Actor Gene Hackman arrives with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, for the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 19, 2003. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
SANTA FE, NM – Oscar-winner Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog were found dead in different rooms of their Santa Fe home and had apparently been dead for some time, according to investigators.
Hackman, 95, was found dead Wednesday in a mudroom and his 63-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found dead in a bathroom next to a space heater, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office detectives wrote in a search warrant. There was an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on a countertop near Arakawa.
Denise Avila, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, said there was no indication that any of them had been shot or had other types of wounds.
The New Mexico Gas Co. is working with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation, spokesperson Tim Korte told The Associated Press.
The utility tested the gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to the warrant. At the time, it didn’t find any signs of problems. A detective noted that people exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide may not show signs of poisoning, but also noted there were no obvious signs of a gas leak.
The Associated Press left email and phone messages Thursday for sheriff’s officials seeking more details. A spokesperson for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which runs the state’s medical examiner operations, declined to comment on whether the cause and manner of deaths had been determined.
A worker reported that the home’s front door was open when he arrived for routine maintenance and that he called police after finding the bodies. Two workers told police that they rarely saw the homeowners and that their last contact with them had been about two weeks earlier.
A dead German shepherd was found in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, police said. Two healthy dogs were found on the property.
The gruff-but-beloved Hackman was among the best actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
He routinely showed up on Hollywood list of greatest American actors of the 20th century. He could play virtually any kind of role, from comic book villain Lex Luthor in “Superman” to a coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite “Hoosiers.”
Hackman was a five-time Oscar nominee who won for “The French Connection” in 1972 and “Unforgiven” two decades later. His death comes just four days before this year’s ceremony.
