Your three favorite Gene Hackman performances

I find his performance in The Poseidon Adventure incredibly powerful, especially in the scene after poor Shelley Winters has just died. Yes, the film is a hacky disaster film, but I honestly think Hackman is superb here, and it's partly because his Reverend Scott is such a self-righteous, and even irritating, SOB, that I think it works so well. He's the hero, he's the guy whose wisdom and conviction lead at least a few of the ship's passengers to safety, and yet there's no mistaking that he can be a right a-hole at times. And that to me is how heroes should be portrayed. It's too easy to make heroic protagonists flawless. It's much more interesting when they're given shades of grey, and where one can see how they might put people off despite their best efforts and their otherwise admirable qualities.

That said, Hackman is one of my all-time favourite actors more for his whole body of work rather than for any two or three outstanding performances. He's one of those actors who manages to elevate an otherwise mediocre film simply by his mere presence.