Gene Hackman’s family is in mourning.
The Oscar winner was found dead on Wednesday at the age of 95. He is survived by the three children he shared with his ex-wife, Faye Maltese: Christopher, 65; Elizabeth, 63; and Leslie, 58.
On Thursday, Elizabeth and Leslie and Hackman’s granddaughter, Annie, released a statement confirming his passing.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy,” the family told The Post.
“He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa,” they continued. “We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss.”
Hackman’s 30-year marriage to his children’s mother ended in 1986 when the couple divorced. After parting ways with Maltese, the actor married classical pianist Betsy Arakawa in 1991. Arakawa, 65, and one of the family dogs were also found dead by police on Wednesday at the home they shared in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
While law enforcement has opened an investigation into the deaths, which they have deemed “suspicious,” Elizabeth told TMZ on Thursday that she suspected her father and stepmother died of carbon monoxide poisoning. However, police wrote in the affidavit that there was “no obvious sign of a gas leak.”
Here’s more to know about Hackman’s three kids: Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie.
Christopher Allen Hackman
Hackman welcomed his first child, son Christopher Allen, in 1960.
The Oscar winner, who rarely gave interviews over the years, was asked in 1984 whether he had swapped hugs for handshakes with his son, as one of the characters he played in the movies did.
“No, we still hug to this day, and I thank God that we are able to do that,” Hackman told journalist Leta Powell at the time. “I don’t think we’ll ever have a point where we have to shake hands.”
He added, “I thank God that we are able to do that. I don’t think we’ll ever have a point where we have to shake hands.”
In a 2011 interview with GQ, Hackman revealed he never felt comfortable giving Christopher advice.
“I lost touch with my son in terms of advice early on,” the star told the magazine. “Maybe it had to do with being gone so much, doing location films when he was at an age where he needed support and guidance. It was very tough for me to be gone for three months and then come home and start bossing him around.”
According to Hackman, at one point, Christopher wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps as an actor.
“My son thought he wanted to be an actor at one time and was in New York, and I wrote him a couple of little monologues,” Hackman revealed to Empire magazine in 2020.
Elizabeth Jean Hackman
Born in August 1962, Elizabeth Jean was Hackman and Maltese’s second child and their first daughter.
She would appear alongside her famous father a few times over the years, including at a 1978 screening of “Superman” and alongside her stepmother and younger sister, Leslie, at the 1996 premiere of Hackman’s legal thriller “The Chamber.”
Leslie Anne Hackman
Hackman’s third child, Leslie Anne, was born in October 1966.
The second daughter the actor shared with his ex-wife has largely shied away from the spotlight and lived a private life like her two siblings. The youngest of the Hackman children did join her dad at the premieres of “The Godfather Part III” and “Class Action” in the 1990s and the Golden Globes in 1984.
That same year, Hackman revealed in an interview that Leslie Anne was “affected” by his film “Misunderstood,” in which he played a shipping magnate raising his two young sons after the death of his wife.
“Not because I was in it,” he told journalist Bobbie Wygand. “She liked it as a film and she recommended it to her girlfriends and they’re going to see a screening of it this week. She was very taken with it, and I hope the older children are, too.”
In 2000, Hackman told to Cigar Aficionado that he “used to borrow” one of his daughter’s “piece of s–t Toyota[s]” to drive to Hollywood during a rough patch in his acting career.
Hackman also acknowledged that his children had a difficult upbringing with him as a father.
“Living in California, they’ve had my success always hanging over their heads,” he shared with the Irish Independent in 2000.
