Entertainment
NEW: Gene Hackman And His Wife Were Found ‘Mummified,’ Surrounded By Pills
Gene Hackman, the esteemed Oscar-winning actor, along with his wife Betsy Arakawa and their dog, were found dead in their Santa Fe residence on Wednesday. Authorities have not suggested any criminal activity linked to the deaths of Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 64, who had shared their lives since their marriage in 1991.
The circumstances that led to the tragic death of the veteran actor and Arakawa, a classical pianist, remain unclear as investigations continue at their Santa Fe home. At the couple’s $3.3 million mansion, Hackman and Arakawa were discovered in a state of partial mummification, with various pills scattered around their bathroom.
Further details released by an arrest warrant from DailyMail indicate that Arakawa exhibited advanced decomposition, with facial bloating and mummification evident on her extremities. Similarly, officials reported that Hackman showed comparable signs of decomposition as his wife.
Mummification is the process of preserving a body after death to prevent decomposition. It is most famously associated with ancient Egypt, where it was used to prepare bodies for the afterlife.
No foul play is suspected in the deaths of Hackman, and Arakawa, who had been married since 1991. That, however, is the only conclusion police have seemed to draw from the scene.
GENE HACKMAN at the 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hills Hilton. 19JAN2003. Paul Smith / Featureflash
Roland Lowe Begay and Jesse Kesler, two maintenance workers, found the bodies of Arakawa and her retired Hollywood star husband in their opulent Santa Fe mansion around 1:46 pm Mountain Time on Wednesday. The names of Hackman and Arakawa were withheld from the public for almost 12 hours.
Begay and Kesler shared with authorities that they had not seen the couple for two weeks, noting that both seemed to have been deceased for quite some time. A detective highlighted in the search warrant that “the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.”
Arakawa was found on the bathroom floor of their home, lying on her right side. Nearby, an open prescription bottle was scattered across the countertop, though it remains unclear whether the pills were prescribed to Hackman or Arakawa.
GENE HACKMAN & wife at the Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel. 19JAN2003. Paul Smith / Featureflash
Next to Arakawa’s head, a space heater was discovered, which investigators suspect might have fallen. In a different part of the house, Hackman was found deceased in a mud room adjacent to the kitchen, as described by the search warrant reported by DailyMail.
Initially, police observed just his legs protruding into the room. The renowned actor, known for his role in “Superman,” was dressed in gray sweatpants, a blue long-sleeve t-shirt, and brown slippers.
His sunglasses and walking cane were found beside him, indicating he might have suffered a sudden fall. Arakawa was wearing dark grey sweatpants and a light-colored sweatshirt at the time of her discovery.
Although firefighters responded to the scene, they found no evidence of a gas leak. Elizabeth Hackman, his daughter, had earlier suggested on Thursday that her father and stepmother might have succumbed to a carbon monoxide leak.
Tragically, one of the family’s three dogs, a German Shepherd, was also found dead, located about 10 to 15 feet from Betsy in a closet near the bathroom.
Hackman achieved critical acclaim for many roles over his 45-year acting career though is best known for his Oscar-winning roles in 1975’s “The French Connection II” and 1991 Clint Eastwood film “Unforgiven.”
Between the 1960s and his retirement in 2004, his depth of performances spanned villains, antiheroes, and underdogs. Tributes to the actor immediately began to pour onto the internet Thursday morning.
Born January 30th, 1931, in San Bernardino, the California native moved to Danville, Illinois, in his youth, where his father worked as a pressman for the Commercial News. In past interviews, Hackman admitted being on the receiving end of his father’s physical violence, and he found refuge in movie theaters where he aspired to be like two of his childhood idols, Errol Flynn and James Cagney.
By 16, Hackman said he “suddenly got the itch to get out” and lied about his age to enter the U.S. Marines. There, he served as a field radio operator from 1947 to 1952, where he destroyed “Japanese military equipment so that the communists couldn’t obtain it,” according to an article on the U.S. Department of Defense website.
After earning his high school equivalency degree in the Marines, Hackman was discharged and enrolled in a journalism program at the University of Illinois. He left his intended field six months later to enter a radio announcing program in New York which sent him to stations in Florida and his hometown of Danville before he switched to an acting course at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Through the 1950s and early 1960s Hackman worked tirelessly as a doorman and truck driver while performing off-Broadway and waiting for his big break. He got it in 1967 with a supporting role in the hit film “Bonnie and Clyde,” putting him on the path to his first starring role in “I Never Sang for My Father” (1970) where he played a man struggling to reconcile his relationship with his dying father.
Prior to his marriage with Arakawa, Hackman was married to Fay Maltese in 1956 and shared one son with her, Christopher, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Leslie.
