BREAKING NEWSGene Hackman, Wife Betsy Arakawa's Deaths Under Investigation After Couple Found in New Mexico Home: Police
Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their New Mexico home on February 26.
Feb. 27 2025, Published 8:54 a.m. ET
An investigation has been launched into the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office told NBC News on Thursday, February 27.
According to officials, there’s “an active and ongoing investigation” into Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths after they were found dead in their New Mexico home on Wednesday, February 26.
Denise Womack Avila, the county sheriff’s public information officer, said deputies were called to their home on Old Sunset Trail in Hyde Park around 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
Police went to the actor's home after a neighbor called authorities to carry out a welfare check, the sheriff's office told an Albuquerque reporter, per NBC News.
Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies were not identified until 12:30 a.m. the next day.
The two got married in 1991.
“Foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time however exact cause of death has not been determined,” Avila’s statement said.
The star and his wife both died on February 26.
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Hackman married Arakawa, a classical pianist, in 1991.
She was 95 at the time of his death, while she was 63.
There is now an investigation into the pair's death.
Hackman won two Oscars for his roles in The French Connection and Unforgiven. He stepped away from acting in 2004.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York,” he told Empire in 2009. “The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.”
The actor lived a quiet life in New Mexico before he died.
Hackman focused on other endeavors, co-writing four books with Daniel Lenihan: Wake of the Perdido Star (1999), Justice for None (2004), Vermillion (2004) and Escape from Andersonville (2008).
"I like the loneliness of [writing], actually. It's similar in some ways to acting, but it's more private and I feel like I have more control over what I'm trying to say and do," he told Reuters. "There's always a compromise in acting and in film, you work with so many people and everyone has an opinion."
"But with the books, it's just Dan and I and our opinions. I don't know that I like it better than acting, it's just different. I find it relaxing and comforting," he continued.
