Key points
- Authorities yet to ascertain cause of death
- Hackman’s wife was a classical pianist
- Couple’s dog also found dead
ISLAMABAD: Oscar-winning US actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead inside their home in New Mexico, media outlets reported on Thursday.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the couple were found dead on Wednesday afternoon, adding that there was no immediate indication of foul play, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Variety and Sky News.
Mendoza did not provide a cause of death, according to AFP.
The media reports said the couple died along with their dog.
Hackman, who was 95, was once voted as likely to flop in showbiz but instead went on to win two Oscar awards.
He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the tough and vulgar New York cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in the 1971 crime thriller “The French Connection” — for which he won an Oscar for best actor.
Arakawa was a 63-year-old classical pianist.
Hackman’s Career
Born in California in 1930, Hackman had enlisted in the army after lying about his age at 16, serving for four-and-a-half years, according to BBC.
Following his military service, after briefly living in New York he decided to pursue acting.
In order to pursue his chosen career, Hackman joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended a young Dustin Hoffman.
“I was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press,” he once said.
“It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on-screen. I think of myself, and feel like I’m quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.”
Oscars
Hackman won the best actor Oscar for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s 1971 thriller The French Connection, and another for best supporting actor for playing Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s Western film Unforgiven in 1992, BBC reported.
His other Oscar-nominated roles were in 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde – as Buck Barrow in his breakthrough role – and 1970’s I Never Sang for My Father, as well as playing the agent in Mississippi Burning (1988).
