米俳優ジーン・ハックマンさん夫妻の死に「不審点」 捜査当局

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】米ニューメキシコ州の自宅で死亡しているのが発見された米俳優ジーン・ハックマンさん（９５）夫妻について、捜査当局は２７日、「不審」な点があり、徹底的な捜査が必要だと述べた。（写真は、仏カンヌで、映画『アンダー・サスピション』のフォトコールに臨む米俳優ジーン・ハックマンさん〈中央〉）
　ハックマンさんとピアニストの妻ベッツィ・アラカワさん（６３）は２６日、ペットの犬と共に自宅で亡くなっていた。
　当局は当初、事件性はないとしていたが、２人の死は「徹底的な調査が必要と思われる不審点がある」として、捜索令状が発布された。
　メンテナンス作業員の通報を受け、警察官がハックマンさん宅に駆けつけたところ、ドアは施錠されずに開いていた。浴室で発見されたアラカワさんの遺体のそばには、錠剤が散乱していた。浴室ではペットのジャーマンシェパードも死んでいた。
　令状によると、アラカワさんは「しばらく前に」死亡し、遺体は腐敗が進んでいた。
　一方、別室で発見されたハックマンさんの遺体は完全に服を着た状態で、そばにはサングラスがあった。突然倒れたとみられている。
　ハックマンさんの娘はメディアに対し、一酸化炭素中毒が２人の死因の可能性があると語った。
　サンタフェ郡のアダン・メンドーサ保安官は会見で、地元消防署による初期検査では高濃度の一酸化炭素は検出されなかったが、結論はまだ出ていないとコメント。「捜査中で、あらゆる可能性を検討している」と述べ、争った形跡はないと付け加えた。
　アカデミー賞を２度受賞したハックマンさんは、自身の苦難に満ちた生い立ちからインスピレーションを得た迫真の演技で「普通の人々」を演じたことで知られ、７０代まで数多くの映画に出演した。
　代表作は１９７１年の『フレンチ・コネクション』。ニューヨークの粗野な刑事「ポパイ」ことジミー・ドイルを演じ、アカデミー賞主演男優賞を受賞した。１９９２年の西部劇『許されざる者』では助演男優賞を受賞した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/02/28-19:24）

Oscar-winning cinema giant Gene Hackman and his wife have been found dead in their home in an incident police are calling suspicious.
The bodies of Hackman, 95, and his classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa, 63, along with that of a pet dog, were discovered at their property in New Mexico on Wednesday.
Authorities initially reported there were no signs of foul play, but a search warrant said a detective believed the deaths were suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.
Police officers called to the home by maintenance workers found the door unlocked and open, and pills scattered next to Arakawa's body, which was in the bathroom.
It appeared Arakawa had been dead for some time, with the body in a state of decomposition, the warrant noted.
Hackman's body was found in another room, fully clothed, with sunglasses next to his body, apparently having fallen suddenly.
A German Shepherd was found dead in the bathroom, and two other healthy dogs were at the house.
Hackman's daughter Elizabeth Jean told entertainment outlet TMZ that carbon monoxide poisoning may be to blame for the deaths of the couple, who married in 1991.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told a press conference that an initial inspection by the local fire department had not found high levels of the gas, but no conclusions had been drawn yet.
This is an investigation, so we're keeping everything on the table, he said, adding that there was no sign of a struggle.
Initial autopsy findings showed no external trauma to either individual, the sheriff's office said in a written update.
Carbon monoxide and toxicology tests have been requested but results are still pending and no cause of death has been determined, it said.
Hackman, a two-time Academy Award winner, was credited for intense performances of everyman characters inspired by his troubled upbringing, notching up dozens of movie credits extending into his 70s.
He is perhaps best known as vulgar New York cop Jimmy Popeye Doyle in the 1971 crime thriller The French Connection -- for which he won an Oscar for best actor.
He won another golden statuette two decades later for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the brutal small-town sheriff Little Bill Daggett in the 1992 western Unforgiven.
- 'Inspiring and magnificent' -
Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola on Thursday mourned his death.
The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity, Coppola wrote in a post on Instagram.
Clint Eastwood, who starred alongside Hackman in Unforgiven, told Variety: There was no finer actor than Gene. Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much.
Not blessed with leading man good looks, Hackman drew on his talents and versatility, taking on a series of gritty roles and delivering thoughtful, intelligent performances.
I wanted to act, but I'd always been convinced that actors had to be handsome, the actor once said.
Born in Illinois during the Great Depression, Hackman came from a broken family.
His father left when he was 13, waving enigmatically as he drove away one day, and his mother later died in a fire.
He also served an unpleasant stint in the US Marines, which he joined at 16 by lying about his age. But he later used his personal turmoil to flesh out his characters.
Acting success came relatively late in life. According to Hollywood legend, after his enrollment at the Pasadena Playhouse in California in the late 1950s, he and a fellow student, one Dustin Hoffman, were voted the least likely to succeed.
On graduation, Hackman found work off-Broadway and began to turn heads. He earned his first Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in Bonnie and Clyde.
That landmark 1967 film, in which Hackman played Clyde's brother Buck Barrow, put him on track for stardom.
Into the 21st century, he starred in The Heist and The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001, the latter winning him his third competitive Golden Globe, before announcing his retirement in 2008.
It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on screen, Hackman once said.
I think of myself, and feel like I'm quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.