(January 1, 1956 - 1986) (divorced) (3 children)
Hackman's first wife was Faye Maltese. They had three children, Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne.
He'd met his ex-wife, Faye Maltese, in 1955 at a Y.M.C.A. dance in New York.
Discharged on the coast in 1951, Hackman thumbed East to Manhattan. He took a room at the YMCA, and at one of its dances met his wife-to-be, a bank secretary named Faye Maltese. “When I met her,” says Hackman, “I was actually locked out of my room for nonpayment. They had stored my clothes. Faye says the first thing she remembers about me is that I didn’t have any socks on. I was a real hick. We got together,” Gene continues, “because we both needed somebody desperately in our lives.” He was impressed by the closeness of her Italian family (11 kids) compared to his own shambles. “They lived in a five-room railroad flat on the Lower East Side,” he notes, “and I liked the idea that they managed to overcome all that and still have a good family life.”
Gene and Faye have three kids themselves now and, as for the marriage, he admits, “We’ve been trying to get it together for 20 years. We’re still thrashing it out.” At last bed check, they were back together again after a brief separation, and they’ve loved each other better and longer than most Hollywood couples. When he collected his 1972 Oscar for French Connection, Hackman’s speech in its entirety went: “I want to thank Faye Maltese for bringing me uptown.”
Finally, after a layover back in Danville, unbearable to Faye, he drifted to the Pasadena Playhouse.
they were married for almost 30 years.