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Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, late Wednesday night.
A statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff in New Mexico, as reported by the BBC, said: “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail.
“This is an active investigation – however, at this time we do not believe that foul play was a factor.”
News of the death of a man lauded as a true giant of the screen comes just four days before this year’s Academy Awards ceremony.
The iconic actor enjoyed a career that spanned more than six decades. Along the way he received two Academy Awards, two Baftas, four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
File/Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa together in Germany in 1989 (Photo by Purschke/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Hackman won the best actor Oscar for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s 1971 thriller The French Connection, and another for best supporting actor for playing Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s Western film Unforgiven in 1992.
His other Oscar-nominated roles were in 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde – as Buck Barrow in his breakthrough role – and 1970’s I Never Sang for My Father, as well as playing the agent in Mississippi Burning (1988).
Hackman was also a military veteran who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1946, lying about his age, as he was only 16.
He worked as a field radio operator and was stationed in China, as well as Hawaii and Japan.
“I have trouble with direction,” he once said of his short military career, “because I have trouble with authority. I was not a good Marine.”
He chose to bow out from acting in the political satire, Welcome to Mooseport in 2004.
File/Actor Gene Hackman accepts the Cecil B. DeMille award on stage at the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 19, 2003 — (Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Explaining his decision, he told Reuters he didn’t want to risk going out on a sour note.
“The business for me is very stressful. The compromises that you have to make in films are just part of the beast,” he said, “and it had gotten to a point where I just didn’t feel like I wanted to do it any more.”
A decade later, he did briefly come out of retirement to narrate two documentaries about the history of the U.S. Marine Corps – but otherwise stuck to his plan.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed news of his death to local media just after midnight on Wednesday that the couple had died, along with their dog.
The news was later confirmed to the Press Association news agency. Hackman was 95 and his wife 63.
File/American actor Gene Hackman (right) as Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle in ‘The French Connection’, directed by William Friedkin, 1971. In the background (far left) is Roy Scheider (1932 – 2008) as Buddy ‘Cloudy’ Russo. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
Mendoza said there was no immediate indication of foul play.
“All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant.”
More to come…
