Legendary Hollywood star Gene Hackman and his pianist wife Betsy Arakawa found dead with their dog at New Mexico home. Video / Video elephant
Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their New Mexico home.
Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner, was renowned for his intense performances in films like The French Connection.
Hollywood figures, including Francis Ford Coppola, mourn Hackman’s death, celebrating his impactful and versatile career.
American cinema giant Gene Hackman was found dead yesterday NZ time alongside his wife, following a rich career portraying everyman characters with an edge in films including The French Connection.
Hackman, 95, and his classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, died at their home in New Mexico with their dog, with authorities telling news outlets there was no indication of foul play.
Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa during The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Photo by Jeffrey Mayer / WireImage
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza did not provide a cause of death for the couple, who had been married since 1991.
Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner, was credited for intense performances inspired by his troubled upbringing, notching up dozens of movie credits extending into his 70s.
Born in Illinois during the Great Depression, Hackman came from a broken family. Photo / Warner Bros
Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola on Thursday mourned his death.
“The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity,” Coppola wrote in a post on Instagram.
Hackman is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the tough and vulgar New York cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in the 1971 crime thriller The French Connection – for which he won an Oscar for best actor.
He won another golden statuette two decades later for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the brutal small-town sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in the 1992 western Unforgiven.
“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,” Star Trek actor George Takei wrote on X.
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 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… pic.twitter.com/OfmXVCG0jt
Not blessed with leading man good looks, Hackman drew on his talents and versatility, taking on a series of gritty roles and delivering thoughtful, intelligent performances.
“I wanted to act, but I’d always been convinced that actors had to be handsome,” the actor once said.
Gene Hackman (left), Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Danny Glover in The Royal Tenenbaums.
Born in Illinois during the Great Depression, Hackman came from a broken family.
His father left when he was 13, waving enigmatically as he drove away one day, and his mother later died in a fire.
He also served an unpleasant stint in the US Marines, which he joined at 16 by lying about his age. But he later used his personal turmoil to flesh out his characters.
Hackman came to acting relatively late in life after dabbling in a series of jobs and only attracting attention in his 30s.
According to Hollywood legend, after his enrolment at the Pasadena Playhouse in California in the late 1950s, he and a fellow student, Dustin Hoffman, were voted the “least likely to succeed”.
On graduation, Hackman found work off-Broadway and began to turn heads. He earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Bonnie and Clyde.
Publicity still from 1967 movie Bonnie & Clyde, showing inside bank of Gene Hackman (left) as Buck Barrow, Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow, wearing hat, and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker, all holding guns/pistols; woman seated in background.
That landmark 1967 film, in which Hackman played Clyde’s brother Buck Barrow, put him on track for stardom.
Into the 21st century, he starred in The Heist and The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001, the latter winning him his third competitive Golden Globe, before announcing his retirement in 2008.
“It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on screen,” Hackman once said.
“I think of myself, and feel like I’m quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.”
