Los Angeles: Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, known for his remarkable versatility and dedication to his craft across five decades in Hollywood, has been found dead along with his wife at their home. He was 95.
Foul play is not suspected; however, authorities did not release any details of the circumstances of their deaths and said an investigation is ongoing.
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Avila said deputies responded to a request to do a welfare check at the home Wednesday around 1:45 pm local time and found Hackman, his wife Betsy Arakawa and a dog dead.
Hackman’s illustrious career spanned from the 1960s until his retirement in his mid-70s, during which he crafted unforgettable characters that ranged from heroes to villains, often with complex shades between. His filmography includes Academy Award-winning performances in “The French Connection” and “Unforgiven,” alongside iconic roles in “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Superman,” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.”
“Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity,” said director Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with Hackman on the 1974 thriller “The Conversation.” “I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution.”
Despite his stellar reputation in the industry, Hackman maintained a deliberately low profile throughout his career. He avoided the Hollywood social circuit and made little effort to cultivate a public image, preferring to let his work speak for itself.
“Actors tend to be shy people,” Hackman told Film Comment in 1988. “There is perhaps a component of hostility in that shyness, and to reach a point where you don’t deal with others in a hostile or angry way, you choose this medium for yourself... Then you can express yourself and get this wonderful feedback.”
Hackman’s path to stardom came relatively late. He was 35 when cast in “Bonnie and Clyde” and over 40 when he won his first Oscar for portraying Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in “The French Connection.” The role, which initially seemed at odds with Hackman’s temperament, required him to tap into unexplored aspects of his personality.
Director William Friedkin recalled the challenge: “I had to arouse an anger in Gene that was lying dormant, I felt, within him — that he was sort of ashamed of and didn’t really want to revisit,” he told the Los Angeles Review of Books in 2012.
Hackman almost missed another career-defining role when he initially declined to play corrupt sheriff Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven.” The role ultimately earned him his second Academy Award.
“To his credit, and my joy, he talked me into it,” Hackman later said of Eastwood during an interview with the American Film Institute.
Born in San Bernardino, California, and raised in Danville, Illinois, Eugene Allen Hackman experienced a challenging childhood marked by his father’s abuse and eventual abandonment when Hackman was just 13. He found escape in movie theatres, where he admired screen rebels like Errol Flynn and James Cagney.
“Dysfunctional families have sired a lot of pretty good actors,” he noted with characteristic dry wit in a 2001 interview with The New York Times.
At 16, Hackman joined the Marines by lying about his age. His early career included stints as a radio announcer and studies in journalism at the University of Illinois before he found his way to acting through the Pasadena Playhouse.
Through roles as diverse as the surveillance expert in “The Conversation,” basketball coach in “Hoosiers,” and comic villain Lex Luthor in “Superman,” Hackman established himself as an actor of extraordinary range and authenticity, leaving behind a cinematic legacy that will continue to influence generations of performers. agencies