Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead inside their New Mexico family home. Picture: X.
Image: Picture: X.
Award-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead alongside their dog at their home in New Mexico on Wednesday, February 26.
The 95-year-old actor, the 63-year-old classical pianist and their pet dog were discovered at their home in Santa Fe on Wednesday afternoon.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told the “Santa Fe New Mexican” that there was no immediate indication of foul play. He did not provide a cause of death or divulge exactly when they passed away.
Hackman is best known for playing Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in the 1971 film “The French Connection”, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar, and “Little” Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's 1992 Western “Unforgiven”, for which he won Best Supporting Actor. He also played villain Lex Luthor opposite Christopher Reeve in the original “Superman” franchise.
Over the course of his career, Hackman was also nominated for Oscars for his performances in 1967's “Bonnie and Clyde”, 1970's “I Never Sang for My Father” and 1988's “Mississippi Burning”. He also won two British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
His other roles include “The Poseidon Adventure”, “Scarecrow”, “A Bridge Too Far”, “The Firm”, “The Quick and the Dead”, “The Birdcage”, “Enemy of the State”, “Behind Enemy Lines” and “Runaway Jury”.
His last film, “Welcome to Mooseport”, was released in 2004, after which he retired from acting. He relocated to New Mexico and stepped away from the limelight, rarely being seen in public.
Hackman had three children with his first wife Faye Maltese, to whom he was married between 1956 and 1986.
He married Arakawa in 1991.
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