Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa found dead at their New Mexico home

27 February 2025, 09:55 | Updated: 27 February 2025, 10:42

There is an active investigation into the death of Oscar-winner Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy.

Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, have been found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the bodies of Hackman and his pianist wife Betsy were found on Wednesday afternoon (February 26).

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"We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday," the police department told Santa Fe New Mexican.

While there has been no cause nor time of death confirmed, Sheriff Mendoza said there were no immediate signs of foul play.

It has also been reported that the couple's dog was found dead at the scene.

Hackman was born on January 30, 1930 in San Bernardino, California to dad Eugene Ezra Hackman and Anna Lyda Elizabeth.e

His family moved frequently, and Gene lied about his age to enlist in the US Marine Corps aged just 16. He served for over four years and was stationed in China, Hawai'i and Japan.

Hackman joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California in 1956 where he met another wannabe actor named Dustin Hoffman, and the men became close friends. Both were apparently poorly marked and named "Least Likely to Succeed".

"Acting was something I wanted to do since I was 10 and saw my first movie," Hackman later said.

"I was so captured by the action guys. Jimmy Cagney was my favourite. Without realizing it, I could see he had tremendous timing and vitality."

He and Hoffman moved from California to New York, as did fellow Californian Robert Duvall and all three men remained close as they eventually found fame.

Hackman soon picked up small TV roles and parts in off-broadway plays and had some small film jobs before breaking through with a supporting role in New Hollywood classic Bonnie & Clyde in 1967.,

He won an Academy Award nod for that performance and went on to win Oscars for Best Actor for The French Connection and Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven.

Other key roles included supervillain Lex Luthor in groundbreaking comic adaptation Superman in 1978's Superman and its 1980 sequel Superman II.

Key 1970 roles included classic movies like I Never Sang for My Father, The Conversation, The Poseidon Adventure and Scarecrow.

He went on to star in countless more films till his eventual retirement in 2004. Later hits included turns in The Firm, The Quick and the Dead, Get Shorty, Enemy of the State, and The Royal Tenembaums.

He moved to Santa Fe in the 1980s and married Betsy Arakawa in 1991. She was his second wife, after Faye Maltese to whom he was married from 1956 to 1986. Hackman had one son and two daughters from his fist marriage.