Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman was found dead last week at age 95, along with his wife and one of the family’s dogs. The cause of death is currently unknown. Following news of his death, a resurfaced 2001 interview with James Lipton for “Inside the Actors Studio” began making the rounds on social media. A clip of the interview focuses on the lasting pain Hackman suffered due to his father’s abandonment of their family.
Lipton asked Hackman how old he was when his father left. Hackman replied, “I was about 13, I guess. I was down the street playing with some guys, and he drove by and kind of waved and that was it.”
Hackman became emotional before joking, “It’s only been 65 years or so.”
On another occasion, he said of his father’s leaving, “It was a real adios. It was so precise. Maybe that’s why I became an actor. I doubt I would have become so sensitive to human behavior if that hadn’t happened to me as a child — if I hadn’t realized how much one small gesture can mean.”
After marrying and starting his own family, Hackman’s long absences created both physical and emotional distance between him and his own children. They were estranged at times, but in later years, they reconnected.
Fathers play a crucial role in the family, but their importance is often undervalued by society. According to the National Center for Fathering, “[C]hildren from fatherless homes are more likely to be poor, become involved in drug and alcohol abuse, drop out of school, and suffer from health and emotional problems.”
Live Action founder and president Lila Rose tackled the issue of fatherlessness in Live Action’s “Truth About Sex” series. In a video about the crisis of missing fathers, Rose explained that absent fathers are a large contributing factor to high abortion rates. “It’s no surprise that a common denominator in 90 percent of abortions is an uncommitted biological father,” she said. “Men matter.” She also explained that a child raised in a home without a father is at a higher risk for poverty, alcohol or substance abuse, and criminal activity.
Factors that contribute to fatherlessness are the widespread use of contraception and the promotion of sex outside of marriage, leading to sex between people who are not committed to one another and do not intend to become pregnant. In addition, the rise of in vitro fertilization (IVF), sperm ‘donation,’ and surrogacy have built an environment in which children are being created to intentionally be separated from their fathers. As reported by Breakpoint, “IVF is numbing society’s compassion for fatherless children.”
Research from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority shows that 4,800 single women underwent IVF or donor insemination (DI) treatment in 2022, a 243% increase from the 1,400 single women who had fertility treatment in 2012. The number of women in a same-sex relationship having fertility treatment also more than doubled.
The answer to the problems surrounding fatherless children is to return to proper sexual morality and God’s design for the family as well as portrayals of strong, likeable, capable fathers in the media, said Rose.
“Men, you are needed. You are desperately needed,” said Rose. “We need you as husbands, fathers, father figures, and brothers. We need you as gentlemen who will respect and protect women and children. Lives literally depend on it.”
Whether children feel abandoned by parents due to reproductive technologies or through divorce or other circumstances, the importance of fathers cannot be overstated.
