HILLEL ITALIE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, FELICIA FONSECA AND BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press HILLEL ITALIE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, FELICIA FONSECA AND BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. -- Gene Hackman, the prolific Oscar-winning actor whose studied portraits ranged from reluctant heroes to conniving villains and made him one of the industry's most respected and honored performers, was found dead along with his wife and one of their dogs at their home. He was 95.
His dozens of films included Oscar-winning roles in "The French Connection" and "Unforgiven," a breakout performance in "Bonnie and Clyde," a comic interlude in "Young Frankenstein," a turn as the comic book villain Lex Luthor in "Superman" and the title character in Wes Anderson's 2001 "The Royal Tenenbaums."
Hackman and his wife were apparently dead for some time before a maintenance worker discovered their bodies Wednesday at the couple's home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, investigators said.
Denise Avila, a sheriff's office spokesperson, said there was no indication they had been shot or had any wounds that would indicate foul play. But Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office detectives wrote in a search warrant affidavit investigators thought the deaths were "suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation."
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Hackman was in an entryway, and his 65-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, was lying on her right side in the bathroom. A space heater was next to her head and may have fallen when she abruptly dropped to the floor, according to the affidavit.
The New Mexico Gas Co. tested the gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to the warrant. At the time, it didn't find any signs of problems and the Fire Department found no signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning. A detective wrote that there were no obvious signs of a gas leak, but he noted that people exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide might not show signs of poisoning.
A plain-looking man with a receding hairline, Hackman held special status within Hollywood -- an everyman, actor's actor and reluctant celebrity. He embodied the ethic of doing his job, doing it very well, and letting others worry about his image. Beyond awards ceremonies, he was rarely seen on the social circuit.
He routinely showed up on Hollywood lists of greatest American actors of the 20th century and seemed capable of any kind of role -- whether an uptight buffoon in "Birdcage," a college coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite "Hoosiers" or a secretive surveillance expert in Francis Ford Coppola's Watergate-era release "The Conversation."
Tributes quickly poured in from Hollywood.
"Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity," Coppola said on Instagram. "I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution."
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