8 Actors Who Should Come Out Of Retirement For One Last Role

2. Gene Hackman

There are way too many sports movies in production over the next couple of years to not feature Gene Hackman as a spunky and mildly agitated coach. The fact that he gave up acting is sad for many reasons, not the least of which is that Hackman could have improved so many lackluster sports dramas in that span. Hoosiers, Downhill Racer, The Replacements...nobody could have made those roles half of what the Hackster did. Of course, he's much more than everyone's favorite fictional coach, as he proved with his dry comedic timing in The Birdcage and The Royal Tenenbaums, but if we're talking one last hoorah on the big screen, it'd be silly not to put him in his sweet spot. And it's been quite a while since we had a really uplifting, feel-good sports movie with some soul. And there's an obvious story Hollywood has yet to adapt: the story of Billy Miske, a popular boxer from the 1920s whose bright future was cut short by kidney disease. He retired early to be with his family in the final years of his life. Unfortunately, his family struggled immensely with finances, and Miske decided to get back into the ring for one last fight...just so he could earn enough money to buy his children Christmas presents, as this would likely be their last holiday with their dad. With a solid, supportive coach in his corner, Miske won that fight, despite being too sick to train for it. Guess who that coach needs to be?