R.I.P Actor Gene Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa & their dog
R.I.P 1930 - 2025
Oscar winning actor Gene Hackman 95, his wife Betsy Arakawa 63, a classic pianist and their dog appeared to have been dead for some time when they were found in their home in the US state of New Mexico, according to police. Two other dogs were found alive.
Hackman was discovered in a side room near the kitchen of the house in Santa Fe, while his wife Betsy Arakawa was found in a bathroom with prescription drugs scattered everywhere.
The county sheriff's office said there was no sign that they had sustained any injuries. No cause of death was given, but police said the situation was "suspicious enough" to merit investigation.
Hackman’s daughter, Elizabeth Jean Hackman told TMZ her family suspects her father, his wife and the dogs died from toxic fumes caused by a carbon monoxide leak.
A detective has said, a prescription bottle and scattered pills were on the bathroom countertop close to her body. The couple's German Shepherd dog was found dead in a bathroom closet near to Ms Arakawa. Hackman was discovered wearing grey tracksuit bottoms, a blue long-sleeve T-shirt and brown slippers. Sunglasses and a walking cane were next to the body. The detective suspected that the actor had fallen suddenly. The circumstances of their death were "suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation", said the search warrant, because the person who called emergency services found the front door of the property open. But nothing appeared out of place inside, according to the detective. There was no indication the home had been rummaged through, or that any items had been removed. Two other, healthy dogs were discovered roaming the property - one inside and one outside.
‘One of the greatest’
Hackman, who had turned 95 late last month, was once voted as likely to flop in showbiz but instead went on to win two Oscar awards. Arakawa was a 63-year-old classical pianist.
He was known for his role as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde.
He also starred as an agent in Mississippi Burning in 1998 and portrayed Lex Luthor in the Superman movies during the 1970s and 1980s.
His filmography includes hits such as Runaway Jury, The French Connection, The Royal Tenenbaums, Unforgiven, and The Conversation.
The actor’s prolific resume includes two Oscars, three Golden Globes and the Cecil B. DeMille Award, bestowed in 2003.
The California native was born Eugene Hackman on January 30, 1930. His parents moved from city to city, eventually settling in Danville, Illinois.
Hackman remembers 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,” Hackman told GQ in 2011. “Maybe that’s why I became an actor.”
Hackman joined the Marines at 16, serving four-and-a-half years in China, Japan, and Hawaii before seeking a journalism and television production degree at the University of Illinois.
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 (Hoffman) that — like he had a secret. You just knew he was going to do something,” Hackman recalled to Vanity Fair in 2004.
In 1964, at 34, Hackman scored his big Broadway break in Any Wednesday, which resulted in a star-making scene in Lilith (1964) alongside Warren Beatty.
When Beatty was selecting his cast for the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, he tapped Hackman to play his older brother. He scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, one of five nods throughout his career.
In 1972, he won the Best Actor Oscar for The French Connection, a film that cemented his status as a leading man. 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.
Surprisingly, everyone seemed to make it off the set without so much as a scratch.
“Filmmaking has always been risky — both physically and emotionally — but I do choose to consider that film a moment in a checkered career of hits and misses,” Hackman told The 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.”
Following The French Connection, which he claimed he’s only watched once, Hackman went on to appear 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 sneaky tax lawyer in The Firm (1993), and an eccentric father in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
While presenting him the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2003, Michael Caine revered Hackman as “one of the greatest actors” he knows.
“Gene Hackman in Hollywood is known as an actor’s actor, but in my house, he’s known as a comedian’s comedian,” quipped Robin Williams, who co-presented the award.
“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 took his final bow in 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, retiring from the screen — and stunts — to New Mexico.
He was rarely seen and had suffered from minor health problems in the years since.
Hackman married Arakawa in 1991 in a private ceremony in the US.
