Gene Hackman and Wife Betsy Arakawa Found Dead in Santa Fe Home
Photo: Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa in 2003. Courtesy of Getty Images.
Gene Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner considered one of the best actors of the 20th century, has died, along with his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports. Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 63, were found dead in their home in Santa Fe on Wednesday afternoon, as confirmed by Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza early Thursday morning. According to the New Mexican, there’s “no immediate indication of foul play,” although it’s not yet known how or when they died. According to the New York Times, deputies visited the Hackman residence after a neighbor requested a welfare check on the couple.
Hackman was nominated for five Academy Awards in an on-screen career that stretched from 1961 to 2004, winning twice: Best Actor for The French Connection in 1972, and Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven in 1993. He came to prominence in his Oscar-nominated role of Buck Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, the movie widely credited for kicking off the “New Hollywood” era that made the ’70s one of the most artistically fertile periods for American movies. His performance as NYPD Detective “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection and its 1975 sequel helped define the archetype of the antihero cop, and Hackman excelled at playing both villains and morally compromised antiheroes. Notable appearances include The Conversation, Night Moves, Reds, Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, The Firm, Crimson Tide, Get Shorty, The Royal Tenenbaums, and dozens of others, and he played iconic supervillain Lex Luthor opposite Christopher Reeve in Superman, Superman II, and Superman IV. He retired in 2004 after the Ray Romano comedy Welcome to Mooseport, living in Santa Fe with his wife Arakawa. He also co-wrote three novels with Daniel Lenihan between 1999 and 2008, and two solo novels, 2011’s Payback at Morning Peak and 2013’s Pursuit. Paste wrote in 2021 about Hackman’s incredible versatility, focusing on the five films in which he appeared in 2001: The Royal Tenenbaums, The Mexican, Heartbreakers, Behind Enemy Lines and Heist.
Arakawa and Hackman started dating in the 1980s, and were married in 1991. A trained classical pianist, Arakawa also helped Hackman design their Santa Fe home, according to a feature in Architectural Digest in 1990. The two are known to have owned German shepherds in the past.