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DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) — Legendary Hollywood actor and Danville native Gene Hackman has died.
Hackman, an Oscar winner and one of the industry’s most respected actors, was found dead on Wednesday at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. His wife and dog were also found dead in the home.
Foul play is not suspected, but authorities did not release the circumstances of their deaths and said an investigation is ongoing.
Hackman was born in California but settled in Danville at a young age. He spent many years in Vermilion County before enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces, even lying about his age to do so at the age of 16.
Hackman didn’t make many visits back to Danville, but he did twice in the 1980s. During one of those visits, he said in a WCIA interview that he was able to reconnect with his mother, even though she died in a 1962 fire.
“This woman came up to me and told me that she had known my mother as a child in Danville,” Hackman said in that interview. “A couple of days later, she brought these pictures of her and my mother. It was really quite touching because my mother was killed in a fire and all our family photographs were destroyed. So it’s the only pictures that I have of my mother now.”
Hackman returned again the following year. He joined fellow Danville locals Dick and Jerry Van Dyke and Donald O’Connor for a fundraiser at the Fischer Theater.
Gene Hackman was 95 and his wife was 63.