So, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead at their home in Santa Fe. The sheriff’s office confirmed it yesterday. Gene, the Oscar-winning actor from The French Connection, Superman, The Poseidon Adventure, and The Conversation, was 95. Betsy, his wife, a classical pianist, was 63. They were found on Wednesday afternoon at their home in the Santa Fe Summit community, northeast of Santa Fe. There’s an “active investigation” into the deaths, but no foul play has been suggested yet. The cause of death isn’t clear either.
Gene Hackman had lived in Santa Fe since the 1980s, and he married Betsy back in 1991. They’d been together for decades. Deputies arrived at their home in a gated community on Old Sunset Trail, and while they didn’t say why they were there—whether it was a welfare check or a report of something happening—they found the couple and their dog dead. The sheriff confirmed the bodies were those of an elderly man and a woman in her 60s, but they didn’t officially identify them until later.
Now, Gene Hackman, that guy had a crazy career. He started in TV, did some stage work, and his big break came with Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. He got his first Oscar nomination for that. He didn’t win, but it was a turning point. After that, Hackman’s career took off. He went on to win his first Oscar for The French Connection in 1971, where he played Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle.
Throughout the 70s, Hackman was everywhere—The Poseidon Adventure, A Bridge Too Far, and Young Frankenstein (comedy gold), and of course Superman, where he played the villain, Lex Luthor. But some of his best work was in films that didn’t get a lot of attention, like Night Moves, Scarecrow, and The Conversation. Those were underappreciated but solid.
In the 80s, Hackman kept his momentum going—more Superman sequels, Reds, Hoosiers, No Way Out, and another Oscar nomination for Mississippi Burning. In 1992, he won his second Oscar for Unforgiven.
Hackman had a solid run through the 90s with hits like The Firm, Crimson Tide, and The Birdcage. Then, in 2004, he just quit acting. He said a stress test in New York told him his heart wasn’t up for it anymore, so he retired. But he didn’t stop being creative. He started writing historical fiction and even put out a crime novel.
His final film role was in Welcome to Mooseport in 2004, and after that, he retired for good. He even narrated a couple of documentaries—The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima (2016) and We, the Marines (2017).
In a 2011 interview, when asked about his life, Gene said, “‘He tried.’ I think that’d be fairly accurate.” Honestly, that sums it up. He may not have always been in the spotlight, but he gave us some unforgettable performances.
Now, he’s gone, and we lost a real legend. Rest in peace, Gene Hackman. You were one of a kind.
Image sources
serreel a.k.a Bill Chodubski, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Christopher Michael Little, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
