In 2004, legendary actor Gene Hackman essentially disappeared off the face of the earth.
Hackman and his retired classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa made their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico full time after Hackman left Hollywood for good two decades ago.
It was in their gated-community home in that city that Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 63, along with one of their pet dogs, were found dead on Wednesday of unknown causes that authorities are investigating as “suspicious.”
Though active in their Santa Fe community during his first decade in the area, Hackman ultimately became a rare sight. In 2023, when he’d just turned 93 years old, Hackman was seen fit and seemingly healthy as he made a quick drive-through stop at a local Wendy’s to grab a bite to eat.
Seeing the actor out was such a rarity at the time that the mundane moment became a major headline. The same happened the following year, when the retired actor was seen making a convenience store run at a Santa Fe gas station.
When Hackman was spotted out with Arakawa that day in 2024, it was the first time they had been photographed together in 20 years. In the paparazzi shots that hit the internet, he looked almost unrecognizable clutching a cane in one hand and his wife’s arm in the other. The last public appearance the couple made was 21 years prior, at the 2003 Golden Globes where Hackman was given the Cecil B. DeMille award.
Hackman decided to quit acting shortly thereafter, following his turns in The Royal Tenenbaums and Behind Enemy Lines, as his health declined. His final film was the critically panned comedy Welcome to Mooseport.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York,” Hackman 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.”
Though he’d stopped appearing in films, he didn’t officially declare his retirement until 2008, telling Reuters, “I haven’t held a press conference to announce retirement, but yes, I’m not going to act any longer... I’ve been told not to say that over the last few years, in case some real wonderful part comes up, but I really don’t want to do it any longer.”
Hackman wasn’t always so reclusive during his earlier days in Santa Fe when he was still acting in films from time to time. A painter himself, Hackman dedicated his time to the city’s Georgia O’Keefe museum, acting as a board member and even giving remarks on its opening day in the 1990s. He told the city in that speech, “In the 10 years I’ve lived here, I’ve been taken with the excitement and indomitable spirit of this place.”
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Hackman was a regular fixture around town in his first decade or so there starting in the 1980s. Sightings of the retired actor were frequent enough that he was a regular subject of the New Mexican’s celebrity gossip column, up until about seven years ago. During that time, he attracted unsuspected attention when he reportedly “slapped” a homeless man in the face in 2012, after Hackman said the man had called his wife a name. They’d reportedly given the man money for years, local outlets reported, before that incident.
The ordeal showed that Hackman’s well-known temper hadn’t yet left him even in private life, following a 2001 incident in which he’d punched a man over a traffic dispute in Hollywood. Hackman later told GQ that he hated that he was known for his temper, as he referred back to the traffic dispute.
“I hate that idea, because it’s the antithesis of the creative spirit and what it takes to be a creative person,” he said at the time. “But you do, sometimes, what happens in the spur of the moment... I, unfortunately, kind of react.”
After that, Hackman was seen so rarely that national headlines appeared when he did anything as simple as attend a show at the local performing arts center. He spent much of those years writing, however. Hackman and fellow Santa Fe writer Daniel Lenihan wrote two novels together, before Hackman wrote two on his own: Payback at Morning Peak and Pursuit, published in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
He told Reuters in 2008, “I like the loneliness of [writing], actually. It’s similar in some ways to acting, but it’s more private and I feel like I have more control over what I’m trying to say and do. There’s always a compromise in acting and in film, you work with so many people and everyone has an opinion. I don’t know that I like it better than acting, it’s just different. I find it relaxing and comforting.”
By all accounts, the final two years of Hackman’s life were filled with the two things he really enjoyed—painting and writing. At one point, he hadn’t ruled out the possibility of doing another movie, he told GQ in 2011, but only if he could do it in his own house, “without them disturbing anything and just one or two people.”
Authorities are investigating whether Hackman’s home had been disturbed, according to reports, which say Hackman and his wife’s deaths are being investigated as “suspicious.” Though there were no signs of forced entry, the front door to the couple’s home was found open, and their deceased bodies were found in separate rooms. An open pill bottle was found near his wife’s remains, with pills strewn around her on the floor.
While Hackman’s daughter told TMZ that she’d originally suspected a carbon monoxide leak as their cause of death, authorities found no sign of a leak at the scene.
“I don’t have a lot of fears,” Hackman told Larry King in 2004 in what would be his final big TV interview. “I have the normal fear of passing away. You know, I guess we all think about that, especially when you get to be a certain age. I want to make sure that my wife and my family are taken care of. Other than that, I don’t have a lot of fears.”
