Gene Hackman passes away

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, First and foremost, i'd like to say before
we get the show started, Chuck and Zach, I'd like
you guys to try to stay focused today during the show.
I know you're excited. Justin Timberlake is tonight at Nationwide Arena.
I know you're both going together.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
In just a second, I gotta publicly tingle. Okay, there
we go. I'm done.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Are you tingling still? Or are you done too? Zach?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm upset that you wouldn't let me leave early so
I could be the first one down there.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I have seen a couple of it's odd to some
of my Facebook friends who are I don't know, we'll
call him middle aged. I'll just leave it at that.
Women of posting how excited they are to be going
to this tonight, And I thought to myself, I go,
is that his audience now? Is that Justin Timberlake's audience?

(00:53):
Is it middle aged women? Yes? I always think of
him as of course that's the solo after in Sync.
But I always think, like, have those women become middle
aged already? The ones who really liked you know, in
sinc Dirty Pop and then you know, the Justin Timberlake.
But I guess it is right thirty years ago. Mark, What, No,

(01:16):
it can't be.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
I mean, go to a New Kid's on the Block concert.
The walkers standing in line there just to get into
the show. It's amazing. Hold On's wheelchairs n KOTB. Yeah, no,
that was they.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Were before in sync, weren't They weren't at the same
time they were earlier in the same few years. Oh,
I thought it was earlier. They swore that was the eighties,
the late eights.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I don't even know why they still call themselves new
Kids on the old Guys down the street as well.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
They have a they have a residency starting. They can't
believe it. Oh well, they still sell like a lot
of a lot of anyway, let's get to it. One
of the greatest actors in history is gone at the
age of ninety five. He and his wife and a
dog found in their Santa Fe, New Mexico home. And
the very latest is Gene Hackman was in a mud room.

(02:02):
They found him there. I did hear somebody speak of something.
I heard the word mummified used. Now when I think
of mummified, I think a king tut or you know,
something along those lines. But they said that they must
have been deceased for a little while. I don't know
what a little while is. However, he was in a
mud room, his wife was in a bathroom. There were

(02:26):
prescription pills or pills they said, I guess they didn't
say prescription, but the bottle was there, the pills were
on the floor. The dog was in a closet. Based
on what I remember hearing, and it was a well
being check, how they look. And so there was a
space eater that was knocked over in that bathroom with

(02:46):
her Betsy I believe it's her name. So that was
That's the very latest right now with regard to that.
But yeah, we were just talking about you know, actors
and aging actors and so on. And I'll be interested
to see how long. First of all, by the way,
I did a just a quick check, and he's worth

(03:06):
about eighty million dollars. But he's a guy that lived frually,
I think, right. I mean you would see him walking
around that town, I think, and he's.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Going into the little story, Yeah, his coffee in the morning.
And did you see the house. I didn't even see
that house look like anything extravagant at all.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Like a couple thousand square feet.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Ye, nothing crazy, nothing that looks yeah maybe maybe I
don't know, twenty four hundred square feet.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Okay, just an average, regular looking house.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, you know, maybe there's something aside from the news
footage that I've been looking at so far, but I mean,
everything that I've seen, it just looks like a normal,
normal home.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
It's weird to think that he was ninety five because
the last time you kind of remember him doing, you know,
part of his body of work, he didn't look anything
like what the current pictures of him, right, So it's
hard to believe he's been out of the spotlight long
enough to look like the guy that has passed away.

(04:06):
Is kind of what I mean, if you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
You know, the first speculation this morning that I saw
as soon as I got on social media, people started
basically insinuating that, you know, it was a murder suicide
thing or whatever. However, the Sheriff's office spokesperson has already
said there's no indication that any of them have been
shot or had other types of wounds. I'm only going

(04:29):
by what I have seen of him over the years.
I that's how Gene Hackman would go out. If Gene
Hackman chose to go out the fact that I just
I don't I want this to be carbon monoxide. I
want this to be something like that, because I it
just it hurts me. I love this guy. The old
guy's Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Walter Mathow. There are some

(04:52):
of those old guys. They could have done anything, and
I would go see it. I went to see movie
once called Hanging Up with Walter Mathow in it. He
was in it for like seven maybe eight seconds. But
I didn't know that was a girly movie. But because
he was in it, I went to go see that movie.
These these guys like chick Flick, Yeah, very definitely. It's
about five girls trying to take care of their aging

(05:14):
dad and that kind of thing. But it just you know,
they're they're they're legends. These guys were bigger than anything
Hollywood has to offer today, and we're losing them one
at a time, and it just, yeah, it does make
me sad because nobody really is out there that I
look at these days and go I would go see anything.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
This person was in Zach Attack and I were talking
about his body of work. It's enormous. It is enormous.
I forgot all of the different because I was doing
a little research. I've just forgot about all of the
things that he's in that were just so good.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
My favorites are The French Connection, Enemy of the State,
and Believe it or not, Welcome to Mooseport with Ray Romano.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
It was an entertaining movie.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
I enjoyed it had showed his comical side.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Unforgiven's my favorite with him? Well, one of them, It's
hard to Do uh. And then what was the one
that zach we we uh with John Cusack where it's
a there's a jury. I thought he was really good
enough under suspicion? Is it something? Yeah? Yeah, I think
it was under suspicion Runaway Jerry. That's it. That's it.

(06:27):
He's incredibly fascinating when you go back over his body
of work. And so I started looking up some of
the some of the really interesting things things you probably
may or may not know about him. But he was
at the Pasadena Playhouse. While he was there, listen to
this Hackman and a classmate, they were voted least likely

(06:48):
to succeed the classmate Dustin Hoffman. How funny is that? Right?
That's like I am done. As soon as I saw that,
I started dying laughing. I'm like, oh, those people probably
don't want to be They're like, no, no, no, don't
hell us please. Oh yeah, good call there, good call,
runaway jury. That was the first time he and a

(07:12):
former roommate, Dustin Hoffmann, performed on the screen together. So
two thousand and three was when that's the first time
they actually performed together on screen. He retired from acting
at seventy eight, the age of seventy eight, so almost
twenty years what would that be twenty three years ago?
Ninety five, right, So I just didn't realize it had

(07:34):
been that long. Also, of course I loved his version
of Lex Luthor was I thought was great? Was it,
Miss Fischbacher? Is that what test poker? Test boxer, Tess Poker?
That's it?

Speaker 2 (07:46):
I love the way oh and ned Baty, Dear Lord
Gene Hagman and ned Baty together were hilarious. I love
the way they interacted so good.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Initially, did you know this? He was reluctant to take
this role of Superman and nineteen seventy eight, you know
why he didn't want to shave off his mustache. He
said that he had recently grown this mustache and he
just didn't want to take it off. Richard Donner made
a deal with him. He goes, if you shave it off,
he would shave his off as well, Donner, and so

(08:16):
Hackman did so. Donna revealed the mustache that he he
ended up giving him, and it was a fake mustache
that he used. It was hilarious. They both, by the way,
Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman, their big breaks were in
nineteen sixty seven Bonnie and Clyde was Gene Hackman in
nineteen sixty seven, and then Hoffman in The Graduate nineteen

(08:39):
sixty seven.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
See now you're making me worry about Dustin Hoffman. And
because he's about the same age obviously, Yeah, classmates.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Different different shape though, I think he just seems more so,
much more feeble than Hackman did.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah to me, Hoffman and Pacino, that's another one that
I'm kind of worried about it.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, did you know that Gene Hackman was the not second,
not third, not fourth, not fifth, the sixth, sixth choice
to play Popeye Doyle in The French Connection.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
I had no idea he was the sixth. He's perfect
for that role.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
They passed up five other people to get to him,
to get the perfect guy. I mean, isn't that crazy?
It's crazy, Yes, it is. His personal favorite was his
performance in The Scarecrow from nineteen seventy three. He listened
to this. He turned down lead roles in Jaws nineteen
seventy five, Close Encounters of the Third Kind in seventy seven,

(09:38):
and Raiders of the Lost arg in eighty one. Hackman
turned those down, turned down Raiders. I know. I couldn't
see him in Closer Spielberg, right, all of those are Spielberg.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, I could not have seen him in Close Encounters,
but I could it was as Roy Scheider's character. If
he was to play Chief Brody and Jaws, I think
Hackman would have been excellent at that or Quint. He
would have been excellent Quin too.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah. After he played Little Bill and Unforgiven, he vowed
not to appear in any more violent films. Gosh, I
thought he was so good in that. Him and Clint
Eastwood had just it was just magic watching those two. Dude.
I watched that as much as I can find it whatever.
I don't necessarily put it on and watch it from
the beginning, but when it's on. I can't stop. I

(10:22):
always watched that movie after he'd been in violent films,
dating back to Bonnie and Clyde. The French Connection. He
refused in a role, by the way, refused by Peter
Boyle for the same reasons. He said he was fed
up with those the movies, the violent films, so he stopped.
There's just so much fascinating stuff about him. Oh, listen

(10:45):
to this, this is great. Dustin Hoffman. Of course roommates.
They would go to the apartment rooftop and play the drums.
Hoffman played the bongo drums. Hackman played the conga drums.
They did it out of their love for Marlon brand
who they heard played music in clubs. They wanted to
be like Brando. They were big fans of his. Marlon

(11:06):
Brando really really cool. There's so much stuff here. He
was the first choice to play Mike Brady on the
Brady Bunch series. That would not have worked. Gene Hackman
is Mike Brady.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
I read The French Connection. We were talking about that. He
saw it once during the initial when they first had
finished the cut and everything, and he said that's the
only time he ever saw it.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, he said it made him nervous to watch himself
on screen. He said he didn't like watching himself and
it literally made him anxious and nervous. He said he
would it would make him. And I think a lot
of actors are like that because what they'll do is
and they start splitting hairs. I mean, they watch it,
even if it's you know, penned as one of the
greatest performances ever, They'll always go, I could have done

(11:55):
this better. I could have done that better. I feel
like that's the mark of a lot of really talented people,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Apparently he built another property, another house, and I think
that's what I'm looking at in this because I went
in and did some checking on his property. He actually
has a very nice big home as well, but he
built a second property. I think that's what they're showing in.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
That in Santa Fe. Yeah. Yeah, three point.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Eight million dollars Santa Fe home is what they're valuing
it at. So it's still not extravagant by Hollywood standards
at all.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
It's got to the legacy retirement group dot com phone lines,
Hey Casey.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Hey Laser Chuck, how are you today?

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Hey? Brother?

Speaker 4 (12:29):
You know one thing about one thing. One thing about
gene Athlee that he played in a couple of movies
that you didn't mention yet.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
The one was The Firm, Oh yeah, it's awesome Tom Cruise.
Awesome with Tom Cruise.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
And then the other one was Hoosiers.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
And they have they have a gymnasium over there in Knightstown, Indiana,
And I'm an Ohio high school basketball official and I
did a game over there a couple of years ago.
And what's amazing is is all the people that work
at this Hoojia gym over there are just so you know, enlightened,
and they know everything about the Hoosier movie and everything.
And there's pictures of Hackman over there in the you know,

(13:09):
on the on the premises, and it was just really cool.
But yeah, he was he was quite talent.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
That is really cool. Shot on location there. That is
really cool. Man.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yeah, I got to do a game over there and
it was really really cool. The gym is super small, yeah,
I mean, it's just like it is back in the
fifties when they when they played over there.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
So yeah, very cool. Man. We lost the Holy Cow,
one of the greatest actors in history, right, I mean,
it's so sad, so sad. Thanks, Casey, appreciate that. That's
very interesting. Ninety five pretty good run, right, but yeah,
but you know, boy, if we find out it was
something that was a mistake and you know why not
one hundred yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
They checked for natural gas leaks and apparently are checking
for carbon monoxide and everything else right now. So showing
the fact that they're doing that checking actually makes me happy.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, I feel like they're not going to discover anything
like that, although it would point to the fact that
his wife and his dog, one of the dogs, because
there was another one they reported was still running around
the property. So behind enemy lines, I was looking at
some of these enemy of the state you mentioned with
Will Smith. That was a great movie. Fantastic movie, absolutely

(14:23):
about the quirky The bird Cage, oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah,
Crimson Tide.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Of course, you know, seeing macho men in gay type
films like that like Bird Cage and James Garner when
he did Victor Victoria with Julie Andrews was the same way.
It's like, I don't know, they.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Were cool thumb almost what they were called.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Favorites for gay viewers. But it just it seemed so odd.
But then I'd watch it and go, well, yeah, that
was actually pretty good.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, there's Mississippi Burning. I'm just looking through kind of scroll.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
I'll watch that anytime it's on anywhere. Mississippi Burning was
a great movie.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, uncommon valor split decisions. I mean, BAT twenty one.
Is that the one you were talking about? Zach Atteka Okay.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
It's based on a real guy. I can't pronounce his
name because the real guy's like Isol Hambleton. I think
he was a pilot in Vietnam and he got shot down. Yeah,
and he had to spend like twelve days behind enemy
lines just surviving.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
The book was good, but the movie's great.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Like it's very underrated movie, so highly suggest anybody check
it out.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah. Yeah, my mom just text and she's like, you know,
she mentioned Hoosier. She's like, what, and how I know
she loves that movie. It's like, yeah, well, gosh, his
body of work is on and on and on. It's crazy.
But h Man, rest easy, Gene Hackman, He's gone. It's crazy.
That's the thing that it's the hardest, even though yeah,

(15:54):
like I said, you know, ninety five, but especially if
we find out it was an accident or something that
have been prevented. That's the thing that it's going to
be the hardest jagged pill to swallow, if you can
in this if you will rather in this situation, we
also are going to get the report. A little over
an hour from now, we'll get the very latest, uh

(16:15):
they have, you know, they've it's suspicious enough to require
search warrant and as you know, it's being investigated now.
So we'll get the very latest. Little over an hour
from now, we'll have Alex Stone is gonna jump on
with us and give us the very latest thing, So
stand by for that