Posted on 02/28/2025 6:07:02 AM PST by Red Badger
Actor Gene Hackman, 95, was found dead inside his home today along with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 63, and their dog. The initial report was that the couple perished through carbon monoxide poisoning, but that was quickly updated as something seems off about how the bodies were discovered. Reportedly, Hackman and his wife had been dead for quite some time, their bodies mummified, with pills all over the place, and the front door was open. The couple hadn’t been seen or heard from in about two weeks (via NY Post):
Authorities said the deaths were “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation” after finding the door to the couple’s home was “unsecured and opened” and an open orange prescription pill bottle and pills scattered around the room where Hackman’s wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, and one of their German shepherd dogs were discovered.
Deputies noted that it appeared Arakawa had “obvious signs of death, body decomposition, bloating in her face and mummification in both hands and feet” when she was found on the floor of a bathroom near the home’s entry, according to the report.
The door into the couple’s $3.3 million Santa Fe, New Mexico, home, which sits on six acres and is over 8,000 square feet, was left ajar — but there was no sign of forced entry or theft, according to the report.
Authorities also noted in the report that a black space heater was found near Arakawa’s head. A responding officer said “he suspected the heater could have fallen in the event the female abruptly fell to the ground,” the affidavit said.
The couple’s deceased dog was located about 10 to 15 feet away from Arakawa inside the bathroom’s closet, deputies wrote in the report.
Meanwhile, Hackman’s body was located in what deputies believe was the mudroom near a pair of sunglasses. Officers wrote in the report that it appeared he had “suddenly fallen.”
We’ll know more after the autopsy.
It’s such a blow. Hackman was a Hollywood icon with a storied career. From playing a hard-nosed NYPD detective Popeye Doyle running down French drug smugglers in The French Connectionm for which he won an Oscar, to a former spook helping a DC-area attorney, played by Will Smith, escape rogue agents at the National Security Agency in Enemy of the State, Hackman was able to play them all. He earned his first Oscar nomination for a supporting role in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde. He helped survivors of the Poseidon reach safety after the luxury liner capsized upon being slammed by a tidal wave, showed off his comedic chops in Young Frankenstein, had a nasty vendetta against the Man of Steel, and led a rural Indiana high school basketball team to a state championship.
Hackman later worked for a law Firm with only one client: the mafia. He soon got into a tussle with his executive officer, played by Denzel Washington, in Crimson Tide, which involved deploying nuclear missiles. Got into drag at The Birdcage, got involved in a nasty sex scandal and murder plot in Absolute Power, and did I forget to mention his role in Unforgiven, also starring and directed by Clint Eastwood? He also did voice-over work in 1998’s Antz, playing the militaristic Gen. Mandible.
Get Shorty, Wyatt Earp, Mississippi Burning, The Conversation, A Bridge Too Far—his resume is one of the greats.
Hackman’s last major film was 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, where the late actor admitted that project was likely his final role in movies.
I know he was 95, but what a blow.
I’ve read one at the Daily Mail.
In dry and hot climates, a person will lose their moisture upon death. The dry husk of what was once human is the end result. In some place like New Mexico, you might dry out before you rot.
It is Winter in Santa Fe. Had it been summer you could have found the place by the stench, flies and buzzards. Where I live in the Ozarks, it takes six days from death to skeleton with all these blow flies around.
The story seems to change by the hour.
Several years ago, there was an elderly former B-movie actress found dead & mummified. Possibly dead for a year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvette_Vickers#:~:text=Vickers%20was%20last%20seen%20alive,Her%20remains%20were%20cremated.
I'm thinking she was doing the usual, taking her pills. She smelled the heater and pulled the plug. He was in the process of letting the two dogs out. He heard her fall and a faint cry...turning he saw her on the bathroom floor and in his panic, he too fell and his system went crazy....and he had a heart attack as he lay in the mudroom.
I'm 80. I fell 3 times this week into a snow bank...I could barely get up...but I did. Fortunately, I'm in good health otherwise...just weaker because of the winter hibernation.
Bottom line...she died from a combination of a concussion and the fumes from the heater and so did that nearby dog. Gene died from cardiac arrest.
Very sad!
I don’t know it’s possible to collapse pronto from carbon monoxide
It’ll be easy to test for toxicology etc wise
Yes, I should have said “he was serious about about acting”. One of the greats.
What’s a mudroom? Some kind of Hollywood luxury, like a bathroom with a cologne chiller?
I'm betting she simply slipped, hit her head and was knocked unconscious...and had a stroke....
A mudroom is from outside into the house..like maybe for boots, coats, sometimes washer dryer...pretty common actually.
Place to take off muddy shoes and clothes...........
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