What to know about the lives and deaths of Hollywood icon Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa

Boston Globe

28-02-2025

What we know about the deaths
Investigators in Santa Fe, New Mexico, have not said whether they have determined the cause of death.
According to a search warrant affidavit, a maintenance worker called police after finding the bodies Wednesday. He reported the home's front door was open when he arrived to do routine work.
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In a 911 call, the maintenance worker said he could see Hackman's wife, 63-year-old Betsy Arakawa, laying on the floor through a window but he was unable to get inside.
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Hackman's body was discovered in the home's entryway and Arakawa was found dead next to a space heater in a bathroom. On a countertop near Arakawa, pills were scattered next to an open prescription bottle, according to the search warrant.
Police said they found the body of a German shepherd in the bathroom closet. Two other dogs were found alive on the property.
No foul play was suspected, authorities said, though a search warrant showed investigators thought the deaths were 'suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.'
The New Mexico Gas Co. tested gas lines at the home but didn't find any signs of problems at the time, according to the warrant.
An investigator noted people may not show sings of poisoning if they are exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide, but also there weren't signs of a leak.
Results of autopsies conducted on both bodies were not available Thursday, authorities said.
What was Hackman famous for?
Hackman appeared in a broad range of movie roles dating back to 1961, when he debuted in 'Mad Dog Coll.' Through the next four decades, his roles including arch nemesis Lex Luthor in the 'Superman' movies and the iconic coach in 'Hoosiers' helped put Hackman on a Hollywood pedestal.
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Hackman's performance as an obsessed and amoral cop in the 1971 film 'The French Connection' earned an Oscar for best actor in a leading role and was considered one of his defining roles. Hackman swung another Oscar for playing a sadistic sheriff in 1992's 'Unforgiven.'
Hackman demurred from the pomp of celebrity and was considered an actor's actor who focused on the job and not on his image, dodging social circuit appearances beyond some award ceremonies.
As a boy, films offered Hackman an escape from a tumultuous homelife with an abusive father who left the family when Hackman was 13.
How is Hollywood reacting?
Sympathy and admiration for Hackman poured in from Hollywood legends including director Francis Ford Coppola, actor-director Clint Eastwood and actor Bill Murray.
Murray worked with Hackman on director Wes Anderson's 2001 film 'The Royal Tennenbaums.' Hackman gave young directors such as Anderson a hard time but brought skill to the set, Murray said.
'I watched him once do, like, 25 takes where he did it perfectly with an actor who kept blowing it every single time,' Murray told The Associated Press. 'He was a great one. He was a great actor.'
Actor Cary Elwes called Hackman a 'force of nature.'
'Growing up on his movies was an absolute thrill for me,' Elwes said on Instagram. 'To observe his remarkable facility and humanity in every role was something to behold.'
Everything you ever wanted to learn about acting can be found in any of Hackman's performances, actor Steve Toussaint posted on Instagram.
″'The French Connection.' 'Crimson Tide,' 'The Conversation.' Gosh! I could go on,' Toussaint wrote.
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Who was his wife?
Arakawa was born in Hawaii in December 1959 and grew up in the state. She studied piano while growing up in Honolulu and, as an 11-year-old sixth grader, performed in youth concerts in front of thousands of first and second graders at the Honolulu International Center Concert Hall, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported in 1971.
Arakawa attended the University of Southern California from 1981 through 1983, the university said in an email.
While in Los Angeles, she was a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Aztecs, a professional soccer team in the North American Soccer League, and worked as a production assistant on the television game show 'Card Sharks,' the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported in 1981.
The classically trained pianist met Hackman while working part-time at a California gym in the mid-1980s. They soon moved in together and relocated to Santa Fe by the end of the decade.
Arakawa was vice president of Pandora's, a home decor and furnishing store in Santa Fe, according to New Mexico business records.
Where were Hackman and his wife living?
Their Southwestern-style ranch sits atop a hill with views of the Rocky Mountains far from Hollywood. The area is known as a preferred location among artists and a retreat for celebrities.
The home was featured in a 1990 article by Architectural Digest. The four-bedroom, 8,700-square-foot (808-square-meter) structure on 6 acres (2.4 hectares) had an estimated market value of a little over $4 million, according to Santa Fe County property tax records.
Hackman often was seen around the historic state capital. His hobbies included painting, deep-sea diving and, later in life, writing novels. The couple enjoyed watching DVDs that Arakawa would rent, Hackman told the film magazine Empire in a 2009 interview.
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In his later years, Hackman was seen far less in public. Papers reported sightings of Hackman in mundane scenarios, such as when The New York Post detailed the former actor pumping gas and getting a chicken sandwich at Wendy's in 2023.
Associated Press reporters Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming, contributed to this report.