The Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who starred in The French Connection and Unforgiven, passed away from heart disease and other causes a few days after his wife Betsy Arakawa passed away from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
According to postmortem results revealed Friday in New Mexico, Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease and other causes, likely days after his wife Betsy Arakawa passed away from a rare condition spread by mice. Hackman was in an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s disease.
On February 26, the bodies of the 64-year-old Arakawa, the 95-year-old Oscar winner, and one of their pets were discovered in different rooms of their Santa Fe residence.
At a news conference held at the Santa Fe Sheriff’s office, it was revealed that Hackman had heart problems and that Arakawa had died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. According to the results, Hackman’s wife passed away a few days before him.
Sheriff Adan Mendoza was asked by a reporter if Hackman’s Alzheimer’s had made it harder for him to recognise her passing.
“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.
Citing the date of her final email, authorities stated Friday that Arakawa is thought to have passed sometime around February 11. The sheriff informed reporters last week that a pathologist had concluded that Hackman’s pacemaker’s last signal was from February 17, which was probably the actor’s last day.
In the United States, hantavirus is an uncommon illness that is primarily found in the western states of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
The virus is transmitted in northern New Mexico by deer mouse urine and droppings.
When people clean closets or sheds where mice have been dwelling, they frequently spread the infection through the air.
Hackman and pianist Arakawa had lived in Santa Fe since the 1980s and were involved in the city’s food and art scenes. As his health declined in recent years, the couple’s visibility in the community decreased.
According to Mendoza, they led a very secluded life prior to their passing. At their gated community, a caretaker found the couple dead. Hackman was discovered in the kitchen by the sheriff’s deputies. In a lavatory, Arakawa and a dog were discovered.
Neither Hackman nor Arakawa displayed any symptoms of blunt impact injuries, and both seemed to have fallen to the ground abruptly.
The animal was discovered dead in the crate in the couple’s home on February 26, which could be explained by the fact that Arakawa had picked up one of her pets in a crate from a Santa Fe veterinarian on February 9.
According to state veterinarian Erin Phipps, the dog might have starved to death. During a long career that began in the early 1960s, Hackman, a former Marine with a raspy voice, had appearances on television, the stage, and in over 80 films.
His breakthrough performance as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in the 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde” won him his first Oscar nomination. For his performance as detective Popeye Doyle in “The French Connection,” he was awarded an Oscar for best actor in 1972. Three years later, he earned an Oscar for best supporting actor for “Unforgiven.”