An investigation is underway into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of legendary actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.
“The French Connection” star, 95, and Arakawa, 64, were found at their home in Santa Fe on Wednesday, alongside their dog.
“An active and ongoing investigation” into their deaths, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies were called at about 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday to an address on Old Sunset Trail in Hyde Park, “where Gene Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 64 and a dog were found deceased,” the county sheriff’s public information officer, Denise Womack Avila, said in a statement.
“Foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time however exact cause of death has not been determined,” the statement added.
The sheriff’s office told a reporter from NBC affiliate KOB of Albuquerque that the alarm was raised after a neighbor called police to carry out a welfare check.
The bodies of Hackman and Arakawa were not formally identified until 12:30 a.m. Thursday morning (2:30 a.m. ET).
Hackman was airlifted to hospital after he was hit by a car while riding a bike in the Florida Keys in 2012, but escaped with minor injuries.
He won his first Oscar for his portrayal of detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s “The French Connection,” and later riveted audiences in Francis Ford Coppola’s paranoid thriller “The Conversation.” Later he would play the villainous Lex Luther in “Superman.”
He won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award and two British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).
He also landed Oscar nominations for his roles in “Bonnie & Clyde,” the character study “I Never Sang for My Father” and the divisive thriller “Mississippi Burning.”
He left Hollywood in 2004, making his final film appearance in the largely forgotten Ray Romano vehicle “Welcome to Mooseport.”
