Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead a week apart, and his children are fighting wills that leave them nothing

Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe home in February 2025. Investigators reported that Arakawa died of hantavirus about a week before Hackman, who had advanced Alzheimer's disease^†. Court filings in New Mexico's First Judicial District Court show that Hackman's 2005 will left everything to Arakawa and named her successor trustee of his living trust. His three children from his first marriage, Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie, are not named. Arakawa's will said that if the couple died within 90 days of each other, her assets would go to charity "to achieve purposes beneficial to the community." Because she died first, the gift to her failed, and lawyers quoted in the press said the children could inherit as heirs at law. Julia L. Peters of Avalon Trust became representative of both estates and asked the court to seal autopsy photos and body-camera video. Christopher Hackman hired California estate lawyer Andrew Katzenstein. A March 2026 report said the children had filed challenges to both wills. The estate is estimated at $80 million to $90 million. The house sold for about $6.25 million, and a Bonhams auction of three Golden Globes, manuscripts and art raised nearly $3 million. One year after burial, the couple's grave had no plaque.