Legendary actor Gene Hackman, wife and dog, found dead at home
Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 63, have been found dead inside their New Mexico home alongside their dog.
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Avila said deputies responded to a welfare request at the home on Wednesday afternoon local time (Thursday morning AEDT) and found the pair.
Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead inside their New Mexico home. Credit: WireImage
Another county spokesperson, Adan Mendoza, confirmed the news to local media, though did not provide a cause of death, and said there was no immediate indication of foul play.
Hackman, a former marine known for his raspy voice, appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and the stage during a lengthy career that started in the early 1960s.
He earned his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde. He was also nominated for best supporting actor in 1971 for I Never Sang for My Father.
It was his turn as Popeye Doyle, the rumpled New York detective chasing international drug dealers in director William Friedkin’s thriller The French Connection, that assured his stardom and a best actor Academy Award.
Credit: SMH
He also won a best supporting actor Oscar in 1993 as a mean sheriff in the Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as an FBI agent in the 1988 historical drama Mississippi Burning.
Hackman could come across on the screen as menacing or friendly, working with a face that he described to The New York Times in 1989 as that of “your everyday mine worker”.
