, The Defenders, The DuPont Show of the Week, East Side/West Side, and Brenner. In 1963, he made his Broadway debut in Children From Their Games, which had only a short run, as did A Rainy Day in Newark. However, Any Wednesday with actress Sandy Dennis was a huge Broadway success in 1964. This opened the door to film work. His first credited role was in Lilith, with Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty in the leading roles.
  
  Hackman returned to Broadway in Poor Richard (1964–65) by Jean Kerr, which ran for over a hundred performances. He continued to do television – The Trials of O'Brien, Hawk, and The F.B.I. – and had a small part as Dr. John Whipple in the epic film Hawaii. He had small roles in features like First to Fight (1967), A Covenant with Death (1967), and Banning (1967). Hackman was originally cast as Mr. Robinson in the 1967 Mike Nichols independent romantic comedy film The Graduate, but Nichols fired him three weeks into rehearsal for being "too young" for the role; he was replaced by Murray Hamilton. Also in 1967, he appeared in an episode of the television series The Invaders entitled " The Spores " and as Buck Barrow in 1967 's biographical crime drama Bonnie and Clyde, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
  
  A return to Broadway that same year, The Natural Look, ran for just one performance. Additionally, he performed Off-Broadway in Fragments and The Basement. Hackman was in episodes of Iron Horse ("Leopards Try, But Leopards Can't") and Insight ("Confrontation"). In 1968, he appeared in an episode of I Spy, in the role of "Hunter", in the episode "Happy Birthday... Everybody". That same year, he starred in the CBS Playhouse episode " My Father and My Mother " and the dystopian television film Shadow on the Land. In 1969, he played a ski coach in Downhill Racer and an astronaut in Marooned. Also that year, he played a member of a barnstorming skydiving team that entertained mostly at county fairs, a film which also inspired many to pursue skydiving and has a cult-like status amongst skydivers as a result: The Gypsy Moths. Hackman supported Jim Brown in two films, The Split (1968) and Riot (1969). Hackman nearly accepted the role of Mike Brady for the TV series The Brady Bunch, but his agent advised that he decline it in exchange for a more promising role, which he did, but this story is said to have been exaggerated.