Oscar-Winning Actor Gene Hackman Died Of Heart Disease Days After Wife Succumbed To Rare Virus

Last Updated:March 08, 2025, 08:08 IST

The 95-year-old Oscar-winning actor, his 64-year-old wife Arakawa, and one of their dogs were found dead in different rooms of their Santa Fe home on February 26.

Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, in 1989. File Image/X

Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who was in the later stages of Alzheimer’s, died of heart disease and other conditions, just days after his wife, Betsy Arakawa, succumbed to a rare syndrome spread by mice, revealed the autopsy results released on Friday in New Mexico.

On February 26, the 95-year-old Oscar-winning actor, his 64-year-old wife Arakawa, and one of their dogs were found dead in different rooms of their Santa Fe home.

Hackman’s heart disease and the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome that led to Arakawa’s death were revealed during a press conference at the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office.

Hackman’s wife died days before he did, results showed. A reporter asked Sheriff Adan Mendoza if Hackman’s Alzheimer’s had hindered him from perceiving her death.

“I would assume that is the case," Mendoza told reporters.

“It’s quite possible that he was not aware that she was deceased," Heather Jarrell, chief medical investigator at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, told reporters.

Arakawa is believed to have died around February 11, authorities said on Friday, citing the date of the last email she sent.

Last week, the sheriff told reporters that a pathologist determined the last signal from Hackman’s pacemaker was from February 17, making it likely that was the last day of the actor’s life.

All About The Rare Virus

Hantavirus is a rare disease in the US, with most cases concentrated in the western states of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. In northern New Mexico the virus is spread by droppings and urine of deer mice.

The virus is often transmitted through the air when people sweep out sheds or clean closets where mice have been living.

Hackman and Arakawa, a pianist, called Santa Fe home since the 1980s and were active in the city’s art community and culinary scene. In recent years, the couple were seen less often in town as his health deteriorated. They lived a very private life before their deaths, Mendoza said.

A caretaker at their gated community discovered the couple dead. Sheriff’s deputies found Hackman in the kitchen. Arakawa and a dog were found in a bathroom.

Both Hackman and Arakawa appeared to have suddenly fallen to the floor and neither showed signs of blunt force trauma.

Arakawa had picked up one of her dogs in a crate on February 9 from a Santa Fe veterinarian, which may explain why the animal was found dead in the crate in the couple’s home on February 26, Mendoza said. State Veterinarian Erin Phipps said the dog may have died of starvation.

Hackman, a former Marine known for his raspy voice, appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and the stage during a lengthy career that started in the early 1960s.

He earned his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde." He won an Oscar for best actor in 1972 for his portrayal of detective Popeye Doyle in “The French Connection," and in 1993 won an Oscar for best-supporting actor for “Unforgiven."

(With agency inputs)

United States of America (USA)

News world Oscar-Winning Actor Gene Hackman Died Of Heart Disease Days After Wife Succumbed To Rare Virus