Gene Hackman’s daughter thinks her father and his wife died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Elizabeth Jean Hackman told TMZ that while they are not sure of the couple’s cause of death, they think it could be due to inhaling toxic fumes.
The Oscar-winner, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 64, were found dead in their Santa Fe home on Wednesday.
Elizabeth also told TMZ police did not find any signs of foul play at the actor’s home.
Hackman, Arakawa and their dog were all dead when deputies entered their home to check on their welfare around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Avila said.
The gruff-but-beloved Hackman was among the finest actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.
He was a five-time Oscar nominee who won for The French Connection in 1972 and Unforgiven two decades later. His death comes just four days before this year’s ceremony.
Hackman met Arakawa, a classically trained pianist who grew up in Hawaii, when she was working part-time at a California gym in the mid-1980s, the New York Times reported in 1989. They soon moved in together, and by the end of the decade had decamped to Santa Fe.