Inside the ‘tormented' final years of Hollywood recluse Gene Hackman

Telegraph

28-02-2025

In March last year, a frail-looking Gene Hackman clung onto the arm of his wife as they made their way to a local restaurant. It was the first time the couple had been seen in public for over 20 years. It would also be the last.
Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, were found dead on Wednesday along with their lifeless dog at their home in New Mexico.
A caretaker for their Santa Fe estate stumbled across their bodies, which he saw through a window on Wednesday, according to a 911 call released by TMZ.
'They're not moving, just somebody up here real quick,' the distressed caller could be heard saying. He repeated 'damn' multiple times as he waited for emergency services to arrive.
While local police said there was no immediate evidence of foul play, question marks remain over their cause of death, with the local sheriff declining to provide further details.
For years, mystery has swirled around the gruff method actor renowned for his intense performances, ferocious temper and on-set bust-ups with directors that earned him the nickname 'Vesuvius'.
By 2004, the French Connection star was a beacon of Hollywood success after starring in around 90 movies and TV shows, and earning two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes throughout his acclaimed, decades-long career.
But that year, still very much in demand - he was cast in the war film Behind Enemy Lines, the comedy flick The Royal Tenenbaums, and Welcome to Mooseport with Ray Romano - he shocked the world by bidding adieu to his glamorous lifestyle in Los Angeles to enjoy the quiet life in Santa Fe.
Straight away, he all but vanished from the public eye, raising questions over the reasons behind his stage exit.
A native Midwesterner, born during the Great Depression in Illinois, Hackman came from a broken family - his father left when he was 13, waving enigmatically as he drove away one day. Hackman said he knew right then that the man was never coming back.
Hackman's mother died in a fire before he had established himself as an actor.
He used his turmoil as fuel to flesh out his characters, once wryly observing: 'Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.'
Even before he went off-grid in 2004, he had dabbled with retirement.
In 1977, he threw in the towel complaining that he was losing his way with well-paid but uninteresting roles.
'I did the poor-boy thing, he later explained. 'I was very determined to be successful. I had a number of houses and cars and airplanes. It was like the empty barrel that doesn't have a bottom to it.'
The last straw, he said, was playing Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor in the 1978 action movie.
'It scared me when I accepted the role,' he told the New York Times in 1989. 'I walked on the set in London the first day of filming and there was Chris Reeve in this skin-tight blue suit and red cape.
'I looked at him and thought I had really done the ultimate act and committed suicide.'
Even so, after receiving critical acclaim for his comedic supervillain performance, he went on to feature in two Superman sequels.
But first he spent four years out of acting, painting Impressionist oils and taking up deep-sea diving, stunt flying and sports car endurance racing.
His expensive tastes eventually forced him back to Hollywood in 1981 when he was so penniless he had to borrow his daughter's old banger to drive to auditions.
Hackman received another major shock in 1982 when his lawyer and closest friend, Norman Garey, shot himself.
Years after his final film, Hackman revealed that a 'stress test' he took on the recommendation of his doctor was the final nail in the coffin of his acting career.
The doctor told him that his 'heart wasn't in the kind of shape' anymore and that he shouldn't be 'putting it under so much stress'.
Hackman had previously undergone surgery after facing problems with his heart. In 1990, he was rushed to the hospital with chest pain, and he needed to have a balloon catheter inserted to help open an artery that had dangerously narrowed.
Others thought that his retirement could be linked to his marriage to Arakawa, a classical pianist who was 32 years his junior. The pair met at a local gym in the late 80s and went on to become husband and wife in 1991.
The actor admitted that he had struggled to cope with balancing being a world-famous movie star and maintaining his relationships at home.
Hackman had met his first wife Faye Maltese long before he was famous. They wed in 1956 and went on to welcome three children together - one son, Christopher Allen, born in 1960, and two daughters, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, born in 1962 and 1966 respectively.
However, after Hackman hit the big time, their marriage soon crumbled and the couple divorced in 1986 after 30 years together.
'You become very selfish as an actor. Even though I had a family, I took jobs that would separate us for three or four months at a time,' he once told the New York Times.
'The temptations in that, the money and recognition, it was too much for the poor boy in me. I wasn't able to handle that.'
'When I'm actually on the set or a stage, actually doing the work, I loved that process and I loved the creative process of trying to bring a character to life,' he explained.
'Whereas, the business part of show business is kinda wicked. You jump from trying to be a sponge, if you will - in terms of input from other actors and the director and everything that's surrounding you - you jump from that to a luncheon meeting with an agent and a producer on another film.
'It's kind of a frying pan. It was jarring and at my age and with my health, I decided I didn't want to do that any longer.'
With that came to an end an illustrious film career.
After leaving the spotlight, he took up fishing, painting, writing, yoga and pilates.
Despite the quiet life, he had trouble keeping control of his volcanic temper and penchant for a real-life punch-up.
Dustin Hoffman recalled his friend once announcing, 'I gotta go', and disappearing off to a bar because he 'had to get in a fight'.
He was still getting into brawls in his seventies. In 2001, a 71-year-old Hackman started a fist fight with two men over a minor traffic accident in West Hollywood.
'He brushed against me and I popped him,' he recalled. 'Then the other guy jumped on me. We had this ugly wrestling match on the ground.
'The police came... I got a couple of good shots in. The guy had me around the neck. That's the ugly part. When you're down on the ground and you're nearly 72 years old.'
In 2012, reports emerged of Hackman slapping a homeless man who became aggressive towards him and his wife.
Hackman would periodically be seen cycling alone around Santa Fe but largely remained inside his characteristically secluded estate, which had views of the surrounding Rocky Mountains.
Old friend Robert Duvall described him as 'a tormented guy, always into his own space, his own thing'.
The couple spent years perfecting their sprawling mansion – it was clear he loved his home. Stephen Samuelson, a local architect, said Hackman was a 'deeply involved client, very artistic, very keen on details.'
When asked if he would come out of retirement to act again, he said the only condition was that it had to be filmed at home.
For the couple, watching comedy TV and rented DVDs on a Friday night almost became a religion. 'We like simple stories that some of the little low-budget films manage to produce,' he once said.
A deep love of being at home meant that public appearances were naturally scarce, though not non-existent.
Hackman delighted fans with a rare appearance when he attended the Broadway Confidential show in Santa Fe in 2022.
Sirius XM Radio host Seth Rudetsky shared a photo of himself on Twitter alongside Hackman, delightedly stating: 'Look who came to our show in Santa Fe! Gene Hackman! Ah! The Poseidon Adventure! My fave!'
At the time, fans who had been concerned about Hackman's lack of public appearances noted how he looked happy and healthy.
'He looks like he's enjoying life to the fullest,' one Hackman fan replied. 'So nice to see a photo of him after so long!'
Detectives have not revealed if they are any closer to finding a cause of death. Early autopsies revealed no external trauma on husband or wife. Their bodies appear to have been left untouched for so long that they started to become mummified.
Suggestions by Hackman's daughters that they could have died from carbon monoxide poisoning have been widely dismissed after the local gas company tested the home and concluded it was safe.
Hackman was found just outside the kitchen, with his sunglasses and cane on the floor next to his body, according to reports.
Arakawa, other reports said, was discovered lying on the bathroom floor with an open bottle of prescription pills scattered across a nearby countertop.
One of the couple's dogs was also found dead.
Two were still alive.