Gene Hackman said this was his biggest career regret

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his death at age 95.The actor had a catalog of iconic roles, which earned him five Academy Award nominations and two wins. Hackman took home his first Oscar for “The French Connection” in 1972 and his second in 1993 for “Unforgiven.”In 1999, the star opened up about the one regret he had in his decades-long career. “I wish that maybe in the … late ’70s and early ’80s that I had moved back to New York and kept more in touch with the theater so that I could have maybe expanded my craft and kept more in touch with what acting means to me,” Hackman told journalist Charlie Rose.“I’d have to be comfortable,” he said of returning to his roots on the stage. “I’ve lived a soft life too long to camp out.” Hackman started his career in the theater in the ’60s, appearing in a slew of Broadway plays like “Any Wednesday,” “A Rainy Day in Newark,” “The Natural Look” and “Poor Richard.”At the 2003 Golden Globes, Hackman received the Cecil B.

DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.He said at the time, “I never wanted to be anything but an actor.”In 1986, while promoting his sports film “Hoosiers,” Hackman got candid on what it takes to be a “good” actor.The film star said the key was confidence.“You have to have some sense of ego about yourself to be in this business,” explained Hackman. “I have a degree of confidence about myself as an actor.

That doesn’t mean that I think I’m king of the hill, or anything else, but I think you have to have that. That sense that when you walk onstage and you take stage — and I mean that in film also — that there’s a sense of command about what you do.