Gene Hackman, the two-time Oscar-winning actor, has died along with his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office told Reuters on Thursday that deputies found the legendary 95-year-old actor and Arakawa deceased on Wednesday afternoon at their New Mexico home around 1:45 p.m, according to the outlet.
Once a dazzling actor for decades, Hackman largely retreated from his lavish Hollywood life, with Arakawa later by his side, to lowkey Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he had lived at least partly since the 1980s. The pair tied the knot in 1991, five years after he split from his first wife of 30 years, Faye Maltese.
The private pair were last pictured leaving lunch at a Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen location in Santa Fe in March of last year, according to paparazzi photos obtained by People magazine and Page Six.
Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, wifeBetsy Arakawa, found dead in their home
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Gene Hackman wife: Betsy Arakawa met actor at a California gym
Hackman and Arakawa met at the gym, where she worked, according to a profile of the late actor published in The New York Times Magazine in 1989.
“For the last five years, he has been living quietly with a 28-year-old woman named Betsy Arakawa, a classical pianist he met while she was working part-time in a California fitness center. They share a two-bedroom adobe house on a wide brown plain outside Santa Fe,” the article said at the time. Arakawa was 30 years younger than Hackman.
Gene Hackman, wife Betsy Arakawa preferred Santa Fe to Los Angeles
A 2000 article in the Irish Independent newspaper revealed more details about the reclusive couple.
The article noted that Arakawa “often travels with (Hackman) and seems to share his sense of humor and his preference for a quiet life in the desert.”
“Where we live, in Santa Fe,” he told the Irish paper. “You can lead your own life and not be bothered by the latest gossip. Besides, a film actor doesn’t have to live in LA. Not that many movies are shot there any more.”
Gene Hackman has three adult children
Hackman is survived by three adult children Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie, who he shared with ex-wife Maltese. In the same Irish Independent article, he discussed his relationship with his children at the time.
“It is not clear how close he remains to his three grown-up children. When I ask what they are doing, he smiles and says: ‘Well, that’s a good question. I’m not sure, actually,'” the article reads.
“It’s tough being the son or daughter of a celebrity,” Hackman told the Irish Independent. “I couldn’t always be home with them when they were growing up and then, living in California, they’ve had my success always hanging over their heads.”
At the time, Hackman credited his kids with encouraging him to keep acting instead of retiring from the craft. He even revealed that he turned over the duties of “The Silence of the Lambs” director to Jonathan Demme, after planning to use it to showcase his own directorial debut; the film went on to become a hit.
“I don’t have any second thoughts about that decision. My kids helped me see that it just wasn’t the best thing for me to do. My film would have been smaller and darker than Jonathan’s, and wouldn’t have worked as well, commercially or artistically,” he said.
Contributing: Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY; Reuters
