Gene Hackman and pianist wife Betsy Arakawa found dead at home with their dog

 

The Oscar-winning star of The French Connection, The Conversation, Superman and The Poseidon Adventure has died, along with his classical musician wife

Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman has died at the age of 95. In a statement to the Santa Fe New Mexican, County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Hackman and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead on Wednesday afternoon in their home in the Santa Fe Summit community northeast of the city.It quoted the police department saying: “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday.” The Press Association confirmed there is an “active investigation’’ into the deaths. Sheriff Mendoza said there was no immediate indication of foul play. He did not provide a cause of death or say when the couple might have died.

Hackman had lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, since the 1980s and married Arakawa, 63, in 1991, after meeting her in the gym where she then worked. Little is known of Arakawa’s later career as a musician, although in 2014 Hackman praised her “unwavering, specific read-throughs” of the western novels he later took to authoring.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the couple’s home in a gated community called Old Sunset Trail on Wednesday afternoon to investigate the deaths of two elderly people and a dog. It was unclear whether the deputies were responding to a report of the deaths or if they were making a welfare check at the home.

The deputies discovered the bodies of a man in his 90s and a woman in her 60s, Mendoza initially reported.

All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant,” the sheriff said Wednesday evening, before his agency had positively identified the pair.

“I want to assure the community and neighbourhood that there’s no immediate danger to anyone,” he said.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office added: “We do not believe foul play was a factor in their deaths; however, exact cause of death has not been determined at this time.”

Francis Ford Coppola was amongst the first to pay tribute to Hackman, posting a photograph of them on the set of 1974’s The Conversation to Instagram.

“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. “I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”

Edgar Wright remembered Hackman as “the greatest” on X, while George Takai called him “one of the true giants of the screen”.

He continued: “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 forever.”

Hackman enjoyed a 40-year career in film, including performances in The French Connection, Superman and The Royal Tenenbaums, before he retired in 2004. He achieved success relatively late, breaking through in his 30s and going on to embody the antiheroic mien of 1970s Hollywood.

Born in 1930, he joined the marines in the late 1940s and decided to study acting in the late 1950s. Hackman befriended Dustin Hoffman at the Pasadena Playhouse and the two were voted “the least likely to succeed”. With various bit parts on TV and stage under his belt, Hackman made his big screen debut opposite Warren Beatty in melodrama Lilith in 1964.