Reclusive Gene Hackman is back.
After retiring from acting in 2004, Hackman, 94, has stayed out of the spotlight.
In new photos obtained by The Post, the retired Oscar winner was spotted enjoying a stroll, clad in a baseball cap, vest and flannel shirt in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on April 5.
The “Mississippi Burning” and “Bonnie and Clyde” star looked sporty and outdoorsy, similar to how he looked during a recent public outing with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 62, on March 28.
The actor has lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, since the ‘80s.
He married Arakawa, a pianist, in 1992, but is rarely seen in public with her.
She’s his second wife, after Faye Maltese, who he divorced in 1986 and had three children with.
Hackman gave an interview to Larry King in 2004 where he revealed that he rarely did interviews because, “I don’t like to talk about myself that much. I don’t know. It’s the same as watching myself on film, it makes me uncomfortable. I love doing the acting. I love that part of it.”
“The French Connection” star added, “When I’m doing it, I’m just totally enraptured. But when I see myself up on the screen, it’s that — I see my grandfather there or something, you know? I see — you know, I think of myself as being 21. You do, too, I know. Yes. But then, when you see yourself, it’s a whole different story.”
During that 2004 Larry King interview, Hackman, who spent four years in the Marines before turning to Hollywood, said that he got into it because of his mother.
“I was very taken with the early days of James Cagney and Errol Flynn and Edward G. Robinson and those kinds of films. Very taken with that. And my mother and I were at a film once, and we came out through the lobby and she said, ‘I want to see you do that someday,’” he explained.
“And that was all that was needed. Because I already wanted to do it. But you have to have somebody tell you, or you need to be pushed a bit. And that’s the only thing she’s ever said to me about acting. Was she wanted to see me do that.”
He also announced his retirement from acting, saying: “It’s probably all over.”
He added, “I try to take care of myself. I don’t have a lot of fears. I have the normal fear of passing away. You know, I guess we all think about that, especially when you get to be a certain age. I want to make sure that my wife and my family are taken care of. Other than that, I don’t have a lot of fears.”
“The Birdcage” star further stated in a 2011 interview with GQ that he might be open to doing another movie, “If I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people.”
He told the outlet that he’d like to be remembered as “a decent actor.”
“As someone who tried to portray what was given to them in an honest fashion. I don’t know, beyond that. I don’t think about that often, to be honest,” he went on at the time. “I’m at an age where I should think about it.”
Since retiring from acting, the “Royal Tenenbaums” star has penned a few novels, such as the 2013 thriller “Pursuit.”
Hackman told the late King, “Warren Beatty is a star. You know, Robert Redford is a star. Brad Pitt. I never think of myself that way ….” but he added that he had, “Very few regrets in terms of the career.”
