Morgan Freeman honored Gene Hackman at the Academy Awards on Sunday, opening the telecast’s in memoriam segment by saying the film community had “lost a giant.”
Last week, Hackman, 95, and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead in their home in New Mexico. In recent days, the question of how they died has consumed Hollywood and bewildered the community of Santa Fe.
Freeman appeared with Hackman in the 1992 western “Unforgiven,” which won Hackman his second Oscar, and the 2000 thriller “Under Suspicion.”
“Like everyone who ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man whose gifts elevated everyone’s work,” Freeman said.
Calling Hackman a “dear friend,” Freeman noted that the actor often said he did not think about his legacy but hoped that people would remember him “as someone who tried to do good work.”
“So I think I speak for us all when I say, Gene, you’ll be remembered for that, and for so much more,” Freeman said.
The producers of the telecast had only a few days to decide how they would honor one of the giants of acting. On Wednesday, law enforcement found Hackman’s body in the mud room of his home outside Santa Fe, next to his cane and sunglasses. Arakawa’s body was discovered in a bathroom, near an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the countertop.
An examination of Hackman’s pacemaker indicated that the actor had died Feb. 17, the Santa Fe County sheriff said. A detective wrote in an affidavit that Arakawa’s body had shown signs of decomposition and that Hackman showed signs of death “similar and consistent” with his wife.
It could take weeks or longer for investigators to piece together a timeline as they interview the couple’s contacts and wait for toxicology results and autopsy reports.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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