Gene Hackman’s Movie Clothes Never Felt Like a Costume

In his era, Hackman wasn’t the sort of guy held up as a personification of masculinity, like Burt Reynolds or Clint Eastwood; nor was he the type of man that most women swooned over, like Steve McQueen or Robert Redford. He was just a dude—and he excelled at dressing like one. This was never more apparent than when he did Westerns like Unforgiven or The Quick and the Dead; Hackman looked especially comfortable in denim, leather, and Stetson hats. Hackman didn’t quite fit the mold of a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, but I always felt like he seemed more natural than those guys in Westerns, partially because he looked the part. He didn’t look or dress like the fictional idea of what we consider a “cowboy,” and that’s what made him so great in those sorts of films.

Get Shorty (1995)

©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection

Hackman was never flashy. I’d say the closest he got to that was in The Birdcage, when he’s smuggled away from the press in drag. He’s not given credit for being fashionable because, simply put, he wasn’t a fashionable guy. I don’t think somebody like Hackman would be able to work as well in today’s Hollywood, where—for better or worse—how you look and what you wear offscreen play such an essential role in the larger story. What he did have was unshakable confidence no matter what he had on. He always looked at ease, whether he was wearing something understated like a shirt, tie, and Dockers in Postcards From the Edge, or (my personal favorite of all his looks) Harry Zimm’s khaki safari coats and, yes, turtlenecks in 1995’s Get Shorty. You could tell that Harry—a gambling addict and B-movie director—was far past his prime just by looking at his clothes. But Hackman, as he did in every role, managed to make him appealing by absolutely owning it.