‘He was quite a private person’: Expanded auction features Gene Hackman as actor and artist | Gene Hackman

He was the Lex Luthor to Christopher Reeve’s Superman. But could he have been Hannibal Lecter to Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling?

This intriguing possibility raises an unexpected 33-page screenplay draft for “The Silence of the Lambs” lying among a collection of the late actor Gene Hackman’s belongings that will go up for auction later this month.

The sale of more than 400 items from the belongings of Hackman – who won Oscars for his roles in The French Connection and Unforgiven – comes after his death earlier this year at the age of 95, and contains more than one surprise.

The story of the partial script goes back to Hackman calling Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs “one of the most cinematic books I’ve ever read” and buying a share of the film rights. “Gene wanted to direct and play Hannibal Lecter,” Harris’ agent, Robert Bookman, told Deadline in 2017.

Work on the script was underway when Hackman suddenly became frightened and abandoned the project, apparently because it was too dark. “Gene Hackman’s daughter read the book. She called her father and said, ‘Dad, you’re not making this movie,'” Bookman recalls.

Released in 1991, The Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Anthony Hopkins, won all five major Academy Awards. Hackman’s first instinct was about money.

“I think he was the original person who held out the rights to this and tried to make the movie,” Anna Hicks, head of special and creative collections at Bonhams, says over Zoom from Los Angeles. “And then I found online, basically, that people within his own circle were saying, ‘This is too scary, don’t do it.’ It’s very interesting to see that he started this project but was like, ‘Well, maybe not.’”

In February, Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead inside their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Authorities determined that Hackman died of heart disease with complications of Alzheimer’s about a week after Arakawa, 65, died of Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare disease spread through the droppings of infected rodents.

The Gene Hackman Collection: A Life in Art provides a poignant conclusion with annotated scripts, contact sheets, posters and behind-the-scenes photos from films such as Mississippi Burning, Runaway Jury, Hoosiers, Unforgiven, and Bonnie and Clyde. There are Golden Globe Awards as well as a Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award complete with a handwritten acceptance speech. (The Academy does not allow the resale of Oscars.)

But perhaps the big auction reveal has nothing to do with the movies. When he retired from acting in 2004, he left Hollywood to live a somewhat secluded life at the end of a dead-end street in a gated community in Santa Fe, exploring the rich and diverse outback to write novels, collect artwork, and paint pictures.

More than 70 of Hackman’s works are for sale and on display at Bonhams in Los Angeles. “He was quite a loner, which was a surprise to a lot of people,” Hicks says. “The first thing everyone says is, ‘This whole wall? He did all this? When did he have the time? Did he have the time?’

“Within the Santa Fe community, we learned that there were more people who knew he took art lessons from some local artists selling some of the magazines he had from those classes. Some of his teachers gave us nice quotes about working with him and how dedicated he was to mastering what he was trying to do.”

“For a global audience, this is strange. It’s something that no one knows about, but it’s also great to see behind the artist’s eyes rather than just in front of the camera,” she adds.

Among the items being auctioned are Hackman’s seascapes, still lifes, and copies he made of Henry Matisse’s Fruits and Bronzes and Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. He has a particular talent for portraiture, although buyers should not expect to find portraits of the film’s co-stars: most of the subjects are anonymous, meaning his art was surrounded by the Hollywood persona that defined his public life.

Hicks says it’s clear he studied hard and took his time. “We have books of sketches that show during this period how he went on and got better and better at it. This is one of the strongest areas of his work. There are a lot of Santa Fe landscapes as well as still lifes, but painting is probably my favorite of all the things he did.”

While working in an artist’s studio, Hackman created a 14-inch bronze bust of Arakawa, the classical pianist who was his wife for more than 30 years. The original signed plaster cast is included with the set. “We found a book from the studio he worked at that talked about him. He made the mold and someone else helped him make the bronze. It’s beautiful,” Hicks explains.

Hicks sees a clear dialogue between Hackman’s art and the works he collected, especially in the study of the human form and the use of color. His taste spanned the categories of postwar art, contemporary art, Western and Native American art, photography, and prints.

In 1997, Hackman purchased a dockside figure designed by American modernist Milton Avery. Depicting a lone figure on a jetty gazing out to sea, the painting is believed to have been inspired by summers Avery spent in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the late 1950s. It hangs in Hackman’s personal library, and is expected to sell for between $500,000 and $700,000.

Andrew Hopper, head of 20th and 21st century art at Bonhams, comments via Zoom from New York: “This is exactly what you want from Milton Avery. Good contrast in the color palette. This was before he had a medical problem that weakened him at the end of his career. Great beach scenes of this scale and oils on canvas are something the market is looking at, not just in the American market but also internationally.”

Other notable works include Green, 1986 by Richard Diebenkorn, estimated at $300,000 to $500,000, a color etching considered Diebenkorn’s most important print of the landmark Ocean Park series. There is a huge bronze by Auguste Rodin estimated to be worth between $200,000 and $300,000. The catalog also includes a portrait of Hackman’s likeness of portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler, who has drawn U.S. presidents and illustrated comic books.

Founded in 1793, Bonhams previously handled the estates of celebrities including Lauren Bacall, Diahann Carroll, Siegfried & Roy and Roger Moore. Hackman’s sales were staged at a live auction of 13 fine art lots in New York on November 19 and two subsequent online sales. Listings start as low as $100 for a Hackman’s Winmau dartboard or $600 for a shot at a Seiko diver’s wristwatch.