Gene Hackman, wife had been dead ‘for some time,’ pills found on scene

An investigation into the deaths of the couple and their dog is ongoing, according to Santa Fe police

Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman was found dead alongside his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog in their Santa Fe home on Wednesday afternoon.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed with Fox News Digital that a search warrant showed Hackman, his wife and their dog had been dead for some time.

Mendoza said their team found the deceased dog in a kennel during the investigation. The couple’s bodies were in different rooms when deputies found them while conducting a wellness check at their Santa Fe home.

On Wednesday, Hackman was found dead in a mudroom and his wife, Arakawa, was found dead in a bathroom next to a space heater. There was an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the countertop near Arakawa.

After they inspected the home, Santa Fe County Sheriff Mendoza and the deputies applied for a warrant to conduct a more thorough search.

Sheriff Mendoza told Fox News Digital it’s customary during death investigations to seek a warrant on the assumption they may find evidence of a crime, as they followed standard procedures.

Mendoza confirmed that the gas company and fire department additionally responded to make sure there were no toxic fumes that would endanger the deputies during their search.

The New Mexico Gas Co. is working with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation.

During their investigation, the sheriff did not discover any visible trauma on Hackman or his wife and said they could have been victims of a double homicide, suicide, accidental death or natural causes.

Hackman was 95 at the time of his death, and his wife 63. The office confirmed that foul play is not suspected as a factor in the deaths at this time, but the cause of death has not been determined. An investigation is ongoing.

Sheriff Mendoza told Fox News Digital that an autopsy is scheduled for today.

“On February 26, 2025, at approximately 1:45 p.m., 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, 64, and a dog were found deceased,” the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office told Fox News Digital early Thursday morning.

Hackman was best known for his Oscar-winning performances in “The French Connection” and “Unforgiven.” He appeared as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.

Hackman also had a breakout performance in “Bonnie and Clyde,” a comic interlude in “Young Frankenstein,” a turn as the comic book villain Lex Luthor in “Superman” and the title character in Wes Anderson’s 2001 “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

“The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity,” Francis Ford Coppola, who wrote and directed the 1974 film “The Conversation” – which Hackman starred in – wrote on Instagram.

“I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”

Eugene Alden Hackman was born Jan. 30, 1930, in San Bernardino, California, and grew up in Danville, Illinois, where his father worked as a pressman for the Commercial-News.

His parents fought repeatedly, and his father often used his fists on Gene to take out his rage, according to the Associated Press. The boy found refuge in movie houses, identifying with Errol Flynn and James Cagney as his role models.

When Gene was 13, his father waved goodbye and drove off, never to return. The abandonment was a lasting injury to Gene.

His mother had become an alcoholic and was constantly at odds with her mother, with whom the shattered family lived (Gene had a younger brother). At 16, he “suddenly got the itch to get out.” Lying about his age, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines.

An article on the Department of Defense’s website said doing that “was a fairly common practice before the advent of computer records” and that Hackman served from 1947 to 1952 as a field radio operator and broadcast journalist.

“In the 1940s, he was stationed in Qingdao, China, and then Shanghai. Part of his duties, he said, was destroying Japanese military equipment so that the communists couldn’t obtain it,” the article also reads.

With a high school diploma he earned during his time as a Marine, Hackman studied journalism at the University of Illinois.

He dropped out after six months to study radio announcing in New York. After working at stations in Florida and his hometown of Danville, he returned to New York to study painting at the Art Students League. Hackman switched again to enter an acting course at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Back in New York, he found work as a doorman and truck driver, among other jobs, while waiting for a break as an actor.

Summer work at a theater on Long Island led to roles off-Broadway. Hackman began attracting attention from Broadway producers, and he received good notices in such plays as “Any Wednesday,” with Sandy Dennis, and “Poor Richard,” with Alan Bates.

Hackman’s first starring film role came in 1970 with “I Never Sang for My Father,” as a man struggling to deal with a failed relationship with his dying father, Melvyn Douglas.

In 1956, Hackman married Fay Maltese, a bank teller he had met at a YMCA dance in New York. They had a son, Christopher, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie, but divorced in the mid-1980s. In 1991, he married Betsy Arakawa, a classical pianist of Japanese descent who was raised in Hawaii.

When not on film locations, Hackman enjoyed painting, stunt flying, stock car racing and deep sea diving. In his latter years, he wrote novels and lived on his ranch in Sante Fe, on a hilltop looking out on the Colorado Rockies.

“We have lost one of the true giants of the screen. Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it,” “Star Trek” actor George Takei wrote on X Thursday morning.

“He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was. He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”

Fox News’ Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.