30 Jan 1930 - 18 Feb 2025 (95 years)

Eugene Allen Hackman was an American actor. In a career that spanned four decades, he received two Academy Awards, two British Academy Films Awards, and four Golden Globes.

Hackman's two Academy Award wins were for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's action thriller The French Connection (1971) and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a villainous Sheriff in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles as Buck Barrow in the crime drama Bonnie and Clyde (1967), a college professor in the drama I Never Sang for My Father (1970), and an FBI agent in the historical drama Mississippi Burning (1988).

Hackman was married twice. He had three children from his first marriage. In 1956, Hackman married Faye Maltese, with whom he had one son and two daughters. The couple divorced in 1986, after three decades of marriage.

In 1991, Hackman married classical pianist Betsy Arakawa. They shared a Santa Fe, New Mexico home, which Architectural Digest featured in 1990.

Hackman was found dead, along with his wife and their dog, in their Santa Fe home on 26 February 2025. It was subsequently reported that Hackman had died about the 18th February of coronary artery disease, with advanced Alzheimer's disease a contributing factor. He died about a week after his wife Betsy, who died around the 11th February of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a respiratory illness caused by exposure to infected rodents. With Hackman's condition, it was quite possible that he was not aware that his wife was deceased.