Most of us know Gene Hackman as a versatile and successful actor. The highlight of his career came as winner of the Oscar for best actor in The French Connection and The Unforgiven. His lowest recollection, though, involves his loss of connection with his father.

Hackman recalls, "I was just 13, but that Saturday morning is still so vivid. I was playing down the street from our house, when I saw my father drive by and give me a light wave of his hand. Somehow I knew that gesture meant that he was going away forever."

To this day, the memory is a ghost that never seems to disappear.