Name: Gene Hackman and Wife's Causes of Death Revealed
Uploaded: 2025-03-07T23:48:29.000Z
Description: Authorities said Friday that actor Gene Hackman died of Alzheimer’s and heart failure a week after his wife died of hantavirus, a rare viral infection.

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Authorities said Friday that actor Gene Hackman died of Alzheimer’s and heart failure a week after his wife died of hantavirus, a rare viral infection.

Authorities initially ruled out foul play after the bodies were discovered Feb 26, while a bottle of pills was discovered next to the body of his wife, Betsy Arakawa. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning also tested negative.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza and other officials <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPQYSzPcBOg">announced</a> the development in a news conference in New Mexico, where the couple lived and were found dead last month.

Hackman was in “very poor” health in the days after his wife’s death, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said in the press conference.

Arakawa died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said in the news conference.

“Based on the circumstances, it is reasonable to conclude that Ms. Hackman passed away first,” Jarrell said at the press event, noting that Arakawa was last seen alive on Feb. 11 when she was seen visiting a CVS pharmacy nearby.

Feb. 11 was also the last day she sent an email, Mendoza said.

“She was walking around, she was shopping, she was visiting stores,” Mendoza said of Arakawa, referring to security footage on Feb. 11. “My detectives didn’t indicate that there was any problem with her or struggle of her getting around.”

The manners for both Hackman’s and Arakawa’s death were considered natural, said Jarrell. There were no signs of trauma in either.

“There were no other significant natural disease findings,” she said.

Pills that were found at the scene were prescribed thyroid medications that were being taken as prescribed, the examiner added.

Aside from Hackman and Arakawa, one of their dogs was found dead nearby, according to a search warrant affidavit. A maintenance worker called 911 after spotting the bodies at the couple’s Santa Fe home. He reported the home’s front door was open when he arrived to do routine work, a detective wrote.

Before Friday’s announcement, officials had said that their deaths were deemed “suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation because the reporting party found the front door of the residence unsecured and opened.”

Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/about/index.html">say</a> that hantavirus is spread mainly through rodents—namely their droppings, urine, or saliva—and isn’t transmitted from person to person.

Symptoms of the virus tend to show one to eight weeks after contact with an infected rodent, and early symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle aches, chills, dizziness, headaches, and abdominal issues, the CDC says.

Although rare, the virus is highly fatal. According to the CDC, 38 percent of people who contract hantavirus “may die from the disease.”

Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner, was 95, and Arakawa, a classical pianist, was 65.

The actor won his first Academy Award for 1972’s “The French Connection” and decades later, won his second for his role in “Unforgiven,” released in 1992. Other notable films include “The Conversation,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” and “Hoosiers.”

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/entertainment/gene-hackman-died-of-heart-disease-wife-died-of-hantavirus-about-1-week-prior-authorities-5822047">The Epoch Times</a></em>

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