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Gene Hackman’s friends on his death: ‘There are many pieces to the puzzle’

Members of the Oscar-winning actor’s tight-knit circle have paid tribute after he was found dead at his Santa Fe home on Wednesday with his wife Betsy Arakawa

Although officials have said there were no signs of foul play, the cause of death has not yet been established, an upsetting postscript to an illustrious Hollywood career that has shaken friends in a local community in which Hackman and his wife were rooted. But after marrying Arakawa in 1991, he found comfort in the ordinary things of life in Santa Fe, secluded from the suffocating fame of his Hollywood prime and thriving in the art and culture scene of the New Mexico city. Daniel Lenihan, a former archaeologist and park ranger with whom Hackman teamed up to write three novels, said: “People would often see Gene as a very rough guy because he played all of these characters, but he was very soft underneath, very kind.”

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