Gene Hackman’s Longtime Friends Say He Was ‘Really Slipping’ in Recent Months

Gene Hackman’s health had been in decline before his death last month, friends of the 95-year-old Oscar winner told PEOPLE following the shocking discovery of the bodies of Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, at their Santa Fe home.

After Hackman and Arakawa, 65, were found dead alongside one of their dogs on Wednesday, Feb. 26, married couple Daniel and Barbara Lenihan and their son, Aaron, told the outlet that “in recent times,” Hackman was “essentially kind of home-bound,” with Barbara explaining that about a year ago, the reclusive star had “quit riding his bike through the neighborhood.”

Aaron said, “Betsy tried to keep him kind of active and engaged” with puzzles and Zoom yoga every day, explaining, “She was still trying to keep him as active and engaged and healthy as possible.” Over the last “couple of months,” however, Daniel and Barbara noticed The French Connection star was “really slipping there.”

Arakawa, on the other hand, was “in perfect health,” Barbara said, and “so fit.” Aaron gushed that the classical pianist was “very protective” of her husband “in terms of COVID, so she’d always wear a mask when we’d see her out.”

He continued that Hackman and his wife of more than 30 years “were one of the tightest couples I’ve seen,” adding, “They seemed like real life partners, really, really close to each other, and they were both incredibly kind. And they were reserved, but they were real, [and] a lot of fun.”

Arakawa was found dead in the bathroom of the couple’s home next to a space heater and an open bottle of pills, according to police documents, which were identified as a thyroid medication, Tylenol and a high blood pressure medication.

Sheriff Adan Mendoza said at a Feb. 28 press conference that The Royal Tenenbaums star’s pacemaker was last operational on Feb. 17 and that he was expected to have been dead for nine days before his body was discovered. Police have repeatedly said they do not suspect foul play, and official results of the autopsies and toxicology reports are still pending. Both Hackman and Arakawa tested negative for carbon monoxide poisoning, Mendoza added, and there were no signs of blunt force trauma.