Actor Gene Hackman was found dead in his New Mexico home Wednesday along with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. He was 95.
Their causes of death have not been confirmed, but “the circumstances surrounding the death of the two deceased individuals (are considered) to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation,” a sheriff’s deputy said, according to the affidavit for a search warrant obtained by CNN affiliate KOAT.
Throughout his career, which spanned more than 40 years, Hackman elevated character roles to leading-man levels, such as in “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers,” “Unforgiven” and “The Firm.” His best roles were often of conflicted authority figures or surprisingly clever white-collar villains.
Hackman was 36 before he broke through in 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde." Before that, he’d served in the Marines and worked odd jobs throughout California and New York.
He retired at 74. He had lived in Santa Fe in recent decades with Arakawa, a former classical pianist, and largely stayed out of the public eye.
