Oscar-winning US actor Gene Hackman, wife found dead at home: media reports
Oscar-winning US actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead inside their home in New Mexico, media outlets reported on Thursday.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the couple was found dead on Wednesday afternoon, adding that there was no immediate indication of foul play, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Variety, and Sky News.
Mendoza did not provide a cause of death.
The media reports said the couple died along with their dog.
Hackman, who was 95, was once voted as likely to flop in showbiz but instead went on to win two Oscar awards.
He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the tough and vulgar New York cop Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the 1971 crime thriller The French Connection—for which he won an Oscar for best actor.
He won another golden statuette two decades later for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the brutal small-town sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett in the 1992 western Unforgiven.
He earned three more Oscar nominations during a five-decade career in which he appeared in 80-odd films.
"He's incapable of bad work," Alan Parker, who directed Hackman in the 1988 civil rights drama Mississippi Burning, told Film Comment magazine that year.
"Every director has a short list of actors he'd die to work with, and I'll bet Gene's on every one."
Arakawa was a 63-year-old classical pianist. (AFP)
