Gene Hackman’s daughter, Leslie Anne Hackman, said that her father was in “good health” before authorities discovered him dead on Wednesday. “Despite his age, he was in very good physical condition,” Leslie Anne told The Daily Mail on Thursday.

One of the greatest American actors of the 20th century was voted “least likely to succeed” by his first theater school, wasn’t a star until he was 40 and possessed a face he once described as “your everyday mineworker.

He once said he became an actor because of the way his father left the family. It was the depth of his performances that made him so memorable.