Gene Hackman is one of our greatest living actors. He broke through during the New Hollywood movement of the ‘60s, and was able to maintain his stardom up to his retirement in the mid-2000s. Unlike Al Pacino or Robert De Niro, who have continued to appear in blockbuster films, Hackman decided to step back from the spotlight and live out his retirement in anonymity. Well, sort of. The two-time Oscar winner has created a Streisand effect around himself, which is to say, he makes the news on the rare occasion he makes a public appearance.
Hackman went viral just for visiting a gas station. The actor, 94, grabbed a cup of coffee and went for a stroll on April 5, 2024, and New York Post ran an entire story about it. The story detailed what he was wearing, and even likened it to an outfit that he was seen in months prior. You read that correct: Gene Hackman sightings are so infrequent that outlets are breaking down his fashion choices.
Part of the reason Hackman is able to maintain his privacy is where he lives. He spent decades living amidst the hustle and bustle of New York and California, but now he resides in a quieter part of the country.
Gene Hackman lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Gene Hackman has lived in Santa Fe, Mexico since the late 1980s. He spent the first half of the decade in California, splitting time between a villa in Santa Barbara and a custom made home in Montecito. As the actor got older, however, he found himself increasingly drawn to Santa Fe. In a 1990 interview with Architectural Digest, Hackman said he first encountered New Mexico during a film shoot, and felt that it had a certain kind of “magic.”
Instead of building a house from scratch, however, Hackman decided to buy a fixer upper. He did, however, enlist the help of notable Santa Fe architects Harry Daple and Stephen Samuelson to help with the fixing. “The house was horrible,” Samuelson recalled. “It was a 1950s block building that had sat empty and had deteriorated. But it was a great site, and the foundation had been well placed on the land.” Daple and Samuelson got to work, and transformed the property into the actor’s dream home.
Hackman told Architectural Digest he wanted a house that was personable, as opposed to the opulence of the properties he owned in California:
“It’s totally different from my other houses. The Montecito house was very formal.”
Why did Gene Hackman retire from Hollywood?
Hackman’s pursuit of a quiet home life in Santa Fe seems to preface his decision to retire from acting. The actor decided to walk away from Hollywood following the release of the 2004 comedy Welcome to Mooseport was met with shock by many, as he was still considered a talent who was in high demand. Hackman told Empire Magazine that it was a stress test in New York that put things into perspective for him. “The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress,” he revealed.
Hackman fought peace in writing. He became an author, publishing his first novel, Wake of the Perdido Star, in 1999. “It’s very relaxing for me,” he noted. “I don’t picture myself as a great writer, but I really enjoy the process.” Hackman has received offers to return to the big screen, but he said that he’d much prefer to live out the rest of his days in the peace and quiet of his Santa Fe home. “I’m officially retired,” he asserted. “No doubt about it.”