Gene Hackman, His Wife & Dog Found Dead at Their New Mexico Home

Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa at the 60th Golden Globe Awards in 2003 (Getty)

The California native was born Eugene Allen Hackman on Jan. 30, 1930. His parents moved from city to city, before settling in Danville, Illinois. Hackman told GQ in 2011 that his father walked out when he was 13 years old.

“I hadn’t realized how much one small gesture can mean,” he said. “Maybe that’s why I became an actor.”

At the age of 16, Hackman joined the Marines, serving four and a half years in China, Japan and Hawaii, before studying journalism and television production at the University of Illinois. He quit studies to pursue an acting career, enrolling at 27 in the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he met a young Dustin Hoffman, who was to become a lifetime friend, along with Robert Duvall.

Hackman is best known for his roles in The French Connection and Unforgiven, both of which he won Oscars for. Additionally, Hackman’s known for his work across films such as The Royal Tenenbaums, Mississippi Burning, and Crimson Tide.

He also memorably starred opposite Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in 1996’s The Birdcage, and was a part of other iconic titles including The Poseidon Adventure, Hoosiers, Wyatt Earp, Get Shorty, and The Firm. But, apart from his more acclaimed roles, Hackman was known as Superman villain Lex Luthor in the series of films led by Christopher Reeve.

Hackman appeared in three Superman films including Superman, Superman II (including The Richard Donner Cut), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Apart from his Oscar-winning performances, Hackman also received nominations for his work in Mississippi Burning, I Never Sang for My Father, and 1968’s Bonnie and Clyde.

Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor in ‘Superman’

In addition to his prolific film career, Hackman’s television credits include roles in The Defenders, Brenner, I Spy, The Invaders, and many more. Hackman’s death comes more than 20 years after his retirement from entertainment as the actor’s last official credit was 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport in which he starred alongside Everybody Loves Raymond’s Ray Romano.

Other projects from the later years of Hackman’s career also include Behind Enemy Lines, Runaway Jury, Heist, Heartbreakers, The Mexican, Enemy of the State, The Replacements, Antz, The Chamber, and Extreme Measures.    

Along with being an accomplished actor, Hackman was also an established author, having penned three historical fiction novels – Wake of the Perdido Star, Justice for None, and Escape from Andersonville – with Daniel Lenihan as well as two solo novels, Payback at Morning Peak and Pursuit

Hackman retired at 74 and lived in Santa Fe in recent decades with Arakawa, largely staying out of the public eye. He is survived by three children, Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, whom he shared with his ex-wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017.