Oscar-winning & multiple other awards winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their home in New Mexico, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office told CNN. He was 95. Their cause of death has not been confirmed but it is not believed to be foul play, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Womack-Avila told CNN on Thursday morning. Deputies responded to a welfare check request at the home around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday and found Hackman, Arakawa and a dog deceased, Womack-Avila said. An investigation is ongoing, police said. Hackman’s best roles were often of conflicted authority figures or surprisingly clever white-collar villains, such as the iconic evil villain Lex Luthor in the “Superman” film series in the 1970s and 80s. Many held a hint – sometimes more than a hint – of menace.
In a career that spanned six decades, he received two Academy Awards, two British Academy Films Awards and four Golden Globes. Hackman’s two Academy Award wins were for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s action thriller The French Connection (1971) and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a villainous Sheriff in Clint Eastwood’s Western film Unforgiven (1992). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles as Buck Barrow in the crime drama Bonnie and Clyde (1967), a college professor in the drama I Never Sang for My Father (1970), and an FBI agent in the historical drama Mississippi Burning (1988).
Hackman gained further fame for his portrayal of Lex Luthor in Superman (1978) and its sequel Superman II (1980). He also acted in: The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Scarecrow (1973), The Conversation (1974), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Under Fire (1983), Power (1986), Loose Cannons (1990), The Firm (1993), The Quick and the Dead (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Enemy of the State (1998), Behind Enemy Lines (2001) and Runaway Jury (2003). He retired from acting after starring in Welcome to Mooseport (2004).
Hackman was married twice. He had three children from his first marriage. In 1956, Hackman married Faye Maltese (1929–2017), with whom he had one son and two daughters: Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne Hackman. The couple divorced in 1986, after three decades of marriage. In 1991, Hackman married classical pianist Betsy Arakawa (1961–2025). They shared a Santa Fe, New Mexico. he Santa Fe Police Department said there were no significant signs of foul play but did not provide either time or cause of death.
