Betsy Arakawa, the 63-year-old wife of the Oscar winner, was found dead in a bathroom which had prescription pills scattered over a countertop. Her body was found next to a space heater, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
Hackman, 95, was found dead in a mudroom. The couple appeared to have been dead for some time and there was no indication that either of them had been shot or had other types of wounds, Denise Avila, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman, said.
Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa pictured in 1986. Photo / Getty Images
The New Mexico Gas Co is working with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation, spokesman Tim Korte told AP.
The utility tested the gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to the warrant. At the time, it didn’t find any signs of problems. A detective noted that people exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide may not show signs of poisoning, but also noted there were no obvious signs of a gas leak.
A worker reported that the home’s front door was open when he arrived for routine maintenance and that he called police after finding the bodies. Two workers told police that they rarely saw the homeowners and that their last contact with them had been about two weeks earlier.
A dead German shepherd was found in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, police said. Two healthy dogs were found on the property.
Gene Hackman & wife Betsy Arakawa during The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Earlier, Elizabeth Jean Hackman, the actor’s daughter, told TMZ the family feared the cause may be from toxic fumes, potentially carbon monoxide.
Elizabeth did not comment on her father’s health, but he had recently turned 95, and in a rare public sighting on March 28, 2024, he was seen walking with a cane and holding his wife’s hand for support.
While no visible trauma was detected, TMZ said police were ruling nothing out, saying they could have been victims of a double homicide, suicide, accidental death or natural causes.
Earlier, Mendoza said: “Foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time, however, the exact cause of death has not been determined. This is an active and ongoing investigation by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
“I want to assure the community and neighbourhood that there’s no immediate danger to anyone.”
Meanwhile, Prince William said the actor was a “true genius” in a statement posted on X.
The actor is celebrated for his role as the curly-haired cop in The French Connection and Superman’s nemesis Lex Luther, along with memorable roles in Get Shorty and The Royal Tenenbaums.
During his long and illustrious career, he won two Academy Awards, picked up three Golden Globes and was bestowed the Cecil B. DeMille Award, in 2003.
But he and his wife, a retired classical pianist, were known for being reclusive and Hackman had not starred in a movie since 2004, when he played Monroe “Eagle” Cole in the political satire Welcome to Mooseport.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York,” he told Empire in 2009. “The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.”
The California native was born Eugene Hackman on January 30, 1930. His parents moved from city to city, eventually settling in Danville, Illinois. The late star remembered his father, Eugene, saying goodbye to the family with the wave of a hand when he was 13.
“I hadn’t realised how much one small gesture can mean,” he told GQ in 2011. “Maybe that’s why I became an actor.”
He joined the Marine Corps at 16, serving four and a half years before seeking a degree in journalism and television production.
He abandoned those plans to pursue a serious acting career, enrolling at 27 in the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he met 19-year-old Dustin Hoffman.
“There was something about him that — like he had a secret. You just knew he was going to do something,” Hackman recalled to Vanity Fair in 2004.
Gene Hackman in The French Connection. Photo / Getty Images
Along with Robert Duvall, the young thespians moved to New York and in 1964, at 34, Hackman scored his big Broadway break in Any Wednesday, which led to him starring in Lilith alongside Warren Beatty that same year.
When Beatty was selecting his cast for the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, he tapped Hackman to play his older brother.
He was catapulted to global fame in 1972, when he won the Best Actor Oscar for The French Connection, William Friedkin’s gritty police drama that portrays two tough New York City cops trying to intercept a huge heroin shipment coming from France.
Hackman played “Popeye” Doyle, a short-fused alcoholic but also a hard-working and dedicated police officer, who faces off with his nemesis Alain Charnier, a suave gentleman and one of the largest drug suppliers of pure heroin to North America.
The crime thriller boasts one of the best car chase scenes of all time, with death-defying stunts through 26 blocks of Brooklyn — all done illegally. Miraculously, the cast and crew came out of it unscathed.
“Filmmaking has always been risky — both physically and emotionally — but I do choose to consider that film a moment in a chequered career of hits and misses,” Hackman told The New York Post in 2021 in a rare interview, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The French Connection.
“The film certainly helped me in my career, and I am grateful for that.”
Hackman went on to star in Young Frankenstein (1974), Night Moves (1975), Bite the Bullet (1975), Superman (1978), and even Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992), which gave him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
He also headlined blockbusters by playing a wayward reverend in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), a down-on-his-luck high school basketball coach in Hoosiers (1986), a dodgy tax lawyer in The Firm (1993), and an eccentric father in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
Gene Hackman, left, Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Danny Glover in The Royal Tenenbaums. Photo / Supplied
While presenting him the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2003, Michael Caine hailed Hackman as “one of the greatest actors” he knows.
He received equally stellar praise from Robin Williams, who co-presented the award. “Gene Hackman in Hollywood is known as an actor’s actor, but in my house, he’s known as a comedian’s comedian,” quipped Williams.
“Whether it be comedy or drama, you’re the most gifted actor in America. You’re also a truly superhuman being,” he added.
After more than 100 credits, Hackman retired from Hollywood to New Mexico in 2004 to pursue a more sedate life.
He co-wrote adventure novels such as Justice For None and Wake of the Perdido Star with his friend Daniel Lenihan, an underwater researcher.
“It’s very relaxing for me,” Hackman said of writing. “I don’t picture myself as a great writer, but I really enjoy the process.”
It’s “a different kind of stress.
“It’s one you can kind of manage, because you’re sitting there by yourself, as opposed to having 90 people sitting around waiting for you to entertain them.
“I like the loneliness of it, actually. It’s similar in some ways to acting, but it’s more private and I feel like I have more control over what I’m trying to say and do.”
Last year, he and 63-year-old wife Betsy were seen out and about for the first time in two decades at a restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
