Gene Hackman, wife Betsy Arakawa found dead in New Mexico home, sheriff says
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SANTA FE, N.M. — Legendary actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their home in New Mexico Wednesday afternoon, ABC News has confirmed.

The couple was found during a welfare check after their neighbor called in concerned about their well-being, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Denise Avila said. A dog was also found dead.

Foul play is not suspected and an investigation is ongoing, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The Academy Award-winning actor, who starred in “The French Connection,” “The Conversation” and “The Royal Tenenbaums,” among dozens of other Hollywood hits, was 95.

Universally lauded for his acting skill, Hackman’s everyman quality enabled him to embody a broad range of characters in multiple genres — from the preening, comical villain Lex Luthor opposite Christopher Reeve in 1978’s “Superman,” to a disgraced high school basketball coach looking for redemption in the 1986 drama “Hoosiers,” to an ultra-conservative senator forced to dress in drag to escape the paparazzi in the 1996 Robin Williams comedy “The Birdcage.”

Yet Hackman particularly excelled in roles that featured him playing flawed authority figures, performances lent extra gravitas by his craggy features, which could morph from pathos to bemusement to menace with a twitch, and his and physically imposing six-feet, two-inch frame. He won his first Academy Award for his role as the dogged New York City police Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in 1971’s “The French Connection,” and his second twenty years later playing corrupt Sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in director Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Western, “Unforgiven.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

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