What was Gene Hackman’s cause of death?

It’s a sad day in Hollywood. Screen legend Gene Hackman (95), his wife Betsy Arakawa (63), and their dog have been found dead at their Santa Fe home. In a statement released just after midnight on Thursday, County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed that the couple had been found dead on Wednesday afternoon.

Mendoza underlined that there’s no indication of foul play, though other details were scarce. It’s unknown when Hackman and Arakawa died, whether the deputies arriving at the scene were responding to reports of a death, or if they’d been summoned to make a welfare check. As of writing no cause of death has been confirmed, though with foul play ruled out there just aren’t too many things that could kill two people and a dog all at once.

The current theory

They say no foul play, if 2 people and a dog died it sounds like carbon monoxide poisoning. My cousin’s aunt (other side of fam) died because she thought her car was off & her garage was attached to her house. Gene Hackman was a great actor, condolences to his and her family https://t.co/ddkXzIvKBP

— The DisCountess (@Discountess_) February 27, 2025

The leading theory online — and we stress that this is a theory — is that the deaths were a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide can quickly build up in houses through many means and is odorless and colorless, meaning it can quickly reach fatal levels. If you happen to be asleep during the leak, you may simply never wake up.

That said, we don’t know the reason for these deaths and wouldn’t want to pre-empt the coroner’s report confirming what actually happened. The only other morsel of information we have to go on is a statement from the sheriff: “I want to assure the community and neighborhood that there’s no immediate danger to anyone”. This would seem to rule out some more lingering kind of poison and supports the carbon monoxide hypothesis.

His career

Whatever the circumstances, Hackman’s death will leave the entertainment world in mourning. He was one of America’s most highly regarded actors, famed for his performances in The French Connection, Unforgiven, The Royal Tenenbaums, and — of course — his hilarious villainous turn as Lex Luthor in the Christopher Reeve Superman movies.

Over the course of his career, he was a fixture at awards shows, picking up five Oscar nominations. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Bonnie & Clyde, I Never Sang for My Father, Mississippi Burning, and Unforgiven, and walked away with a much-deserved Best Actor Academy Award for his all-time great performance as “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection.

Hackman retired from acting in 2004 citing health reasons, explaining that after a stress test, “the doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.” He spent his final years enjoying his retirement, beginning a second career as a novelist and providing narration for the occasional documentary. Even into his later years, he remained physically active and was occasionally photographed out and about, remaining an active cyclist into his late 80s.

We will update this story as more information comes in. Here’s hoping the Santa Fe sheriffs shed some light on Hackman and Arakawa’s mysterious and sad deaths, which we can only hope were peaceful. In the meantime, I’m going to rewatch The Royal Tenenbaums, my favorite Hackman movie.