Gene Hackman Reveals Melvyn Douglas Did Not Like Him in 1970

Gene Hackman said Melvyn Douglas did not like him while they worked on I Never Sang for My Father. The 1970 drama paired Hackman as Gene Garrison with Douglas as his father, and the distance between them stayed in place through production.

Gene Garrison and Melvyn Douglas

Hackman said, “I had admired Melvyn so much as an actor, but he didn't like me.” He added that Douglas had wanted someone else to play his fictional son, and said that hurt him. That is the sharpest detail in the account: the conflict was not abstract, but personal and specific to the casting of the son-father relationship on screen.

Hackman played Gene Garrison, a widowed college professor, opposite Douglas in Gilbert Cates’ film version of Robert Anderson’s 1968 play. The two actors kept away from each other during production, which gave the film’s family strain a real-world edge. Hackman’s own standing in the period already included major work in The French Connection, Bonnie and Clyde, Unforgiven and Mississippi Burning.

1970 Oscar recognition

Both men were nominated for Oscars for the film: Hackman for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Douglas for Best Actor in a Leading Role. That doubles the weight of the behind-the-scenes friction, because the same project that split the actors also brought them awards attention in separate categories. The result is a rare case where distance off camera lined up with the emotional shape of the story on it.

I Never Sang for My Father remains the key reference point here because the film did not just cast a son and father; it cast two performers who were visibly not at ease with each other. For readers revisiting Hackman’s work, that makes the movie more than a credits item from 1970. It is a record of how an uncomfortable working relationship can sit right inside a performance and still travel all the way to Oscar attention.