Gene Hackman was found dead at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in February 2025 along with his wife, Betsy Arakawa, and one of their three dogs. And while we know that one of the strange things about Hackman’s death was that Hackman tragically died days after Arakawa and probably didn’t know that she’d passed away, we now have another dreadful insight into his death thanks to the results of his autopsy.
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Released two months after his death, the autopsy report confirms that Hackman had elevated acetone levels, which can be caused by a lack of food over a long period of time. In essence, in the days that Hackman lived after Arakawa’s death, the report seems to show that he likely had very little to eat.
Hackman had advanced Alzheimer’s disease when he passed away. Arakawa had been his caretaker, so when she died, he didn’t have anyone in the home to take care of him and make sure that he was eating properly.
Gene Hackman died in isolation over 20 years after retiring from Hollywood
Plenty of people online were devastated to find out this disturbing detail about Gene Hackman’s last days. Others sadly recognized this type of situation from personal experience. “For those struggling to understand the Gene Hackman situation: my dad died of Alzheimer’s, and believe me when I tell you that in the late stages, if I had collapsed and died before his eyes, he would have simply tripped over my body and starved to death on the floor,” one person posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).
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The autopsy also noted that Hackman had a history of heart problems and that he had tested negative for hantavirus, the rare disease that had killed his wife. Hackman was 95 when he died, and Betsy Arakawa was 65.
Hackman retired from acting in 2004, in large part because of his health. “The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress,” Hackman said in an interview with Empire. And he’d confirmed that he found making films to be “very stressful,” via Reuters. After he stepped back from Hollywood, Hackman and Arakawa stayed firmly out of the spotlight and enjoyed a quiet life in Santa Fe in the years before their deaths.
