For awhile, Gene Hackman was omnipresent in film. There's a joke in the movie PCU, where one of the frat boys is obsessed with proving that there's always a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie on TV, and sure enough between 1980 and 2000 (his most prolific two decades), he made thirty seven movies. Yet, after 2004's WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT, he abruptly retired and could not be lured back no matter how hard folks tried. So let's take a look at Hackman's amazing career - from his iconic turn as Popeye Doyle in THE FRENCH CONNECTION, through Lex Luthor in SUPERMAN- THE MOVIE, to perhaps his greatest latter-day role, Royal in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS.