You go through stages in your career that you feel very good about yourself. Then you feel awful, like, 'Why didn't I choose something else?' But overall I'm pretty satisfied that I made the right choice when I decided to be an actor.

He followed this with leading roles in the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) which was nominated for several Oscars. Already seen as outsiders by their classmates Hackman and Hoffman were later voted "The Least Likely To Succeed. Hackman is an avid fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars and regularly attended Jaguars games as a guest of then head coach Jack Del Rio.

Nominated for five Academy Awards winning two Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman (born January 30 1930) is a retired American actor and novelist.