# Gene Hackman and wife found dead, and dog **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [February 27, 2025, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861 "2025-02-27T08:27:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/21 "2025-02-27T13:01:08Z")
Unrelated, but I never would’ve guessed he was 95 years old. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/22 "2025-02-27T13:01:55Z")
Gene’s wife looks much younger than him in photos. Seems very unlikely they both died (with the dog) unless CO entered the house. Gene was a remakable actor. I first saw him in _Bonnie and Clyde_ and then _The French Connection_. _Hoosiers_ is my favorite Gene Hackman film. RIP [![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/mSjYrUrdbFHU2_1I5JIqmA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/ny_post_articles_869/99904f3a51d52e8e84effd507c7fc061) ](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/mSjYrUrdbFHU2_1I5JIqmA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/ny_post_articles_869/99904f3a51d52e8e84effd507c7fc061) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/23 "2025-02-27T13:04:17Z")
Wow. I mean, he looks great for 95, but I just watched The Birdcage like a week ago. I can see him in there, but if I saw that picture without context, I’d have had no idea who it was. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/24 "2025-02-27T13:07:07Z")
Gene only needed a cane and his wife’s arm at 95. That’s doing really well. Once a Marine, always a Marine. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/25 "2025-02-27T13:36:27Z")
I’m next to certain it was carbon monoxide. When the news reported no foul play, that’s what came to my mind, especially with the dog dying too. Great actor. Loved his work all the way back to “Bonnie and Clyde”. Hey, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are still here! How 'bout a remake? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/26 "2025-02-27T13:44:26Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > And he could be funny – _The Unforgiven, Birdcage_ And especially _Young Frankenstein_. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/27 "2025-02-27T13:50:53Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And especially _Young Frankenstein_. It’s especially funny because he ad-libbed the “I was going to make espresso” line. I always thought Mel Brooks wrote that bit, but it was pure Gene Hackman. Mr. brown is a big fan. He’s still asleep upstairs, and he’s not going to be happy when he gets the news this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/28 "2025-02-27T14:01:39Z")
Hackman ran into Gene Wilder at the tennis courts. In their conversation, Wilder mentioned he was working on a comedic script about the grandson of Dr Frankenstein. Hackman said he always wanted to try a comedic role and asked if there was a role he could play. That’s how he got the _Young Frankenstein_ part. When the film was first released he was not given any credits. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/29 "2025-02-27T14:02:38Z")
I always said, forget Brando. The three best actors were DeNiro, Duvall and…Hackman! He’s so great in everything. I like to think his character in _Enemy of the State_ is Harry Caul, who just changed his name. > [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > Hey, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are still here! How 'bout a remake? B&C faked their deaths and became model citizens living in San Francisco. He’s a hair dresser, she’s a housewife and mother that sometimes pulls a bank job for old times sake. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/30 "2025-02-27T14:09:07Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Kidding aside, Smapti got it in one: CO poisoning is almost surely it. I’d put a hundred bucks on it. It’s rare but it does happen, almost always overnight. It would have been a peaceful way to go, at least. Hackman was a tremendous actor and consummate professional. I absolutely HATED “Heist,” I thought that movie was just a disaster… and Hackman was frickin’ amazing in it all the same. He was amazing in “The Quick and the Dead,” an otherwise silly, disjointed movie. He starred in an underrated war movie called BAT 21 in which he was amazing. He was in a huge number of films, especially in the 1970s when a movie with him in it came out every fur or five months, and never once phoned it in. Drama? Comedy? He could do it all. He was a frightening, violent bad guy in “Unforgiven” and a few years later he was a pathetic, smarmy weakling in “Get Shorty” (fuck, was he ever funny in that movie.) And then in 2004 he quit, went home, wrote novels. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I always said, forget Brando. The three best actors were DeNiro, Duvall and…Hackman! He’s so great in everything. I’d have to agree. Marlon Brando had his moments, but I’d take those three men first. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/31 "2025-02-27T14:22:08Z")
Gene could play a variety of roles. In _Prime Cut_ he was running a meat processing plant and auctioning girls as white slaves. Mob enforcers that crossed Mary Ann (Gene H) and his brother ended up in the sausage machine. I think that role was even worse than Little Bill in _Unforgiven_. Gene also played Detective Popeye Doyle in The French Connection. He could play heroes or villains. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/32 "2025-02-27T14:45:36Z")
He was the first choice to play “Mother” in _Mother, Jugs & Speed_ but, having worked pretty much continuously since _Poseidon_, he didn’t want such a large role. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/33 "2025-02-27T15:08:04Z")
Oh dear. Another great one, gone. 😢 He could play _anything_. And he was one of a handful of actors who were not classically good-looking, but were incredibly sexy. The New York Times nailed it here: [_He could be both paternal and terrifying, and had the ability to almost goad you into liking men who would otherwise be despicable._](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/movies/gene-hackman-appraisal.html?smid=url-share) [Sorry, I’m out of gift links this month.] I loved him in _The Poseiden Adventure_ (1972) as the fearless priest who led the group of survivors and sacrificed himself at the end . In case there’s some youngster under 40 who plans to watch it for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/34 "2025-02-27T15:13:54Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > He could be both paternal and terrifying, and had the ability to almost goad you into liking men who would otherwise be despicable. Good description. I keep going back to Little Bill in Unforgiven, who is a cruel, despotic asshole, and yet you kinda like him and understand why he is what he is. He’s not on screen that much and yet Hackman manages to not only play the role, but somehow fit into the script such that you get a sense of the history behind all this, beyond just the stories he tells. You understand WHY he wants to control his little town in an iron fist. He’s a murderer trying to stop murderers. He see himself as the force guarding against chaos. Hackman delivers all this and more in like twelve or fifteen minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/35 "2025-02-27T15:19:29Z")
He had a list of memorable roles in movies like Superman The Movie, Hoosiers, Bonnie and Clyde, and Young Frankenstein but I absolutely loved watching Gene Hackman in The Package. I first got a chance to see the movie on VHS when I was stationed in Turkey and it remained my favorite movie for a long while. Hackman played gruff but affable Army Master Sergeant Gallagher who is tasked with escorting a prisoner from Germany to Washington DC, loses the prisoner when they are jumped at the airport, and then tracks him down and uncovers a conspiracy involving a cabal of US and Soviet generals who want to stop a nuclear disarmament treaty that they think will drive the two countries to escalate tensions into a war. The movie does feel very much of its time – it’s probably the most 1989est of all political thrillers, but Hackman, Tommy Lee Jones, Joanna Cassidy, and Dennis Franz all put in great work in their roles. I haven’t seen The Package in many years but I still recommend it today. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fuxCToaPa7Y/maxresdefault.jpg "The Package (1989) Original Trailer [HD]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuxCToaPa7Y) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/36 "2025-02-27T15:28:04Z")
It wouldn’t have to be a malfunctioning boiler. Gas-fired boilers require exchange air. There were often deaths in Alaska because people blocked up the exchange air hole in their garage because of the cold. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/37 "2025-02-27T15:29:41Z")
Elizabeth Jean Hackman, a daughter, suspects “toxic fumes”. > **[Gene Hackman's Family Suspects Carbon Monoxide Poisoning](https://www.tmz.com/2025/02/27/gene-hackman-family-suspects-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-death/)** > > Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, tragically died this week ... and their family believes carbon monoxide poisoning was to blame, TMZ has learned. ---
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/38 "2025-02-27T15:36:18Z")
A friend of mine told me a few years ago, while discussing a Gene Hackman movie, “He could just eat an hamburger and make it interesting”. Yeah great actor, miss him in the movies. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/39 "2025-02-27T15:43:10Z")
I’ve mentioned before that his performance as Lex Luthor is probably the reason I’m happily married with plenty of money in the bank. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861/40 "2025-02-27T15:47:25Z")
He simply _would have to_ be on _anybody’s_ short list of actors whose performance could invariably make you forget that a movie was otherwise simply horrible. If Hackman ever gave a bad performance, I didn’t see it. Yeah. In your sleep at 95 y/o (not necessarily applicable to the wife and dog): not the worst way to go. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gene-hackman-and-wife-found-dead-and-dog/1014861.md?page=3)