CNN — 

Gene Hackman received a heartfelt homage at the Oscars on Sunday, courtesy of his friend and fellow Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman.

Freeman appeared onstage to honor Hackman, who earlier this week was found dead along with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, in their New Mexico home. Officials deemed the circumstances of their death “suspicious enough” to warrant an investigation.

In his brief appearance, just ahead of the in memoriam segment, Freeman called Hackman a “giant” of the film industry –– and his “dear friend.”

“Gene always said, ‘I don’t think about legacy. I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work,’” Freeman said in his brief speech. “So I think I speak for us all when I say, Gene, you’ll be remembered for that –– and for so much more.”

Hackman and Freeman’s friendship spanned decades. The two starred together in the 1992 Clint Eastwood-directed western “Unforgiven” and 2000’s “Under Suspicion,” but Freeman admired Hackman’s work for years before they met.

“He’s a movie actor, boy, he’s an actor and every time I go see him I just marvel at him,” Freeman said in a 2000 conversation at the British Film Institute.

For his performance in “Unforgiven” as a menacing crooked cop, Hackman won his second Oscar. Freeman said in 2017 that the late actor’s performance genuinely scared him.

Intense as filming “Unforgiven” was, the actors actively sought another film on which to collaborate. It arrived in “Under Suspicion,” a thriller pitting the two against each other again.

In an Instagram post, Freeman said that filming “Under Suspicion” with the “incredibly gifted” Hackman was “one of the personal highlights of my career.”

“Working with Gene was wonderful,” he said in another interview. “I didn’t find it too hard working with an icon I so respected.”