Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman has died at the age of 95.
In a statement to the Santa Fe New Mexican, county sheriff Adan Mendoza said Hackman and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead on Wednesday afternoon in their home in the Santa Fe Summit community northeast of the city.
It quoted the police department saying: “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday.”
The Press Association confirmed there is an “active investigation’’ into the deaths and quoted the police department saying: “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday.”
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In an interview on Wednesday evening, Mr Mendoza said there was no immediate indication of foul play. He did not provide a cause of death or say when the couple might have died.
Hackman (95) had lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, since the 1980s and married Arakawa (63) in 1991.
Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the couple’s home in a gated community called Old Sunset Trail on Wednesday afternoon to investigate the deaths of two elderly people and a dog. It was unclear whether the deputies were responding to a report of the deaths or if they were making a welfare check at the home.
The deputies discovered the bodies of a man in his 90s and a woman in her 60s, Mr Mendoza initially reported.
“All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant,” the sheriff said on Wednesday evening, before his agency had positively identified the pair.
“I want to assure the community and neighbourhood that there’s no immediate danger to anyone,” he said.
Hackman enjoyed a 40-year career in film, including performances in The French Connection, Superman and The Royal Tenenbaums, before he retired in 2004. He achieved success relatively late, breaking through in his 30s and going on to embody the antiheroic mien of 1970s Hollywood.
[ Gene Hackman 1930-2025: in picturesOpens in new window ]
Born in 1930, he joined the marines in the late 1940s, and decided to study acting in the late 1950s. Hackman befriended Dustin Hoffman at the Pasadena Playhouse and the two were voted “the least likely to succeed”.
He made his first real impression playing Buck Barrow in Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, securing his first Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
His second Oscar nomination came with the lead in William Friedkin’s action thriller The French Connection, graduating him to the A-list, thanks to the film’s box office success. Hackman won his first Oscar for best actor for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle.
“Film-making 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 said in a 2021 interview.
Hackman had further success in the 70s with roles in The Poseidon Adventure and A Bridge Too Far, and also displayed a talent for comedy with acclaimed turns in Young Frankenstein and Superman, playing the superhero’s nemesis Lex Luthor in the latter.
During the 80s, he continued to play Lex Luthor in Superman sequels and also starred in Reds, Hoosiers and No Way Out. He also picked up another Oscar nomination for Mississippi Burning before winning his second Oscar in 1992 for a role in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven.
Hackman also started his second career as an author of historical fiction with his first book Wake of the Perdido Star, which was followed by four others, the most recent of which was published in 2011.
Hackman’s later film roles included acclaimed comic turns in Heartbreakers and The Royal Tenenbaums and thrillers such as Heist and Runaway Jury. His final film was the 2004 comedy Welcome to Mooseport. In 2008, he confirmed his retirement.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York,” Hackman said to Empire about his retirement. “The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.”
When asked in a 2011 interview, how he would describe his life, he said: “‘He tried.’ I think that’d be fairly accurate.” – the Guardian
