‘Just a regular guy’: Gene Hackman enjoyed a quiet, simple life in Santa Fe, until tragedy struck last week
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Out of the Hollywood spotlight, actor Gene Hackman painted, did Pilates and rode his bike in the Santa Fe, N.M., community where he and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were woven into the fabric of the local community.
Friends said Hackman came to cherish the simpler life away from paparazzi and hype of the show business machine. In Santa Fe, he made friends, took part in community events and dined at the local eateries.
“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 Stuart Ashman said. “He was just a regular guy.”
But this peaceful anonymity did not follow the Oscar winner into death.
Last week, Hackman, 95, and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead in their home, along with one of their three dogs. Investigators have ruled out carbon monoxide poisoning, but are awaiting toxicology results. They are working to rebuild a timeline of the couple’s final days through phone records, emails and other means.
The couple was described as private but neighborly by those who got to know them over the years.
Ashman was one of those people — befriending the two-time Oscar winner nearly 30 years ago after the two ended up sitting next to each other at a community arts meeting. Ashman was director of the New Mexico Museum of Arts at the time, while Hackman had a seat on the board of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, where he served from 1997 to 2004.
“He told me his name and I said, ‘Of course I know who you are,’” Ashman said. “He just smiled that big smile of his and our friendship went from there.”
For two years, Ashman was Hackman’s part-time egg supplier, gifting him the occasional dozen from the chickens he was raising. One day, Hackman returned the favor with a painted landscape of a tree-lined river. When Ashman initially declined to take it, Hackman politely insisted.
“Gene tells me, ‘You’ve been giving me eggs for two years. I think a painting is a fair trade,’” Ashman recalled.
The two would also chat it up between Pilates classes, where they shared the same personal instructor.
“She would say, ‘Gene, are you here to work or do you want to visit with Stuart?’” Ashman said laughing.
Ashman said Hackman years ago discussed renting a home in the Florida Keys in the winter and possibly meeting up after their vacations, but then the pandemic happened, and the men drifted apart.
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Longtime friend Doug Lanham didn’t think of Hackman as a movie star, but as one half of Gene and Betsy, the couple that was always helping in the community.
Their friendship also started out of happenstance. The couple went into his restaurant, Jinja Bar & Bistro, in the early 2000s, and ended up chatting with Lanham and the other owners, Lanham said. The topic of Arakawa’s cooking skills came up.
Lanham invited Arakawa to come by the next day, when the kitchen would be tasting some new recipes. Arakawa apparently had some ideas of her own.
“The next day, here comes Betsy just looking so wonderful and confident,” Lanham said. “And here comes Gene behind Betsy, lugging a cooler with all the food that Betsy was going to prepare for everyone to sample.”
Eventually, the couple put a financial stake in the restaurant. Over the years, Hackman contributed his artworks that now hang inside, including one large piece that occupies much of a 5-by-13-foot wall.
Initially, Hackman was intimidated at the scale of that piece, Lanham said.
“You did all these movies that are great and we got this little wall that we want to just put a piece of art on. I never heard you say you can’t do anything,” Lanham said he teased Hackman over a few beers.
But three weeks later, Hackman called the restaurant owners up to his artist studio. There they found a bunch of tropical leaves hanging from wires on the ceiling that he used as models and on the back wall a large triptych painting of a woman looking out on a sunset in a South Pacific setting.
While Arakawa marveled at the piece once it was shown, Hackman was much more subdued, Lanham said. The reaction from customers was overall positive, but there were also critics.
“You see them crossing their arms and looking at the mural and going, ‘It’s kind of a [Paul] Gauguin, look at the color. And then I’d go, ‘Oh, this is a go-Gene. Look at this color,’” Lanham said.
The couple slowed down in the last few years, according to news reports.
Arakawa and Hackman’s friends Daniel and Barbara Lenihan, along with their son Aaron, told People magazine that Hackman was “essentially kind of home-bound” and had stopped riding his bike around his neighborhood. He had been showing his age in the last few months while his wife was “in perfect health,” the family told the magazine. She tried to keep him active and engaged, including doing puzzles and yoga over Zoom.
“They seemed like real life partners, really, really close to each other, and they were both incredibly kind,” Aaron Lenihan told People. “They were reserved, but they were real, [and] a lot of fun.”
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