gadi schwartz has a look back at his incredible career. >> reporter: it's the car chase scene in the "french connection", which is the gold standard for all hollywood chases to follow. its star, gene hackman has come to define what a true actor is. with the uncanny ability to vanish into any role, he drew from within to put nuance into all the tough-guy roles he portrayed. >> is that gun just for show? >> reporter: the child of a broken home who lied about his age so he could join the marines, he worked many odd jobs all to finance auditions. >> every day was like a new challenge. it was going out and trying to get that job and doing those auditions. and i loved it. >> reporter: kicked out of the pasadena playhouse, it wasn't until he was 36, playing in "bonnie and clyde", when hollywood took notice. soon after, the french connection earned him his first oscar. >> the prestige means you've been in a couple films that have made money and they can take a chance on you. >> reporter: hollywood kept taking chances. he won his second oscar in 1992's unforgiven. but he fell the tough guy ro

here's nbc's gadi schwartz. if the car chase scene in the french connection set the gold standard for all hollywood chases to follow, tn it star gene hackman has come to define what a true actor is with the uncanny ability to vanish into any role. hackman drew from within to put nuance into all the tough guy roles he portrayed. all right, guys, here is it going just for show? a child of a broken home who lied about his age so he could join the marines. hackman worked many odd jobs, all to finance auditions. every day was. it was like a new challenge. it was going out and trying to get that job and trying to and doing those auditions. and i loved it. kicked out of the pasadena playhouse, it wasn't until hackman was 36, playing the simple minded buck barrow and bonnie and clyde, who, when hollywood took notice. soon after his tough as nails good cop popeye doyle in the french connection earned him his first oscar. the prestige involved with an oscar means that you have been in a couple of films that that have made

gadi schwartz, nbc news, los angeles. >> and with us now to talk more about this. nbc news correspondent. >> stephanie gosk and shagun. >> olowu. >> an entertainment journalist. stephanie. >> what more do we know. >> about what. >> happened here? >> not a lot, actually. >> authorities are saying. that there is no foul play. >> involved. >> but they have not released a cause of death. and a local paper says that the sheriff is pursuing a search warrant here. among the things they're going to be looking at, really, is the timeline that they've discovered the bodies on wednesday afternoon, but there is no indication yet as to when they actually died. and, you know, there are a lot of tributes pouring in for gene, gene hackman and lots of lots of people sharing their experiences with him. but you do still have it all shrouded in a bit of mystery here, >> yeah, and. >> i mean. >> hackman left. >> such an. >> extraordinary body. >> of work behind him. >> he absolutely did. >> and while the. >> mystery of his death. >> unravels. >> his life. on screen. >> was tremendous.

nbc news correspondent gadi schwartz has a look back at the actor's legendary career. >> reporter if chase scene in the french connection set the gold standard for all hollywood chases to follow, then it star gene hackman has come to define what a true actor is. with the. uncanny ability. >> to vanish into any role. hackman drew from within to put nuance into all the tough guy roles he portrayed. >> i popeye's. >> here is that gun just for show. a child of a broken home who lied about his age so he could join the marines. hackman worked many odd jobs, all to finance auditions. >> every day was. it was like. >> a. >> new challenge. it was going out and trying. >> to get that. >> job and trying to and doing those auditions. >> and i loved it. >> kicked out of the pasadena playhouse, it wasn't until hackman was 36, playing the simple minded buck barrow and bonnie and clyde. >> who. >> won. hollywood took notice. soon after, his tough as nails good cop popeye doyle in the french connection earned him his first oscar. >> the prestige involved. with an. >> oscar means that you have been. i

he on the written page and the silver screen. >> wow. >> gadi schwartz reporting there.bout his age as a teenager so he could join the united states marine corps. >> yeah. >> he did. he did five years in the marine corps. >> yeah. >> i think like late, late 40s after world war. >> two. >> right after 1950s. yeah, he was quite a guy. he was quite a guy. he was a legitimately ordinary human being when you meet him. i had the good fortune of meeting him several times and went to see him in santa fe about 5 or 6 years ago, and he was the same then as he was when i first met him in 1973 on the set of a bridge too far in nijmegen, holland. and he was the star of that cast, and he had a lot of fun making that movie. we won't go into it now, but he was a really good guy. >> well. >> we'll also keep following what happened there. yeah. all right. two other big stories this morning. an unvaccinated child in texas has died of measles amid a growing outbreak in that state. and others. nbc news correspondent priscilla thompson has the latest. >> a fast-moving measles outbreak turning