Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead at their home.
In tragic news, renowned Hollywood actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, have been found dead in their home, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
The Santa Fe County Police reported the discovery of the 95-year-old actor and his 64-year-old wife’s bodies, along with their pet dog, at approximately 1:45 PM on February 26.
However, the cause of death is not disclosed yet, and investigators believe there is no foul play involved.
A statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff in New Mexico said: “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail.
“This is an active investigation; however, at this time we do not believe that foul play was a factor.”
Hackman, a two-time Academy Award winner, had a career spanning six decades and was widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s greatest actors.
He won his first Oscar for Best Actor in The French Connection (1971) and later received the Best Supporting Actor Award for his role as a ruthless sheriff in Unforgiven (1992).
His other acclaimed films include The Conversation (1974), The Firm (1993), and Hoosiers (1986).
After retiring from acting in 2004 at the age of 74, Hackman lived a private life in Santa Fe, largely away from the public eye.
He is survived by his three children from his first marriage. His first wife passed away in 2017.
Authorities have launched an investigation into the deaths, with further details expected pending autopsy results.
‘Hackman played 100 roles’
Hackman played more than 100 roles in total, including supervillain Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeve-starring Superman movies in the 1970s and 1980s.
Hackman acted opposite many Hollywood heavyweights, including Al Pacino in 1973’s Scarecrow, Gene Wilder in 1974’s Young Frankenstein, Warren Beatty, and Diane Keaton in 1981’s Reds.
He also starred in the hit movies Runaway Jury, Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation.
Coppola led the tributes to the late star on Thursday, calling him “a great artist”. In a statement posted on Instagram, the director wrote: “Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity. I mourn his loss and celebrate his existence and contribution.”
Valerie Perrine, who featured alongside Hackman in Superman (1978) as his character’s on-screen girlfriend Eve Teschmacher, described the late actor as “a genius” and one of the “greatest to grace the silver screen.”
She posted on X: “His performances are legendary. His talent will be missed. Goodbye, my sweet Lex Till we meet again.”
Star Trek actor George Takei posted that “we have lost one of the true giants of the screen”.
“Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it,” he wrote. “He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was. He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”
Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor also called Hackman a “genius” performer. “A true legend whose legacy will live on,” he wrote.
‘I wanted to be an actor’
Born in California in 1930, Hackman’s family moved frequently, and after lying about his age at 16, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps, serving for four and a half years.
He was stationed in China, Hawai’i and Japan before being discharged in 1951.
Following his military service, Hackman lived and worked in New York and studied journalism and television production at the University of Illinois before deciding to move back to California to pursue his childhood acting dream.
He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended a young Dustin Hoffman.
“I suppose I wanted to be an actor from the time I was about 10, maybe even younger than that,” Hackman once said. “Recollections of early movies that I had seen and actors that I admired like James Cagney, Errol Flynn, those kinds of romantic action guys.
“When I saw those actors, I felt I could do that. But I was in New York for about eight years before I had a job. I sold ladies shoes, polished leather furniture, and drove a truck.
“I think that if you have it in you and you want it bad enough, you can do it.”
He added that he “wanted to act” but had “always been convinced that actors had to be handsome”.
“That came from the days when Errol Flynn was my idol. I’d come out of a theatre and be startled when I looked in a mirror because I didn’t look like Flynn. I felt like him.”
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Hackman moved back to New York in 1963, performing in Off-Broadway productions—including at the Music Box Theatre for the comedy Any Wednesday—and smaller TV roles.
But he began to really make his name in the 1970s, becoming a leading man as New York City detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle in The French Connection.
From then on he became a fixture on the big screen in the likes of 1972 disaster film The Poseidon Adventure.
He also appeared in Children From Their Games at the former Morosco Theatre, Poor Richard at Helen Hayes Theatre and The Natural Look at Longacre Theatre, before later returning in 1992 to perform Death and the Maiden at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
