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.
No way!
He had the right amount of comic timing, while portraying himself as a menace.
Enemy of the State. Him and his cat.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
“Whatever you do, don’t sell that cow!”
A serious actor. I doubt he ever phoned it in.
Scarecrow,...with Pacino.
Good buddies-on-the-road pic from the ‘70s.
“deceased dog was located about 10 to 15 feet away from Arakawa inside the bathroom’s closet,”
Was the closet door opened or closed? Seems important. A bad guy would shut a dog in a closet; an owner would not.
Interesting that he had 3 children and none of them were concerned about not hearing from their father for 2 weeks.
That was his character's last line in Unforgiven, just before Eastwood's character shoots him in the face.
Speculation:
The dog was very old and would not have lived long, so an owner might have given the dog an overdose of a drug...........
How about bad heater/furnace?
Kills them, plumber doing multi-day upgrade/repair
Returns next day to find deaths due to his bad work
Plumber repairs cause of CO leak and leaves
Columbo called in
This is New Mexico. Nothing will be found or determined. Most of the country will forget or move on. However it will become fodder and the souce of weird speculation for the celebrity obsessed cults for a very long time.
That would be a good plot for a TV movie.................
Great movie. I’ll toss Hoosiers out too.
If they rule out a common cause of death (CO or gas being the most likely), natural death-suicide, murder-suicide, suicide-suicide, and murder-murder seem the remaining options.
Perhaps her cooking was bad, they both developed food poisoning, he died and she couldn’t live with the situation.
Speculating is fun. And pointless.
He was a great actor in dramas as well as comedies. His comic accomplishments are overlooked.......................
Me too! I bought the DVD he was a hunk.
They didn’t say, just ‘open’ is all they said. That apparently is how the two other dogs survived...................
Some people are estranged from their children. We don’t know the particulars here. Sometimes adult children are distant because they don’t get along with their stepmother. Some adult children resent the stepmother.
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