Police have not ruled out foul play as they continue to investigate the deaths of Hollywood legend Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The couple and their dog were found dead in separate rooms on Wednesday afternoon, the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office said in a statement. The cause of their deaths is still unknown.
Sheriff Adan Mendoza said police “do not believe that foul play was a factor” but that an investigation was launched as police said the deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to requite a thorough search”.
Hackman, 95, who won two Oscars in a more than 60-year career, and his wife, 64, a classically-trained pianist, were discovered by a maintenance worker who found the home’s front door ajar, although there were no signs of forced entry, and there were no obvious signs of a gas leak or a carbon monoxide leak, a search warrant application revealed.
But a leak is still under investigation and detectives await autopsy reports and toxicology test results.
Hackman’s daughter, Elizabeth Jean Hackman, told the US news outlet TMZ on Thursday that the family suspected carbon monoxide may have been to blame for their deaths.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said at a press conference that Hackman and Arakawa “had been deceased for quite a while” – though he could not say how long.
The sheriff said they were still trying to determine the last time anybody had contact with the couple.
Sheriff’s deputies found Hackman in the kitchen, and Arakawa and a dog, which was inside a crate, were in a bathroom, with scattered pills from an open prescription bottle on the bathroom counter.
Both Hackman and Arakawa appeared to have suddenly fallen to the floor and neither showed signs of blunt force trauma, the affidavit said.
Mendoza said two other dogs were found alive and that those dogs were not in a crate and were able to move freely in and out of the house by a pet door.
Hackman rose to fame for his 1967 role in Bonnie and Clyde as Buck Barrow and went on to win two Oscars, two Baftas, four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award in a career which spanned six decades.
Arakawa was a classical pianist and the couple had been married since 1991.
Hackman has three children with his first wife, Faye Maltese. The pair divorced in 1986 after 30 years of marriage.
Hackman won a 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 Unforgiven in 1992.
He was Oscar-nominated for his roles in Bonnie and Clyde, I Never Sang For My Father, 1970, and Mississippi Burning, 1988.
American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola paid his respects to Hackman, who starred in his 1974 neo-noir mystery thriller The Conversation, playing surveillance expert Harry Caul.
In a tribute posted on Instagram, he wrote: “The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity.
“I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”
Actor and author George Takei tweeted: “We have lost one of the true giants of the screen. Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it. He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe.
“That’s how powerful an actor he was. He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”
Hackman was born in California in 1930 and enlisted in the army after lying about his age at 16. He served in the US Marine Corps as a field radio operator and then a broadcast journalist from 1947 to 1952, including postings in China, Hawaii and Japan.
He went on to study journalism and television production at the University of Illinois but later pivoted to pursue an acting career, joining the Pasadena Playhouse in California where he befriended a young Dustin Hoffman.
The pair were voted “least likely to succeed” and Hackman got the lowest grade the Playhouse had ever given at that time.
He moved to New York determined to prove them wrong, telling a 2004 Vanity Fair article that rejection motivated him. “It was more psychological warfare, because I wasn’t going to let those f**kers get me down,” he said, as quoted in the article. “I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job.
Hackman had a few TV and theatre roles before breaking through with his performance in 1967’s Bonnie And Clyde, which starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the titular roles.
The actor secured a new cohort of fans for his portrayal of supervillain Lex Luthor in the 1978 Superman film, starring Christopher Reeve as the superhero and Marlon Brando as Jor-El, Superman’s biological father.
Valerie Perrine, who played Lex Luthor’s girlfriend Eve Teschmacher, described him as “a genius” and one of the “greatest to grace the silver screen”. She posted on X: “His performances are legendary. His talent will be missed. Goodbye my sweet Lex Till we meet again.”
Hackman acted opposite many Hollywood heavyweights in his time including Al Pacino in 1973’s Scarecrow, Gene Wilder in 1974’s Young Frankenstein and Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in 1981’s Reds.
His other notable roles included hit disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure, from 1972 and Runaway Jury in 2003.
He took a comedic turn playing a conservative senator in 1996’s The Birdcage alongside Robin Williams and Nathan Lan, who starred as a gay couple.
Hackman also featured in the star-studded cast of Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums, with Welcome To Mooseport in 2004 marking his last big-screen appearance.
A police statement shared with the PA news agency said: “On February 26 2025 at approximately 1.45pm, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an address on Old Sunset Trail in Hyde Park where Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 64, and a dog were found deceased.
“Foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time – however, exact cause of death has not been determined. This is an active and ongoing investigation by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.”
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.
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