Hackman never had the classic good looks of a Robert Redford or a Brad Pitt, and that's part of what made him such a singular force on screens. Because he looked like one of us, and acted like us, Hackman's characters felt like one of us too. As Julia Louis-Dreyfus wrote in her tribute post, "he played imperfect people perfectly."

From 'The French Connection' to 'The Royal Tenenbaums' — these films represented one of the greatest American actors of all time at his finest.