By Justin Enriquez for Dailymail.com
20:30 08 Mar 2023, Update 20:40 08 Mar 2023
Reclusive actor Gene Hackman, 93, certainly looks like he has good genes as he looked healthy as he was spotted for the first time in years as he hasn’t acted in a movie for nearly two decades.
The legendary two-time Oscar winner appeared to be in fine form as he was seen in his hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico on Sunday.
Hackman – who has had over 100 credits under his belt – had a very active day as he was seen doing yard work on his ranch with a shovel in hand.
Before that, the retired actor enjoyed a fast food lunch in a parking lot in his white truck after hitting a drive-thru from Wendy.
The Royal Tenenbaums actor then refueled in two different ways by pumping petrol and having a coffee at a petrol station.
Hackman was perfectly dressed for an active day as he wore a black Columbia fleece sweater over a gray long sleeve t-shirt, blue jeans and black trainers.
He made sure to protect himself from the sun by wearing a pair of black sunglasses and a khaki-colored baseball cap.
His gray hair was tucked behind his ear under the headgear as he sported his signature mustache.
It was certainly a rare Hackman sighting as his last film role was alongside Ray Romano and Christine Baranski in the 2004 comedy Welcome to Mooseport.
On July 7, 2004, Hackman gave a rare interview to Larry King where he announced that he had no new film projects in sight and believed his acting career was over.
Years later, he confirmed his retirement while promoting his third novel Escape From Andersonville in 2008.
In 2011, GQ asked him if he would ever come out of retirement to do another movie, to which Hackman replied, “if I could do it at my house, maybe, without them messing up anything. either and just one or two people”. ‘
However, he hasn’t stayed completely out of the industry, as he has narrated two Marine Corps documentaries: The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima (2016) and We, The Marines (2017).
Hackman began his acting career nearly 70 years ago when he joined the Pasadena Playhouse in 1956 where he befriended budding actor Dustin Hoffman.
He eventually moved to New York and began acting in several Off-Broadway television roles in 1963.
The comedian really made a name for himself in the 1970s when he was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category for the 1970s film I Never Sang For My Dad.
The following year, he officially became a leading man in incredible fashion when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as New York detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle in The French Connection (1971).
He went on to have consistent work, including the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974) before landing the role of supervillian Lex Luthor in 1978’s Superman: The Movie.
In the 1980s he starred in several films including Reds (1981), Under Fire (1983), Hoosiers (1986), No Way Out (1987) and Mississippi Burning (1988).
The 1990s brought him his second Oscar winning Best Supporting Actor for his work as sadistic Sheriff “Little” Bill Daggett alongside Clint Eastwood in 1992’s Unforgiven.
He completed this decade by also playing in Narrow Margin (1990), Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), The Firm (1993), The Chamber (1996), Wyatt Earp (1994), The Quick And The Dead (1995) , Crimson Tide (1995), Get Shorty (1995), Absolute Power (1997), The Birdcage (1996) and Enemy Of The State (1998).
Hackman continued to be active in the early 2000s with roles in Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Heist (2001), Runaway Jury (2003) and even won the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy for The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001.