ABC News has confirmed that Gene Hackman, 95, the prolific and versatile two-time Oscar-winning actor whose career spanned more than five decades, was found dead Wednesday in his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, along with his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, 63, who he married in 1991.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Denise Avila told ABC news that the couple was found during a welfare check after their neighbor called in, concerned about their well-being. Officials will be putting out a statement later this morning with more details.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the couple was found along with their dog, and there was no indication of foul play.
Before retiring from acting in 2004, Hackman starred in 79 films and played a variety of roles, including arch-villain Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie, a basketball coach with a spotty past in Hoosiers, the commanding officer of a nuclear warship in Crimson Tide and a take-no-prisoners FBI agent in Mississippi Burning.
In 1971, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of tough cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection, and two decades later, in 1992, he won a second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a sadistic sheriff in Unforgiven. Hackman also won three Golden Globes awards and two BAFTAs.
Hackman was born Jan. 30, 1930, in San Bernardino, California, but grew up in up in Danville, Illinois. When Hackman was 13, his father abandoned the family, leaving his son, who was playing in the street, with a simple wave of his hand.
“I hadn’t realized how much one small gesture can mean,” the actor once said. “Maybe that’s why I became an actor.”
Before pursuing acting, Hackman lied about his age at 16 to enlist in the Marine Corps. He left the military at 19 and ended up in California, where he took classes at the Pasadena Playhouse with fellow student Dustin Hoffman. Together they moved to New York and got an apartment with another struggling actor, Robert Duvall.
Hackman’s big break came in 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde, for which he earned his first Oscar nomination. That was followed by I Never Sang for My Father, which earned him his second nomination, The French Connection, The Poseidon Adventure and The Conversation.
In the 1980s, he alternated between leading and supporting roles in films such as Reds, Hoosiers, No Way Out and Mississippi Burning. In the ’90s, after undergoing an angioplasty, he returned to the screen in Unforgiven, The Firm, Get Shorty and Crimson Tide.
After starring in The Royal Tenenbaums, Runaway Jury and his final film, 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, Hackman turned full-time to writing novels, including a western, a police thriller and three historical fiction books.
Asked by GQ in 2011 how he’d like to be remembered, Hackman said, “As a decent actor. As someone who tried to portray what was given to them in an honest fashion.”
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