Taps

I've never been the Gene Hackman fan I probably should be -- I liked his acting but if you asked me to name my favorite five his name wouldn't run through my head. I may have to run a private "film festival" to see if focusing on him moves him into that territory.

What I did like about him, other than his seemingly "not a publicity hound" ways, was that he was an old Marine. He dropped out of high school, lied about his age (he was 16), and was a field radio operator in, among other places, post-WW2 civil war era China.

So if there's a heaven, and you happen to make it there, you may run into Hackman on guard duty.