Gene Hackman, the intense character actor who won two Oscars in a more than 60-year career, has died alongside his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog at home, the sheriff’s office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said on Thursday.
The county sheriff’s office said deputies had found the 95-year-old actor and Arakawa, 64, deceased on Thursday afternoon at around 1:45 p.m.
“Foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time, however exact cause of death has not been determined. This is an active and ongoing investigation by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office,” it said.
Hackman, a former Marine known for his raspy voice, appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and the stage during a lengthy career that started in the early 1960s.
He earned his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde.” He was also nominated for best supporting actor in 1971 for “I Never Sang for My Father.”
It was his turn as Popeye Doyle, the rumpled New York detective chasing international drug dealers in director William Friedkin’s thriller “The French Connection,” that assured his stardom and a best actor Academy Award.
He also won a best supporting actor Oscar in 1993 as a mean sheriff in the Clint Eastwood western “Unforgiven,” and was nominated for an Academy Award for his turn as an FBI agent in the 1988 historical drama “Mississippi Burning.”
Hackman could come across on the screen as menacing or friendly, working with a face that he described to the New York Times in 1989 as that of “your everyday mine worker.”
A method actor, he drew from his personal experience to flesh out a role. His characters were sometimes raw and violent and ranged from a small-town basketball coach in the 1986 sports film “Hoosiers” to Superman’s archrival Lex Luthor.
He retired in his 70s, saying the parts he was offered were too grandfatherly. His last substantial role was in the 2004 comedy “Welcome to Mooseport.”
Living outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, Hackman was married twice and had three children – Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, with his late ex-wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017. He married Arakawa in 1991.
(Reporting by Muvija M, Catarina Demony and Shivani Tanna; Writing by Kate Holton; Editing by Peter Graff)
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