New details about Gene Hackman’s health have been revealed in a final autopsy released two months after his death at age 95. The actor was found dead at his home, along with wife Betsy Arakawa.
More details about Gene Hackman‘s health have been revealed, two months after his death.
A final autopsy released by the Office of the Medical Investigator in New Mexico and obtained by Fox News Digital shows that the two-time Oscar winner—who was found dead at age 95 at his Santa Fe home, along with his wife Betsy Arakawa, Feb. 26—had a “history of congestive heart failure” in addition to “severe chronic hypertensive changes, kidneys” and Alzheimer’s disease.
The document showed Hackman tested negative for hantavirus, unlike his spouse, 65, who was previously found to have died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe respiratory illness that is transmitted through rodent urine, droppings and saliva.
“Autopsy showed severe atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease,” the autopsy stated, per Fox News Digital, “with placement of coronary artery stents and a bypass graft, as well as a previous aortic valve replacement.”
The document continued, “Remote myocardial infarctions were present involving the left ventricular free wall and the septum, which were significantly large. Examination of the brain showed microscopic findings of advanced stage Alzheimer’s disease.”
Ron Davis/Getty ImagesIn March, authorities shared that Hackman and his wife both died of natural causes—her on Feb. 11 and him seven days later—at their New Mexico home. At the time, the cause of the Superman actor’s death was determined to be hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), with Alzheimer’s disease as a significant contributing factor.
The medical investigator also shared that Hackman was in an “advanced state” of Alzheimer’s and that was “it’s quite possible that he was not aware” that his wife was deceased. The official added that was no food in Hackman’s stomach.
The findings from the actor’s final toxicology report from the New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator are consistent with a prolonged level of fasting, as they showed his system had trace amounts of acetone, a product of diabetic and fasting-induced ketoacidosis, Fox News Digital reported.
Hackman and Arakawa were laid to rest in a private memorial earlier this month. His three children, son Christopher, 65, and daughters Elizabeth, 62, and Leslie, 58, and other family members and friends attended the service.
Read on for more about the investigation into Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths.
Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesGene 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 ImagesGene 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
