Gene Hackman’s publicist Susan Madore shared insight into his and Betsy Arakawa’s private life in New Mexico in the years before their tragic deaths.

Gene Hackman spent his final years surrounded by peace and love.

More than a month after The French Connection star and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their New Mexico home alongside one of their dogs, the actor’s publicist Susan Madore shared a glimpse into how he spent his final years.

During the 27 years of working for the legendary actor, Susan saw him move to Santa Fe in the ‘90s to lead “an artistic life” outside of the spotlight. Indeed, he even went as far as buying a plot of land next to a garbage dump to go on peaceful bike rides without any disturbances.

“He wanted the privacy of being able to ride his bike without anyone following him or observing him,” Susan said during a March 31 hearing over the public release of investigative records into his death, per Rolling Stone, adding that Betsy had called her personally after the real estate purchase because, “she wanted me to be aware if anyone called asking why Mr. Hackman lived at the dump.”

And beyond having a serene escape, Susan also recalled that Gene would only agree to two hours of publicity for each film he was involved in. But in moving his priorities away from the Hollywood lights, the Unforgivenstar had more time to spend with his friends and his wife of over 30 years. And some of those friends have since shared insight into the late couple’s loving marriage.

“He was a gentle giant, very calm,” Kevin Bobolosky said of Gene in the March 18 documentary Last Days of Gene Hackman: ABC News Special. “Betsy, I think, mostly did all the cooking and cleaning on this big estate out of love. She just adored him. So they had everything they wanted.”

Following their deaths, Santa Fe Sheriff Adam Mendoza stated that Betsy’s official cause of death at 65 was hantavirus—a pulmonary syndrome, a severe respiratory illness caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents.

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

One week after her death, the cause of Gene’s death at 95 was ruled as hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with Alzheimer’s disease being a contributing factor.

But according to the couple’s friends, it was likely that Betsy, who was Gene’s main caretaker, was not aware of how severe her illness was.

“I’m sure if Betsy knew how sick she was, she would’ve had some backup help,” their pal Stephen Marshall said in the documentary. “She probably thought she was going to get better. She wasn’t worried about herself. She was worried about taking care of Gene.”

Indeed, it was apparent to many just how much Betsy cared for the Hoosiers actor.

“She was very protective of him,” Gene’s friend Tim Allin told The New York Times last month, adding that Gene often said that without Betsy, he likely would’ve died “long ago.”

For more on the tragic deaths of Gene and Betsy, keep reading.

Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Gene Hackman and Wife Betsy Arakawa Found Dead Feb. 26, 2025

Gene Hackman and his wife of 33 years, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe, N.M., home on Feb. 26 by two maintenance workers who spied their bodies through a window from outside the house. According to authorities, they alerted the caretaker in the gated community where the couple lived and that person called 911.

“No, they are not moving,” the caller told 911, per an audio recording. “Please send someone out here quick.”

When Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found Arakawa, 65, on the floor of a bathroom to the left of the frontdoor. She was clad in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, according to a Feb. 27 search warrant affidavit obtained by E! News, and there was an open prescription pill bottle and loose pills scattered on the countertop.

Hackman, 95, was on the floor in what deputies described as a mudroom near the kitchen, per the warrant. A walking cane and sunglasses near the body.

One of the couple’s three dogs—initially misidentified as their German shepherd Bear, it was actually their Australian Kelpie mix Zinna—was found dead in a closet of the bathroom, according to the warrant. Another healthy-looking dog was found near Arakawa’s body and the other, also seemingly healthy, was running around outside.

A search warrant was executed on the house at around 9:30 p.m. Feb. 26 and Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies were removed the following morning.

FM/Getty Images

Gene Hackman Death Deemed “Suspicious Enough” to Conduct Investigation

While the sheriff’s office said Feb. 27 that there were no signs of foul play, investigators determined “the circumstances surrounding the death of the two deceased individuals to be suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation,” the warrant stated.

The warrant noted there were no signs of obvious blunt-force trauma, carbon monoxide poisoning or forced entry into the home. Rather, deputies said they found the front door ajar.

There were also signs that Hackman and Arakawa had been dead for awhile: One deputy observed that her body was partially decomposed, with mummification around her hands and feet, according to the warrant, while Hackman’s body showed “similar and consistent” signs of death. It was also noted that both looked as if they may have fallen to the ground suddenly.

The worker who first saw the bodies told investigators he had last spoken with the couple about two weeks beforehand, per the warrant, and that he usually communicated with Arakawa over phone calls and texting.

“All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation,” Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told the Santa Fe New Mexican. “I want to assure the community and neighborhood that there’s no immediate danger to anyone.”

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Items of Interest Found in Gene Hackman’s Home

Two cell phones, blood pressure and thyroid medications, Tylenol, medical records and a 2025 planner were among the items removed by investigators during the search, according to a warrant summary.

Sam Wasson/Getty Images

A Timeline Slowly Comes Into Focus

Sheriff Mendoza said at a Feb. 28 news conference that Hackman’s pacemaker last recorded activity on Feb. 17, calling it “a very good assumption that it was his last day of life.”

They were continuing to analyze “cell phone data, phone calls, text messages, events, photos in the cell phone,” Mendoza said, “to try to piece a timeline together.”

But it wasn’t going to be easy.

As the sheriff explained on TODAY, “We understand that is a challenge because they were very private individuals and a private family. We’re trying to put all that information together right now.”

Gene Hackman’s Family Speaks Out

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” the actor’s daughters Leslie and Elizabeth and granddaughter Annie said in a statement. “He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”

Leslie Anne Allen—one of three children the actor shared with first wife Faye Maltese—told Fox News Digital that she hadn’t seen her father for “a few years” because she lived in California and he no longer traveled much, but they had “been in touch over the last couple of months.”

“I loved him dearly,” she said. “He was a genuinely good-hearted person.” And, Leslie said she knew him to be in good health, practicing yoga and pilates regularly.

As days went by, family members said they were trying to tune out the noise about what might have happened while whey they waited for official answers.

“We’re waiting on toxicology,” nephew Tim Hackman, whose dad was the actor’s brother Richard Hackman, told Us Weekly in an interview published March 3. “That will tell us everything. It’s hard to theorize. There are lots of theories out there and I don’t want to speculate. It’s easy to speculate negative theories.”

He added, “My uncle was 95 years old at an age where you think about, ‘OK, it’s time.’ But from the circumstances now things have changed a bit. It’s a major change.”

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Inside Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa’s Private Life in Santa Fe

Hackman, whose last film credit was 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, had lived in Santa Fe with Arakawa since the late 1980s. A painter himself, he was active in the local arts scene and sat on the board of the Georgia O’Keefe Museum from 1997 until 2004.

“He was a pretty low-key individual even though he was someone who had amazing stories to tell about Hollywood and other celebrities,” longtime friend and gallery owner Stuart Ashman told the Los Angeles Times. “He was just a regular guy.”

Santa Fe film commissioner Jennifer LaBar-Tapia told reporters that both Hackman and Arakawa were “deeply woven into the fabric of Santa Fe.”

But sightings of Hackman had become increasingly rare, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Friend Daniel Lenihan told People the actor—who used to walk his dogs and ride his bicycle around their neighborhood and patronize local businesses—had been “essentially kind of home-bound” in recent months. His son Aaron Lenihan said Arakawa “was still trying to keep him as active and engaged and healthy as possible,” but Daniel said Hackman was “really slipping.”

Daniel’s wife Barbara Lenihan said Arakawa, a classical pianist, had been in “perfect health” and was “so fit.”

The last paparazzi shot of a frail-looking Hackman and Arakawa out in public together was published by Page Six in March 2024.

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, Gas Leak Ruled Out

Tests on Hackman and Arakawa’s bodies for signs of carbon monoxide poisoning came back negative, Sheriff Mendoza told reporters Feb. 28. But, he noted, complete autopsy and toxicology results could take “three months or longer.”

The New Mexico Gas Company stated March 4 that, while a “minuscule leak” was found in a stove burner, it didn’t emit enough carbon monoxide to have proved fatal, nor did their investigation reveal any further leaks or gas line issues.

Investigators said there were several other code violations in the home, but nothing having to do with gas or carbon monoxide.

Avalon/Getty Images

Cause of Death Determined for Gene Hackman, Betsy Arakawa

Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare respiratory infection caused by exposure to rodent feces, urine or saliva, New Mexico Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said during a March 7 news conference.

Hackman, meanwhile, “showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” Jarrell said. “He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death.”

Arakawa may have experienced flu-like symptoms before she died, the medical examiner said.

New Mexico state public health veterinarian Erin Phipps said the couple were at “low risk” for exposure from their house but there were signs of rodents in other structures on the property.

A total of 122 cases and 52 deaths from hantavirus were reported in New Mexico between 1993 and 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Photo by Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Heartbreaking Death Timeline Revealed

According to the coroner, it looked as if Arakawa—last known to have run errands on Feb. 11—had been dead for about a week before Hackman died, seemingly on Feb. 18 going by his last pacemaker activity (a day after originally noted by authorities).

Their bodies weren’t discovered for another eight days, so 15 days after Arakawa died.

As far as authorities know, Hackman was alone in the house with his wife’s body until he himself passed.

“It’s quite possible he was not aware she was deceased,” Jarrell said. Hackman didn’t have food in his stomach when he died, she noted, but he was not dehydrated.

Their dog Zinna had been in a crate in the bathroom and died of starvation and dehydration, according to state vet Phipps.

Photo by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Why Gene Hackman Couldn’t Live Without His Wife

“At this point,” Sheriff Mendoza said March 7, “there’s no indication that there was a caretaker at the home.”

Arakawa had basically been managing her husband’s life for years, scheduling his golf games and visits with friends, according to pal Tom Allin, who told the New York Times he knew Hackman for 20 years but it was always the actor’s wife he spoke to on the phone.

“She was very protective of him,” Allin said,” and Hackman would have died “long ago” if not for her.

“All of us that knew him should have been checking on him,” Hackman’s friend Ashman told the Washington Post. “I had no idea…It’s just really sad. And that she died a week before him. My God.”

On the apparent last day of Arakawa’s life, she emailed her massage therapist in the morning, went to a grocery store in the afternoon and stopped at a pharmacy before going to a pet store. She was back home by around 5:15 p.m., according to authorities, and responded to no emails after Feb. 11.

Sheriff Mendoza said he believed she wore a mask while running her errands, which friends said she regularly did for fear of bringing any illnesses home to her husband.

Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Unexpected Timeline Twist

While the coroner determined Arakawa died around Feb. 11, a local doctor says he spoke to her the following day.

“She called back on the morning of February 12 and spoke to one of our doctors who told her to come in that afternoon,” Dr. Josiah Child, who runs Cloudberry Heath in Santa Fe, told the DailyMail in an interview published March 17. “We made her an appointment, but she never showed up.”

The appointment was not related to hantavirus, he added, noting, “We tried calling her a couple of times with no reply.”