Superman - Gene Hackman Best Lex Luthor On Screen

Welcome back to the channel, guys. I hope you're having a great Friday afternoon as we get ready to go into the weekend. And so I just want to talk about the best Lex Luthor on silver screen. All right, um, most, most everybody knows this by now, but Gene Hackman, who portrayed Lex Luthor in the original Superman, or the 1978 Superman film, um, was found dead in his New Mexico home with his wife. Um, and this has a— the case is coming out is very under some very strange circumstances, right? So unfortunately, I'm bad at any kind of investigative reporting. And as strange as this case seems, you know, it hasn't been released exactly, you know, what's happened to Gene Hackman as far as I know yet. I do know he was 95 years old. Him and his wife was found dead. It's led some to believe it might be related to carbon monoxide poisoning, right? Uh, so, uh, there was a case similar that happened— well, not similar, but you guys probably remember an actress by the name of Brittany Murphy. She starred in the Clueless film, right? Uh, she starred in some other films, uh, going into the early 2000s, uh, with Ashton Kutcher, I believe. Um, but mostly known for her role in Clueless, right, with, um, Alicia Silverstone. Excuse me, I'm dying here myself. Um, so excuse me, guys. So she was, um, you know, found dead in her home as well. Now, it took, it took a while for them to figure out. It was like a big mystery for a long time. I remember that. And it took a while for them to figure out what she died of, uh, years, uh, not long after her husband actually died, I believe in the same house as well. So, you know, there could be so many hazards in a house that could be undetected, you know, whether it be carbon monoxide, some kind of mold poisoning or something like that. And I forgot what it was in her case, but it all turned out to be natural causes, right? You know, that said, uh, this could— this could have been anything. It could have been a heist gone wrong. Uh, one report says it was pills, you know, all over the, you know, the room. Uh, I don't know what the details was with his wife. It's always strange when people die together, but I don't know what the details were with his wife, as his wife Um, you know, uh, was— I think they saw her body first. Someone reported through a window laying down, and she was laying like she was dead. So they called the police reporting she was dead. And just, just a lot of strange stuff that hopefully we'll get the details on. But, you know, in relationships, and, you know, we can only speculate what happens, and of course none of this had to be the case, but Uh, it's just so hard with these cases because, uh, the comedian Phil Hartman, uh, many people remember his wife killed him and killed herself after, right? So, you know, you know, you just don't know what's going on with people in their lives. You can only, you know, I just— you could only wish that, you know, Gene Hackman, uh, in his twilight years, uh, retiring since early 2000s. Um, you know, uh, however his life ended, hopefully it wasn't painful, and hopefully he had, uh, lived a full life of peace. You know, uh, uh, at 95, uh, that's a, you know, I would say that's not a bad age to have to go if you gotta go. Uh, now a, a few other things I didn't know about Gene Hackman, you know, he, you know, besides the Superman films, he was— he's, he's been great in other— a lot of other movies. I didn't know he— he's played military roles several times, and I never knew he had been, um, in the military for 4 years, right? So because sometimes in these military movies I would see him in, movies like Crimson Tide, Behind Enemy Lines, uh, I was like, you know, he's acting like this big bad military guy, and I just always wonder, you know, I thought he was kind of— I was, I always wondered, like, is he just being a good actor here, studied military roles and such, or is he really a, uh, a military person? So I did find out he really was in the military. So, uh, just a great actor, uh, full life, full career. I did The French Connection. I remember watching that film as a kid and, uh, you know, just, you know, uh, being intrigued by it, but Um, I guess it's kind of like a tribute as to say he was the best Lex Luthor on film, on screen. Now it's very important that I say on film, on screen, because we've seen some pretty big contenders for best Lex Luthor on, you know, in, on, you know, in television, uh, in TV shows and such, right? Many of us will say Michael Rosenbaum of the Smallville series is the best Lex Luthor bar none, right? And that's my opinion as well. He's the best Lex Luthor. But unfortunately, Smallville never made it to screen, right? If, you know, if Smallville would have done like all the HBO shows, which I wish they would have done, I wish we— or all those MTV shows, you know, I like how all the MTV shows would go and get You know, full films after they run a TV series. Wouldn't that have been so great with Smallville, and then he puts on a suit? Now Tom Welling, right, is saying he would, you know, he wouldn't mind doing something like that because he has kids now. You know, when you're young, uh, you don't think about those things, right? You don't think about how important that is for your kids to see you. But he's open to it now. Maybe he could do an older version of Superman, I don't know. But Bottom line, that television series had the best Lex Luthor. And then some people, uh, would say, uh, the next best Lex Luthor would maybe be— I would say Kevin Spacey, right? Now Kevin Spacey said that he didn't watch Superman, right? He didn't watch the original Superman, which is hard to believe but believable. Maybe he wasn't a comic book guy. I've heard stories like that before. But he also said he didn't want to watch Gene Hackman because he didn't want to cheat. But I almost find that hard to believe, and I'm saying that because Kevin Spacey's portrayal of Lex Luthor was very close, uh, to the Gene Hackman portrayal. And, uh, I thought that was so awesome. I thought that made so much sense in Superman Returns because remember Superman Returns was supposed to be continuation of those films, right? And so every, you know, the, the Brandon Roth looked like Christopher Reeves, uh, Kevin Spacey acted like Gene Hackman, right? I just thought it all worked well because of that. Um, but after you get, uh, to the second slot on film, which would be Gene Hackman I'm sorry, which would be, um, Kevin Spacey. Uh, then the only other people left— person left would be Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal in, um, Man of Steel, right? In, uh, Justice League, rather. Uh, Batman v Superman, whatever, you know. Uh, which, you know, here's the thing about that. They tried to say that they came back after they got so much blowback on his portrayal of Lex Luthor, and they said, oh well, you know, that's not Lex Luthor, that's his son, that's, uh, Lex Luthor Jr., which I just thought was ridiculous, you know, which I thought was ridiculous. Where's the real Lex Luthor, right? So it was dumb, uh, but they tried to do something, and that obviously was a You know, not to pick on the Snyder fans again, but they claim that, you know, this new Superman film is going to be so goofy, right? But they didn't think that portrayal of Eisenberg was goofy, which I thought it was, in a so-called grounded superhero film, right? So, but that's the Snyderverse for you. So Uh, I wouldn't rank him— I will rank him as zero, nowhere on here, but, uh, he would have to come in somewhere on screen. Then of course you have other television— you have a couple other television versions of Lex Luthor, which would be, uh, the one from Teen Titans, which, um, I never really got deep into Teen Titans, but I saw some scenes with him and, uh, he was a digestible Lex Luthor. In fact I would— I liked him better than the Supergirl Lex Luthor, but a lot of people like the— there's Jon Cryer. Yeah, Jon Cryer. I just know him from the— a lot of the teen movies, right? Uh, Jon Cryer from the, um, uh, uh, Two and a Half Dads, right? Is that right? Not Two and a Half Dads, uh The, uh, the one he does with Charlie Sheen, right? Um, Two and a Half Men, something like that. Um, and so he was actually in Superman 4 alongside, uh, Gene Hackman, right? So that, that's interesting. You could kind of say he inherited the Lex Luthor mantle. Uh, he played, I believe, Lex Luthor's nephew. Right, in that Superman 4 movie, which had Gene Hackman and him in it. Then he becomes Lex Luthor. That was interesting. Not saying Jon Cryer was a bad Lex Luthor, he just wasn't one I would prefer. But in any event, he wasn't on screen. Gene Hackman wasn't. And that's why Gene Hackman remains the best Lex Luthor on film, right? And, uh, just a veteran, seasoned actor, right? You know, you, you can't go toe-to-toe with the experience of someone like Gene Hackman and come off, you know, as the best person to do that role, right? And the other thing about it, you know, even though you can kind of say that the version that Gene Hackman portrayed, it was a kind of— it was a '70s superhero film. It was a kind of, you know, although I felt the original Superman did have a lot of grounding elements. It was a very emotional film, obviously. It had a lot. It's just a perfect superhero film to me, right? But it did have a lot of realistic grounding in it. And Gene Hackman, he could kind of, you know, he could kind of be a little bit goofy, but then he could reach to a very serious nature portrayal of Lex Luthor in there. You're like, whoa, this guy's really scary, right? Like when they were going to blow up California and all that. So he did a great job of that. Gene Hackman, veteran actor. And, uh, Russell, we thank him for his contributions to the Superman mythos. And I hope everything, uh, you know, works okay with Gene, uh, without— with his case. And I— if there's anything wrong, I hope justice is served. But I'm just hoping that it is a peaceful, natural cause death, right? That's what I'm hoping for. But anyway, that's all I'm going to say in this video, guys. I, I, I— if you like content like this, don't forget to like, subscribe. Until next time, as always, take care of yourselves and each other.