What Happened To Gene Hackman? Twitter Users Rally To Support Hollywood Legend

Gene Hackman is a Hollywood legend. It seems like an impossible task to rank the best Gene Hackman movies because there are so many, from "The French Connection" to "The Conversation" to "Superman: The Movie." His last film role was 2004's "Welcome to Mooseport" and at 94 years old, he's retired from acting, which makes it odd and inexplicable that The New York Post would hassle him over his wardrobe choices in this day and age. 

The outlet posted one of its articles to X (formerly known as Twitter) with the caption, "Gene Hackman, 94, spotted in new photos wearing nearly identical outfit from weeks earlier." It's odd that a major publication would concern itself with the wardrobe of an elderly retiree just going about his business, and the internet quickly took the publication to task. X user @willchamberlain stated succinctly, "This is one of the great actors of our time, please leave him alone."

The X account for the production company Blumhouse wrote, "Gene Hackman is one of the greatest actors on the planet! 'French Connection,' 'Superman,' 'The Firm,' 'Get Shorty,' 'Young Frankenstein,' 'Hoosiers,' 'Mississippi Burning,' 'Bonnie and Clyde' ... the list is endless. You can f*** right off from criticizing this man's wardrobe." There's a reason people don't hear much from Hackman anymore, so perhaps it would be best to leave him alone and let him enjoy his retirement. Every 94-year-old should be allowed to grab a coffee at the gas station in peace.

Gene Hackman doesn't really do interviews anymore and has largely retreated from public life. Despite this, The New York Post has seemingly hounded him for weeks now. The outlet published an article on March 29 about an outing the actor had with his wife. On April 9, it published a separate article with photos of Hackman at a gas station. It's not exactly riveting stuff, as he's merely walking around, and the publication even got called out via an X community note. The additional context points out how the photos published on social media show him in the same outfit, but both pictures are from the same day. If a person goes to the two articles, he's wearing a different shirt each time but with the same vest and hat. 

Plenty of X users also called out The New York Post for seemingly shaming Hackman for the common practice of wearing similar outfits. X user @Thor_Odinson was incredibly direct: "You may be shocked to know this, but clothes are typically worn more than once." Even if he wore the same thing weeks apart, it would have to be an extremely slow news day for that to matter to almost anyone. User @BeyondFest made this really solid point: "Gene Hackman can wear whatever he wants whenever he wants. He quit acting to live out his years in peace and quiet, leave him alone, you vampires."

As one of the few actors from "Superman: The Movie" who's still alive, the world should be so lucky to still have Hackman around. With everything else going on in the world, multiple articles about what a guy wears out in public seem unnecessary.