Gene Hackman and wife Betsy found dead in New Mexico home: police

Legendary Hollywood actor Gene Hackman has been found dead in his Santa Fe, New Mexico home alongside his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, citing police.

Santa Fe County police discovered the body of the two-time Oscar winner, 95, and 63-year-old Arakawa — his wife of 34 years and their dog — on Wednesday afternoon.

No foul play is suspected and no cause of death has been announced.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed the news on Thursday.

Hackman was one of the most accomplished actors of all time, thanks to star turns in “The French Connection,” “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

The actor’s prolific resume includes two Oscars, three Golden Globes and the Cecil B. DeMille Award, bestowed in 2003.

The California native was born Eugene Hackman on Jan. 30, 1930. His parents moved from city to city, eventually settling in Danville, Illinois.

Hackman remembers his father, Eugene, saying goodbye to the family with the wave of a hand when he was 13.

“I hadn’t realized how much one small gesture can mean,” Hackman told GQ in 2011. “Maybe that’s why I became an actor.”

Hackman joined the Marines at 16, serving four-and-a half years in China, Japan, and Hawaii, before seeking a degree in journalism and television production at the University of Illinois.

He abandoned those plans to pursue a serious acting career, enrolling at 27 in the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he met 19-year-old Dustin Hoffman.

“There was something about him that — like he had a secret. You just knew he was going to do something,” Hackman recalled to Vanity Fair in 2004.

They formed a tight-knit group with Robert Duvall and tried to launch their careers in NYC.

“There was a kind of feeling of Jack Kerouac at that time — ‘On the Road’ — kids just wanting to have a good time and kind of experience things. It didn’t have anything to do with being successful — just wanting to try this thing and see if it worked,” Hackman told Vanity Fair. 

In 1964, at 34, Hackman scored his big Broadway break in “Any Wednesday,” which resulted in a star-making scene in “Lilith” (1964) alongside Warren Beatty.

When Beatty was selecting his cast for the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde,” he tapped Hackman to play his older brother. He scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, one of five nods throughout his career.

In 1972, he won the Best Actor Oscar for “The French Connection,” a film that cemented his status as a leading man. The crime thriller boasts one of the best car chase scenes of all time, with death-defying stunts through 26 blocks of Brooklyn — all done illegally.

Surprisingly, everyone seemed to make it off the set without so much as a scratch.

“Filmmaking has always been risky — both physically and emotionally — but I do choose to consider that film a moment in a checkered career of hits and misses,” Hackman told The Post in 2021 in a rare interview, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “The French Connection.”

“The film certainly helped me in my career, and I am grateful for that.”

Following “The French Connection,” which he claimed he’s only watched once, Hackman went on to star in “Young Frankenstein” (1974), “Night Moves” (1975), “Bite the Bullet” (1975), “Superman” (1978), and even Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” (1992), which gave him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

He also headlined blockbusters by playing a wayward reverend in “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972), a down-on-his-luck high school basketball coach in “Hoosiers” (1986), a sneaky tax lawyer in “The Firm” (1993), and an eccentric father in “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001).

While presenting him the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2003, Michael Caine revered Hackman as “one of the greatest actors” he knows.

“Gene Hackman in Hollywood is known as an actor’s actor, but in my house, he’s known as a comedian’s comedian,” quipped Robin Williams, who co-presented the award.

“Whether it be comedy or drama, you’re the most gifted actor in America. You’re also a truly superhuman being,” he added.

After more than 100 credits, Hackman took his final bow in 2004’s “Welcome to Mooseport,” retiring from the screen — and stunts — to New Mexico.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York,” he told Empire in 2009. “The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.”

Instead, he opted for the finer things, like “low-budget films,” painting, fishing and writing.

In fact, he co-wrote adventure novels such as “Justice For None” and “Wake of the Perdido Star” with his friend, underwater researcher Daniel Lenihan.

“It’s very relaxing for me,” Hackman said of writing. “I don’t picture myself as a great writer, but I really enjoy the process.”

While “stressful,” it’s “a different kind of stress,” he admitted.

“It’s one you can kind of manage, because you’re sitting there by yourself, as opposed to having 90 people sitting around waiting for you to entertain them,” he added.

Hackman is survived by his wife, retired classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, whom he married in 1991; and three children, Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, with his late ex-wife, Faye Maltese.