Gene Hackman has passed away at 95. The Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico home yesterday afternoon. Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed the couple’s death early Thursday morning with an official statement, which also stated no suspicion of foul play.
Update: A Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson has now changed their tune. An affidavit discovered by TMZ says the deaths are now “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.” Police found “the front door of the residence 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 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 decedent being located in a separate room of the residence, and no obvious signs of a gas leak.”
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One of the most prolific and celebrated actors of his generation, Hackman’s Hollywood career spanned 118 movie credits, six decades, five Academy Award nominations, and two Oscar wins. And those victories came in two different eras for Hackman. The first was the Best Actor Oscar win as Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in Williams Friedkin’s 1971 classic “The French Connection.” The second came in 1993, a Best Supporting Actor win for his role in Clint Eastwood’s revisionist western “Unforgiven.” But Hackman had plenty of other renowned parts in his filmography, like 1967’s “Bonnie & Clyde,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” from 1974, and 1986’s basketball drama “Hoosiers,” among others.
Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, in 1930 and had a largely unstable childhood, with his father walking out on his family when he was only 13 years old. His father’s abandonment forced Hackman to move in with his maternal grandparents in Danville, Illinois. But despite the hardships of his childhood, Hackman had early dreams of becoming an actor. It took a while for those dreams to come to fruition, however. After a stint in the United States Marine Corps that started at age 16 (Hackman lied about his age to enlist), a young Hackman was discharged in 1951, studied journalism and television briefly at the University Of Illinois, and then dropped out to move to New York City.
Hackman then moved to California with his first wife, Fay Maltese, to pursue acting full-time, working at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he first met fellow upcoming thespian and long-time friend Dustin Hoffman. Hackman acted onstage and on various TV series throughout the mid/late ’50s before he moved back to NYC with Hoffman and Robert Duvall to find roles on and off Broadway. His big break came on the 1964 TV series “Lilith” opposite Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty. Meeting Beatty put him on the radar for a supporting film role in Arthur Penn’s “Bonnie & Clyde,” which earned Hackman his first Oscar nod. After that, his career soared, including another Best Supporting Oscar nom for “I Never Sang For My Father” before winning Best Actor for “The French Connection” at the 1972 Academy Awards.
Hackman’s work in the 1970s remains the most celebrated of his career, suffusing various tough-guy roles with understated intensity. Highlights of the period for the actor include the 1972 cult crime film “Prime Cut” opposite Lee Marvin, Jerry Schatzberg’s 1973 drama “Scarecrow” with Al Pacino, Coppola’s “The Conversation,” John Frankenheimer’s 1975 “French Connection” sequel, and the neo-noir “Night Moves,” also from 1975. Hackman also had roles in big-budget films in that decade, too, like “The Poseidon Adventure,” as well as two turns as villain Lex Luthor in 1978’s “Superman” and its 1980 sequel.
The next decade saw Hackman work relentlessly, doing four films with Beatty between 1981 and 1984, including “Reds.” The actor also won acclaim for “Hoosiers” and continued his long-running string of neo-noir roles in films like “Target” and “No Way Out.” But Hoffman’s most regarded role of the 1980s came in 1988’s political drama “Mississippi Burning,” which nabbed him another Oscar nod and won him the Silver Lion for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival.
After Hackman’s second Oscar win for “Unforgiven” in 1993, the actor continued to work on political thrillers like “The Firm,” “Executive Action,” and “Absolute Power,” as well as westerns like “Wyatt Earp” and “The Quick & The Dead.” But Hackman also started making more comedies, including “Get Shorty,” “The Birdcage,” and 2000’s “The Replacements.” Late career highlights for the actor include David Mamet’s “Heist” and Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums,” both from 2001. His last onscreen role came in 2004 in “Welcome To Mooseport.”
After “Welcome To Mooseport,” Hackman quietly retired following advice from his doctor and retreated from the public eye. However, he remained active in the local Sante Fe community in the decades before his passing. Hackman is survived by his three children, Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, whom he had with his late ex-wife Maltese.
