‘He was quite a private person’: expansive auction shows Gene Hackman as actor and artist

Bonhams is selling over 400 items from the estate of the late Oscar-winning actor, from a draft script of The Silence of the Lambs to his own unique artwork

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

The intriguing prospect is raised by an unlikely 33-page draft script for The Silence of the Lambs lurking in a collection of the late actor Gene Hackman’s possessions that goes up for auction later this month.

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

The story of the partial script dates back to Hackman calling Thomas Harris’s 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’s agent, Robert Bookman, told Deadline in 2017.