Gene Hackman ‘died days after rare virus killed wife’

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman had advanced Alzheimer’s and died of heart disease and other causes days after his wife of three decades, Betsy Arakawa, died of a rare virus carried by mice, according to autopsy findings released Friday in New Mexico.

The 95-year-old actor, his 64-year-old pianist wife and one of their dogs were all found dead on Feb 26 in different rooms in the couple’s Santa Fe home.

Hackman’s heart disease and the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome that killed Arakawa were revealed at a news conference at the Santa Fe Sheriff’s office.

The results showed that Hackman’s wife had died a week before him. A reporter asked Sheriff Adan Mendoza if Hackman’s advanced Alzheimer’s disease had left him unable to comprehend her death.

“I would think so,” Mendoza said, speaking to reporters.

“He was in an advanced state of Alzheimer’s and there is every possibility that he did not realize she was dead,” Heather Jarrell, the chief medical investigator for New Mexico, told reporters.

Authorities believe Arakawa died Feb. 11, based on the date of her last email.

Jarrell concluded that Hackman died on Feb 18, based on his heart pacemaker activity.

Hantavirus is rare in the United States, with most cases reported in western states — New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. In northern New Mexico the virus is mostly transmitted through secretions and urine of deer mice.

The virus is typically transmitted “through the air when people sweep through barns or clean out closets where rodent nesting” occurs. It starts with symptoms similar to that of the flu, then progresses to heart and lung failure, killing around 38% to 50% of those who contract it.

In recent years, New Mexico has counted between one and seven cases each year, health data shows.

State health inspectors detected no specific evidence of rodents inside Hackman’s home but did find signs of rodent activity in structures outside the house, State Veterinarian Erin Phipps told reporters.

Hackman and Arakawa had lived in Santa Fe since the 1980s and had become active in the city’s art community and culinary scene. In recent years, the couple were less seen around town as his health declined. The couple had lived a very private life since their deaths, Mendoza said.

The couple was found dead by a caretaker at their gated community. Deputies found Hackman in the kitchen. Arakawa and a dog were discovered in a bathroom.

Both Hackman and Arakawa had seemingly dropped to the ground without warning and neither exhibited any blunt force trauma.

Arakawa retrieved one of her dogs in a crate from a Santa Fe veterinarian on Feb 9, which may be why the dog was found dead in the crate inside the couple’s home on Feb 26, Mendoza said. The dog was possibly dead from starvation, Phipps said.

The raspy-voiced Hackman, a former Marine, had a lengthy career spanning more than 80 films as well as television and theater that began in the early 1960s.

He received his first Oscar nomination for his breakout performance as the brother of the bank robber Clyde Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. He won an Oscar as best actor in 1972 for his performance as the detective Popeye Doyle in The French Connection, and in 1993 he won an Oscar as best supporting actor in the Chint Eastwood Western Unforgiven.