In the years after he became a Hollywood star,Gene Hackmanindulged a taste for renovation projects — his 10th house, the successor to showcases in Montecito and Carmel, was on 12 secluded acres on a piñon-covered hilltop outside Santa Fe.
He’d had the ceilings raised to soaring heights, helped demolish walls himself and created multiple buildings on the compound. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he toldArchitectural Digestin 1990.“I guess I like the process, and when it’s over, it’s over.”
But this would be his final home: After he retired in 2004, he lived here withhis second wife, Betsy,a classically trained pianist whom he’d married in 1991.
They also died here, husband and wife, aged 95 and 65, under circumstances that were shocking and chillingly mysterious. Their bodies were discovered Feb. 26 when, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, a pest-control worker came to the house and found it strange that no one answered. He contacted a neighborhood security officer, who saw the bodies through a window and called 9-1-1.
Gene Hackman on the new issue of PEOPLE.Brian Smith; Ron Davis/Getty
Brian Smith; Ron Davis/Getty
Officers arrived to find Hackman’s and Betsy’s corpses in separate rooms — his near the kitchen, sunglasses and cane on the floor; hers in a bathroom, where prescription pills were scattered on a counter. (Police later collected blood-pressure and thyroid medications from the home, along with Tylenol.)
One of their dogs, a German shepherd, was discovered dead 10 to 15 feet from Betsy, in a kennel crate in a closet. Two other dogs were alive, one near Betsy, the other outside (a family friend later took them in). The front door was unlocked and a back door sufficiently ajar to let the dogs come and go.
Law enforcement at Gene Hackman’s home on Feb. 27.Roberto Rosales/AP
Roberto Rosales/AP
In an affidavit to obtain a search warrant of the property, Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office Det. Roy Arndt reported that one officer had described Betsy’s body as “bloated,” with “mummification” in her hands and feet; Hackman’s body was in a “similar” state.
Gene Hackman with wife Betsy, ca. 2000.Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty
Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty
Mendoza said on NBC’sTodayFeb. 28 that he was “pretty confident” no foul play occurred, but he wasn’t ruling it out. He said the results of the couple’s autopsies would provide more clues to the ongoing investigation, but a full report could take several weeks. “I hope [for] a little bit of patience on the family’s part, on everybody’s part,” Mendoza said, “so we can have some answers.”
The tragedy brought forthan outpouring of tributesto Hackman, includingtouching words at the Academy Awards from Morgan Freeman,his costar inUnforgivenandUnder Suspicion. Hackman “was a generous performer,” said Freeman, “and a man whose gifts elevated everyone’s work.”
A two-time Oscar winner, Hackman was the rare star who could also be considered an actor’s actor, delivering indelible performances in a wide range of roles: a tough cop busting a heroin-smuggling ring inThe French Connection;a minister trapped in an overturned cruise liner inThe Poseidon Adventure;the Man of Steel’s nemesis Lex Luthor in threeSupermanmovies.
Gene Hackman on the new issue of PEOPLE.Ron Davis/Getty
Ron Davis/Getty
“Loved you in everything!” posted Viola Davis. Francis Ford Coppola, who directed Hackman in what the actor considered one of his most challenging performances — a drab, introverted surveillance expert inThe Conversation— called him “magnificent in his work and complexity.”
A solidly built 6'2" — he called himself “a lummox” — Hackman nearly always presented himself as a kind of everyman, measured in his speech and gesture, not heartthrob-handsome but virile. He projected a gruff, no-nonsense gravitas.
“He was a tough nut,” Bill Murray, his costar in the A-list ensemble filmThe Royal Tenenbaums, told the Associated Press after Hackman’s death.
Hackman admitted that he tended to be moody and “introspective to the point of disturbing.” Much of that, he suggested, was rooted in an unhappy childhood.
Growing up in Danville, Ill., he dreamed of being an actorand found encouragement from his mother, Anna Lyda, a waitress. But his father, Eugene, a pressman for the local paper, abandoned the family when Hackman was 13.
Hackman often drew on these painful memories when roles required a darker shading. “Dysfunctional families,” he toldThe New York Times,“have sired a lot of pretty good actors.”
As a kid, though, Hackman was too shy to even audition for high school productions. Instead he dropped out and spent almost five years in the Marines. He finally began to pursue his dream when he was 26 and already married to Faye, a bank secretary. Studying acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, he became friends with fellow student Dustin Hoffman.
They bonded as outsiders (and would later costar in the legal thrillerRunaway Jury), but Hackman was asked to leave after a year. “The director graded us,” Hoffman told PEOPLEin 1975. “The lowest anybody ever got before was 3, and Gene wound up with 1.4.”
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Gene Hackman in 1981.Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty
Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty
Gene Hackman in ‘The French Connection.'.FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty
FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty
He became a genuine leading man four years later with his Oscar-winning performance as Popeye Doyle, a hard-boiled cop with a porkpie hat, inThe French Connection. From then on he worked at a feverish pace while raising his family in a Beverly Hills mansion and commanding huge salaries.
Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve in ‘Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.'.shutterstock
shutterstock
By then he was married to the former Betsy Arakawa, whom he’d met in L.A. when she was working at a fitness center.They seemed happy living out their lives in Santa Fe. “Gene was as proud of Betsy as she was of him,”says Barbara Lenihan, a neighbor and friend of the couple.Their property had a building that included both a painting studio for Hackman and a piano studio for Betsy, Barbara says: “He would request that she would play a couple songs for us, and she was excellent.”
Lenihan’s son Aaron calls them “one the tightest couples I’ve ever seen—really, really close to each other. They were both incredibly kind.”
The couple were active in the community, dining out and shopping at Whole Foods. Betsy wascofounder of Pandora’s,a local home-decor store, and helped Hackman shape his manuscripts for thepopular historical novelshe cowrote with Barbara’s husband, Daniel Lenihan.
Gene Hackman and wife Betsy in 2024.SplashNews
SplashNews
In the past year Hackman had kept to his home more, and his health had been slipping, the Lenihans say. He gave up riding his bike, but his wife had encouraged him to stay active with yoga and puzzles. Betsy herself, says Barbara, seemed “in perfect health.”
No matter how this tragic case officially concludes, Hackman’s legacy will endure. He long ago made it clear that he was content to be remembered simply as “a decent actor.” As decent actors go, he was the greatest.
Jen Juneau,
Jack Smart,
Elizabeth Rosner,
andScott Huver
Scott Huver
source: people.com
