Actor Gene Hackman had an advanced state of Alzheimer and died of heart disease and other factors probably days after his wife, Betsy Arakawa, died of a syndrome transmitted by mice, according to the results of the autopsy made public on Friday in New Mexico.
Hackman, 95, Arakawa, 64, and one of his dogs were found dead on February 26 in rooms separated from his house in Santa Fe.
Hackman heart disease and Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome that caused Arakawa’s death were announced at a press conference at the Santa Fe Sheriff’s office.
The Sheriff told journalists last week that a pathologist determined that the last signal of the actor’s pacemaker was February 17, so it was likely that this was his last day alive.
Hackman and Arakawa lived in Santa Fe since the 1980s and actively participated in the artistic community and the culinary scene of the city. In recent years, the couple was seen less frequently as his health deteriorated.
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A guardian of his community discovered the dead couple. Sheriff’s agents found Hackman in the kitchen. Arakawa and a dog were found in a bathroom, with pills scattered in the place.
Both Hackman and Arakawa seemed to have suddenly fallen to the ground and neither had signs of trauma by forceful object.
A door ajar was found in the back of the house. Two of the couple’s dogs had used it to enter and leave the house, said the sheriff.
Hackman, former Marine known for his rough voice, acted in more than 80 films, as well as on television and theater, during a long career that began in the early 1960s.
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He won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1972 for his interpretation of Detective Popeye Doyle in “The French Connection”, and in 1993 he won an Oscar for Best Distributed Actor for “Unforgiven”
With Reuters information
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