SANTA FE, N.M. — Gene Hackman’s friend, Stuart Ashman, wishes he had stayed closer with the actor before his mysterious death but will always have fond memories and a treasured painting from the late actor.
“Obviously, he was 95, so he was slowing down,” Ashman told Fox News Digital. “And after COVID, he was more reclusive, protecting his immune system and everything else.”
He continued, “I really am puzzled by the whole thing. You know, there’s a lot of different reports coming out. It’s kind of a tragic mystery in a way. And I can’t really speculate on what it could have been. Certainly nothing dark there. I think it gets compounded by the fact that it was the two of them and the dog. But I don’t know beyond that.”
Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their home last Wednesday. Authorities have said the couple had been dead for several days when they were discovered but have not released a cause of death.
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Daniel and Barbara Lenihan and their son, Aaron, also recently spoke with People Magazine about Hackman and Arakawa, saying Hackman had been “essentially kind of home-bound” in “recent times” and “quit riding his bike through the neighborhood.”
Aaron told the outlet, “Betsy tried to keep him kind of active and engaged,” adding that Hackman did puzzles and yoga via Zoom daily.
“She was still trying to keep him as active and engaged and healthy as possible,” Aaron said.
Daniel and Barbara also said in the “last couple of months,” Hackman “was really slipping there.”
The family also recalled that Arakawa was “very protective of him in terms of COVID, so she’d always wear a mask when we’d see her out.”
“They seemed like real life partners, really, really close to each other, and they were both incredibly kind. And they were reserved, but they were real [and] a lot of fun,” Aaron told People.
The last time Ashman and Hackman spoke was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the gap in conversation is one he regrets.
“It was before COVID, and it reminded me of when I was a kid. My father had a friend who he had not been in contact with, and we went to visit him. And then he had been dead for a few days. And my father lamented not having called him. And I feel the same way,” he said.
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“You don’t think about it, but your friend is there, and you figure they’re all right. I mean, the last time I think I talked to him… he had a place that he rented in the Florida Keys for the winter, you know, a couple of winter months anyway. And he was going there. So that’s the last time I talked to him when he was going there.”
Hackman and Ashman met in the late ’90s when they served on a committee together at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and they bonded further through a shared Pilates teacher.
“He was the class after me, and it was a one-on-one class, and we would sit and talk for long enough that the teacher said, ‘Gene, are you’re going to take a class today or are you just going to talk to Stuart?’ And that’s really kind of how it was. It was a strong connection. Although, you know, now that he’s passed, I lament the fact that we didn’t spend more time together.”
Ashman, the co-owner of Artes de Cuba Gallery and former secretary of cultural affairs for New Mexico, also has a small farm with chickens. He would regularly deliver a dozen eggs to Hackman.
“One day he brought me a painting and I said, ‘You can’t give me this painting.’ He says, ‘Yeah, you’ve been giving me eggs for months.’ So I traded a painting for eggs, which is pretty nice. So now I have this wonderful treasure.”
Ashman shared that Hackman was active in the community, explaining that “he was invested in a lot of other businesses in Santa Fe.”
“I knew people that he really backed businesses, if he liked somebody, he’d get involved in their business. And I don’t think it wasn’t a moneymaking thing for him. It was really to help people out.”
Hackman was also often seen out exercising and was “in great shape” even at an advanced age.
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“He was very fit, you know, and he was 6 foot 2 plus an ex-Marine. He did Pilates like three times a week. And then on the days that he didn’t do Pilates, he would load his bicycle up to his SUV and drive to Albuquerque, which is 70 miles, and ride this trail down there, which is along the river and it’s paved and level. So he didn’t want to do mountain biking, but he did that. So he was in great shape,” Ashman said.
His fondest memories of Hackman remain their conversations at the Pilates classes, joking that sometimes their talks would be “a guy thing” and other times they’d discuss politics, including Ashman’s childhood in Cuba, where Hackman had spent some time.
They also bonded over their shared military service.
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“He was a Marine and I was a naval reservist. So we had some good jokes about those days. I mean, it was a different era. I mean, he’s older than I am. So I don’t know if he was involved in any combat or anything like that, but I certainly wasn’t that.”
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Hackman also shared a fun behind-the-scenes piece of trivia about one of his most famous films, “The French Connection.”
Ashman went to high school in the neighborhood where the movie’s famous car chase was filmed, which features several real-life crashes and near-misses.
“He told me this story about, after years after the movie, this guy he ran into in New York said, ‘Hey, man, you don’t know what you did for me. You saved my life, I owe you.’ And he said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He says, ‘When you were filming “The French Connection,” they closed all the streets. But I didn’t know about it. And I had my car in my driveway, and when I pulled out, you slammed into me. And then a producer came and gave me $20,000.'”
He added, “In those days, you could buy a new Chevy for $4,500. So it was a big deal.”
