Legendary actor Gene Hackman, his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog were found dead inside their Santa Fe, New Mexico home on Wednesday.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into the deaths Thursday after saying that “foul play is not suspected as a factor.” The cause of their deaths has not been determined yet.
Per the sheriff’s office, a neighbor called authorities to carry out a welfare check, which led to police showing up to an address on Old Sunset Trail in Hyde Park.
The two-time Oscar winner, known for the films “The French Connection,” “Superman” and “Bonnie and Clyde,” was 95.
Arakawa, who was 63, had been married to the actor since 1991.
Hackman opened up about death during an interview with Larry King in 2004.
“I have the normal fear of passing away,” he said on “Larry King Live” at the time. “I want to make sure that my wife and my family are taken care of. Other than that, I don’t have a lot of fears.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Betsy Arakawa.
Betsy was a classical pianist
Arakawa, who was born in Hawaii, had a decades-long career as a classical pianist. In her later years in life, she co-owned of a Santa Fe-based home furnishing business.
Betsy met Gene at the gym
Arakawa met her future husband in the mid 1980s at a gym in California where she worked part-time, according to the New York Times.
The couple got married in 1991.
Hackman once denied that he left his first wife, Faye Maltese, whom he was married to from 1956 to 1986, to be with Arakawa. (Maltese died in 2017).
“By the way, I did not leave my real-life wife for a younger woman” he said in an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “We just drifted apart. We lost sight of each other. When you work in this business, marriage takes a great deal of work and love.”
Betsy was a stepmom to Gene’s kids
Arakawa didn’t have any biological children of her own, but she was a proud stepmom to Hackman’s three kids, Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie Anne, from his first marriage.
Betsy lived in New Mexico with Gene
Hackman and Arakawa permanently moved to New Mexico after he retired from acting in 2004, but they had a home there even before that.
Their Santa Fe house was featured in Architectural Digest in April 1990.
Regarding the building of the couple’s home, the outlet said, “Betsy Arakawa was on the site much of the time, consulting with Hackman by phone and sending photographs of the work in progress.”
It’s unclear if that’s the same home where the couple was found dead.
Betsy and Gene watched movies on their date nights
Hackman told Empire in 2020 that he and Arakawa liked to spend their date nights at home watching DVDs that she rented.
“We like simple stories that some of the little low-budget films manage to produce,” he said.
Betsy and Gene were last seen in public together in March 2024
Hackman and Arakawa made their final appearance in public together nearly a year before their deaths.
They were spotted on March 28, 2024 at Pappadeaux’s Seafood Kitchen in New Mexico. Hackman used a cane at the time.
