Gene Hackman’s 3 Children: All About Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie

Gene Hackman has kept his family life private throughout his decades-long career.

Hackman was married to his first wife, Faye Maltese, from 1956 to 1986. The couple had three children: a son, Christopher, and daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie. Five years after splitting from Maltese, who died in 2017, Hackman married classical pianist Betsy Arakawa.

Over the years, Hackman has kept quiet about his personal life, including his children, in interviews. In 1989, he told film critic John C. Tibbetts that audiences were attracted to him because he could be seen as “an ordinary man”, explaining: “I like to keep my personal life quite ordinary, so in my art you can let go and you can soar.”

Hackman, who announced his retirement from acting in 2004, reflected on the early days of his career at Larry King live when host Larry King asked him how he was able to handle the transition from a rare career to a famous one.

“I didn’t handle it well, really,” Hackman said. “I was worried about my family. My family never wanted anything, but because I was so in love with old Hollywood, with that glamor — even though I never got into it — I was really excited about it, the fact that I was a part of it and that I could be anything and everything who what I wanted.”

Gene Hackman with his children, Leslie, Christopher and Elizabeth.

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Hackman has made rare comments about his grown children The Irish Independent in August 2000, crediting them for his decision to pursue acting rather than settling for a role behind the camera. After acquiring the right to The Silence of the Lambs intending to make his directorial debut, he ultimately turned down the job, a decision he said he does not regret. “I have no second thoughts about that decision,” he said. “The kids helped me see that it’s just not the best thing for me.”

He also admitted it was “hard” being a celebrity’s child, adding: “I couldn’t always be at home with them growing up and then, living in California, my success was always hanging over their heads.”

Read on to learn more about Gene Hackman’s three children: Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie.

Christopher Allen Hackman, 63

Gene Hackman with his children, Leslie, Christopher and Elizabeth in 1978.

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Hackman and Maltese had their first child, a son, Christopher Allen Hackman, in 1960.

The two-time Academy Award winner sat down with journalist Leta Powell Drake in February 1984 for an interview about his film Misunderstood. When Drake asked Hackman if there was ever a day when he stopped hugging his son, then in his 20s, and opted for a handshake instead, he replied: “No, we still hug to this day and I thank God what we can do it.”

He added: “I don’t think we’ll ever have a moment where we have to shake hands. That for me was a real effort in the film and one of the coldest things a person can do is not to be aware and to be insensitive to that need of a child to be wrapped in his father’s arms.”

Hackman also talked about parenting in a 2011 interview GQ. When asked if he gave any advice to his son, the actor said, “I lost touch with my son early on in terms of advice.”

He continued: “Maybe it had something to do with him being away so much, doing location films when he was at an age where he needed support and guidance. It was very difficult for me to be away for three months and then to come home and start commanding him.”

While reflecting on his path to becoming a novelist, Hackman during a January 2020 interview with Empire magazine.

“My son thought he wanted to be an actor for a while and he was in New York and I wrote him some little monologues,” he said. “I guess that’s where I started. I really enjoyed it. Ideas would just pop into my head and I would write them down.”

Elizabeth Jean Hackman, 61

Gene Hackman and Elizabeth Hackman.

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Hackman and Maltese had their second child, a daughter, Elizabeth Jean Hackman, in August 1962.

Not much is known about Elizabeth, and Hackman rarely talks about his family in interviews. Although he did not specify which of his two daughters he was talking about, he once told an honest story about the difficult period of his career in the 70s and 80s.

“I used to have to borrow my daughter’s car to go to interviews in Hollywood,” he said Cigar lover 2000. “Just a piece—- Toyota and I’d have to park it several blocks away [away] and to walk so that I would not be considered so necessary. … I was barely hanging on, taking almost anything that was offered to me and trying to do it.”

As children, Elizabeth and her younger sister, Leslie, were photographed sitting on their dad’s lap while he wore a Los Angeles Dodgers jersey to a celebrity baseball game.

Elizabeth also attended several events with her father, including a screening of the film in December 1978 Supermanin which he played the supervillain Lex Luthor, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC Years later, in October 1996, she was photographed at the premiere of Hackman’s film Chamber in Beverly Hills, California, along with his sister and stepmother Betsy Arakawa.

Leslie Anne Hackman, 57

Gene Hackman and Leslie Hackman.

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Hackman and Maltese had their third child, daughter Leslie Anne Hackman, in October 1966.

As with her older siblings, not much is known about Hackman’s youngest children. In 1984, journalist Bobbie Wygant spoke with Hackman about his film Misunderstood and asked whether the film moved him more as a father or as a son, who had a strained relationship with his own father.

“They’re almost exclusively with me to my kids in terms of how I worked on it, in terms of the misunderstanding between the father and the kids,” he said of his role. “My youngest daughter saw the film and it really affected her. But I think she was affected because it was a movie, not because I was in it. She liked it as a movie and recommended it to her girlfriends and will see it at a screening this week. She was very enthusiastic about it, and I hope the older children are too.”

Leslie has been photographed with her father over the years, including at several movie premieres. In January 1984, she attended the 41st Golden Globe Awards with Hackman. They also went to the premiere of the film in December 1990 The Godfather Part III and the premiere of the film in March 1991 Class action.

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Source: HIS Education