Gene Hackman, 95, and wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, found dead along with pet dog
Reclusive Hollywood actor Gene Hackman has been found dead alongside his wife and dog in his home in New Mexico.
Gene Hackman’s family remains baffled as to what caused the mysterious deaths of him and his wife, stating the actor was “in very good health”, adding that he did yoga and Pilates regularly.
Authorities in the US state of New Mexico revealed that the star, his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, 63, and one of their dogs, were found dead at their Santa Fe mansion on Wednesday afternoon.
Two-time Oscar winner Hackman starred in huge films including as Lex Luthor in the 1980s Superman series, as well as roles in Mississippi Burning, The French Connection, The Royal Tenenbaums and Unforgiven.
While police have said they suspect no foul play a search warrant states the deaths are “suspicious”.
It’s been reported that the pair may have been dead for some time with Arakawa’s body partially “mummified” and “bloated”. Pills were strewn around the corpse.
Hackman’s daughter, Elizabeth Jean Hackman, said she believed the death was due to carbon monoxide poisoning. While it does remain the most obvious possibility, police have said there is also some doubt as to whether that was indeed the cause.
Police have launched an “active investigation” into the deaths.
“All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant,” Adan Mendoza, the sheriff of Santa Fe County, told media.
“This is an active investigation – however, at this time we do not believe that foul play was a factor.
“I want to assure the community and neighbourhood that there’s no immediate danger to anyone.”
‘We don’t understand’: Hackman’s daughter
Hackman’s daughter Leslie told Fox News on Thursday that although her father “was 95, he was in very good health”, adding that he did yoga and Pilates regularly.
Leslie said she hadn’t seen her father in a “few years”, only because he no longer travelled much, and she lives in California, but she said they were close and had “been in touch over the last couple of months”.
“I loved him dearly,” she said over the phone. “He was a genuinely good-hearted person.”
Leslie said she had been “kind of mentally preparing” herself for his death because of his age, but she said it was “very shocking” to hear about his wife’s death because she was only 63.
“We don’t understand what happened,” she said.
Leslie said that their family is waiting to hear from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office about their causes of death, adding that authorities had told them that they had been in contact with the fire department about possible carbon monoxide poisoning, and they are waiting to hear back about that.
Three jarring finds arouse suspicion: affidavit
A search warrant affidavit submitted by Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies has revealed three key details that have aroused suspicion in the deaths of Hackman Arakawa.
Intricate details at the scene of the deaths have been laid out in an extensive search warrant affidavit submitted by Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies published a short while ago by local newspaper, the Santa Fe New Mexican.
In it, investigators wrote there were no signs of either carbon monoxide poisoning or a gas leak at the home after testing by both firefighters and gas utility staff Wednesday.
However, the affidavit newly published suggests the possibility of either happening.
Detective Roy Arndt of the sheriff’s office said “individuals exposed to gas leaks (or poisonous gas) can suffer immediate and unexpected death” and “might not show apparent injuries.”
Investigators revealed Arakawa was found on the floor in the bathroom next to a countertop with a space heater on the floor next to her head.
“(A deputy) suspected the heater could have fallen in the event the female abruptly fell to the ground,” the affidavit stated.
A pill bottle was also found open on the countertop, with pills scattered on the surface.
One of the couple’s dogs, a German Shepherd. was found dead in a bathroom closet just metres from Arakawa, but the document did not state whether the door to the closet was open or closed.
Hackman was found on the floor of a room near the kitchen.
He had “suddenly fallen” with sunglasses on the floor next to him, the document revealed.
The affidavit said while there were no signs of forced entry into the home, the circumstances surrounding the deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation,” noting the pill bottle, the heater, and the open front door.
Additionally, One of their dogs was running on the property when authorities arrived, while a third dog was found alive next to Arakawa.
The document stated a deputy who attended the scene “advised based on his training and experience nothing appeared to be ‘out of place’ while clearing the residence.”
Blunt force trauma on either Hackman or Arakawa was ruled out in the affidavit.
The couple first found by two maintenance workers.
They called 911 at 1.43pm Wednesday local time after seeing the front door to the couple’s home ajar and finding them deceased inside, sheriff’s deputies wrote.
The two workers said they had been in contact with the couple roughly two weeks earlier.
The scene was cleared, and by approximately 9.30pm Wednesday evening local time, a search warrant was approved for investigators to search the entire residence — a two-storey olive-green stucco house.
Those following the case have been warned a cause of death may be a while off, with a spokesperson for the Office of the Medical Investigator stating full autopsies would “be a while.”
First autopsy results
Autopsies have been completed on both Hackman and Arakawa, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department told Fox News on Thursday afternoon.
No external trauma was seen on either body, although the official autopsy results and toxicology reports are still pending.
Carbon monoxide and toxicology tests were ordered as the manner and cause of death have not been determined.
Hackman’s family ‘devastated’
Hackman’s daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie, and his granddaughter, Annie, have released a statement.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” they told The Post on Thursday.
“He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”
‘Not moving!’: Hackman 911 call released
The emotional 911 call made by a maintenance worker after discovering the bodies of Hackman and Arakawa has been released.
Hours after news broke of their tragic deaths, entertainment website TMZ obtained audio of an employee frantically pleading for the dispatcher to send first responders to the New Mexico home.
The man, whose name was redacted, told the operator that he “found two or one deceased person[s] inside a house”.
“Please send somebody really quick,” he begged.
As the dispatcher paused to call for the paramedics, the caller began crying while repeatedly saying, “Damn.”
However, the man didn’t seem to have a personal connection to the pair, as he could not tell the dispatcher any personal details about them.
“[It’s] a female and a male probably. I don’t know, sir. Just send somebody up here really quick,” he said.
The caller said he had “no idea” if the two were “awake” or “breathing” because he “was not inside the house” with them.
“[The house] is closed. It’s locked. I can’t go in,” he said. “But I see that she is lying down on the floor from the window.”
He insisted they were not “awake” or “alert” and saw no signs of movement.
“No, dude, they’re not moving!” he said while growing increasingly concerned. “Just send somebody out here really quick!”
The man suggested he worked for the gated community where the couple lived and instructed the officers to meet him at the front entrance.
‘Mummification, decomposition’
A search warrant filed by police and seen by TMZ, stated “the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation”.
That was because “the front door of the residence [was] unsecured and opened, deputies observed a healthy dog running loose on the property, another healthy dog near the deceased female, a deceased dog laying 10-15 feet [3–4 metres] from the deceased female in a closet of the bathroom, the heater being moved, the pill bottle being opened and pills scattered next to the female, the male decadent being located in a separate room of the residence, and no obvious signs of a gas leak”.
TMZ reported that police believed Hackman may have suddenly fallen because his sunglasses were found near to his body.
While a bathroom heater could have fallen after Arakawa “abruptly fell to the ground”.
She may have been dead for “some time”, it was reported.
“The body was in a state of decomposition with bloating in her face and mummification in her hands and feet,” the warrant said.
The bodies were discovered by two tradesman who entered the $US3.3 million ($5.3 million) home who said they had not seen the couple for around a fortnight.
Gas leak theory in doubt
There are also doubts as to whether a carbon monoxide leak was the cause of death.
Both the fire brigade and the gas company inspected the property following the deaths, the search warrant stated.
“As of now, there are no signs or evidence indicating there were any problems associated to the pipes in and around the residence,” it said.
In an updated statement on Thursday morning, local time, police revealed the overarching details.
“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 and a dog were found deceased,” a police statement said.
‘One of the greatest’
Hackman, who had turned 95 late last month, was once voted as likely to flop in showbiz but instead went on to win two Oscar awards. Arakawa was a classical pianist.
He was known for his role as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde.
He also starred as an agent in Mississippi Burning in 1998 and portrayed Lex Luthor in the Superman movies during the 1970s and 1980s.
His filmography includes hits such as Runaway Jury, The French Connection, The Royal Tenenbaums, Unforgiven, and The Conversation.
The actor’s prolific resume includes two Oscars, three Golden Globes and the Cecil B. DeMille Award, bestowed in 2003.
The California native was born Eugene Hackman on January 30, 1930. His parents moved from city to city, eventually settling in Danville, Illinois.
Hackman remembers his father, Eugene, saying goodbye to the family with the wave of a hand when he was 13.
“I hadn’t realised how much one small gesture can mean,” Hackman told GQ in 2011. “Maybe that’s why I became an actor.”
Hackman joined the Marines at 16, serving four-and-a-half years in China, Japan and Hawaii before seeking a journalism and television production degree at the University of Illinois.
He abandoned those plans to pursue a serious acting career, enrolling at 27 in the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he met 19-year-old Dustin Hoffman. “There was something about him [Hoffman] that — like he had a secret. You just knew he was going to do something,” Hackman recalled to Vanity Fair in 2004.
In 1964, at 34, Hackman scored his big Broadway break in Any Wednesday, which resulted in a star-making scene in 1964’s Lilith alongside Warren Beatty.
When Beatty was selecting his cast for the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, he tapped Hackman to play his older brother. He scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, one of five nods throughout his career.
In 1972, he won the Best Actor Oscar for The French Connection, a film that cemented his status as a leading man. The crime thriller boasts one of the best car chase scenes of all time, with death-defying stunts through 26 blocks of Brooklyn — all done illegally.
Surprisingly, everyone seemed to make it off the set without so much as a scratch.
“Filmmaking has always been risky — both physically and emotionally — but I do choose to consider that film a moment in a checkered career of hits and misses,” Hackman told The Post in 2021 in a rare interview, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The French Connection.
“The film certainly helped me in my career, and I am grateful for that.”
Following The French Connection, which he claimed he’s only watched once, Hackman went on to appear in Young Frankenstein (1974), Night Moves (1975), Bite the Bullet (1975), Superman (1978), and even Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992), which gave him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
He also headlined blockbusters by playing a wayward reverend in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), a down-on-his-luck high school basketball coach in Hoosiers (1986), a sneaky tax lawyer in The Firm (1993), and an eccentric father in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).
While presenting him the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2003, Michael Caine revered Hackman as “one of the greatest actors” he knows.
“Gene Hackman in Hollywood is known as an actor’s actor, but in my house, he’s known as a comedian’s comedian,” quipped Robin Williams, who co-presented the award.
“Whether it be comedy or drama, you’re the most gifted actor in America. You’re also a truly superhuman being,” he added.
After more than 100 credits, Hackman took his final bow in 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, retiring from the screen — and stunts — to New Mexico.
He was rarely seen and had suffered from minor health problems in the years since.
Hackman married Arakawa in 1991 in a private ceremony in the US.
The pair do not have any children together. Hackman has three children from his previous marriage to Faye Maltese.
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