Gene Hackman, His Wife Betsy Arakawa and Their Dog Found Dead

Two-time Oscar winner Gene Hackman has died at 95 years old. He and his wife, classic pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe home along with their dog on Wednesday, reports the Santa Fe New Mexican, citing Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza. Arakawa was 63, TMZ reports.

Mendoza said that there was no indication of foul play in the deaths but did not provide a cause of death. He did not say when the couple, married for more than 30 years, may have died.

Deputies responded to a welfare check request at the home around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday and found Hackman, Arakawa and a dog deceased, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Womack-Avila told CNN on Thursday. An investigation is ongoing.

Hackman, best known for his iconic roles in The French Connection and Superman, was born in San Bernardino, California in 1930, moving frequently with his family until eventually landing in Danville, Illinois. His father worked for a newspaper press. As a boy, Hackman idolized movie stars Erroll Flynn, Edward G. Robinson and Jimmy Cagney, PEOPLE reports.

Hackman’s father left the family when Hackman was 13. “It was so precise. Maybe that’s why I became an actor,” Hackman told Vanity Fair in 2013 of his father waving a hand to his son as he left. “I doubt I would’ve become so sensitive to human behavior if that hadn’t happened to me as a child — if I hadn’t realized how much one small gesture can mean.”

After a night in jail for stealing candy and soda, Hackman enlisted in the Marines three years later, serving until he was 19. Following his discharge he lived in New York, Florida and Danville until he married his girlfriend, Faye Maltese, in 1956. They eventually divorced 30 years later, but not before welcoming three children together and moving to California where Hackman pursued acting.

Hackman was kicked out of the famed Pasadena Playhouse, so he moved to New York City where he landed a small role in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. He befriended Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall, taking small parts in New York until his mid-thirties when he played Warren Beatty’s brother in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde. His role of Buck Barrow earned him his first of five Oscar nomination.

In 1970, he earned a nominations for his role in I Never Sang for My Father, but it was his leading role in 1971’s The French Connection that made him a Hollywood leading man and icon — and nabbed him the win for Best Actor in 1972.

Following The French Connection, he appeared in The Poseidon Adventure, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and 1986’s Hoosiers. He was Lex Luther in 1978’s Superman, one of his more silly movies in a sea of serious acting credits.

His fourth Oscar nomination came in 1989 for Mississippi Burning; he won his second Oscar for Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven in 1993. Hackman retired from acting in 2004 after the comedy Welcome to Mooseport. Before that, he appeared in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.

Hackman married Arakawa in 1991. The two shared a Santa Fe home featured in Architectural Digest in 1990.

Hackman’s death comes just days before the Oscars on Sunday. He told GQ in 2011 that he wanted to be remembered “as a decent actor. As someone who tried to portray what was given to them in an honest fashion. I don’t know, beyond that.”

Hackman leaves behind his three children who he shared with his first wife, Maltese, who died in 2017: Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Ann Hackman.