Betsy Arakawa died at 65 – American musician

Biography and cause of death of Betsy Arakawa

Betsy Machiko Arakawa was a classically trained American musician who lived from December 15, 1959, to February 20, 25. Betsy Arakawa edited the works of Gene Hackman, whose second wife she was. The bodies of Arakawa and Hackman were discovered at their residence on February 26, 2025.

Betsy Arakawa Professional and personal life

Born and raised in Honolulu, Arakawa is a native Hawaiian. Her ancestry was Japanese. She gained her musical prowess in Kahala Elementary School, where she learned piano. in the age of eleven, she gave a concert at the Honolulu International Center Concert Hall. She collaborated with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra to play the last movement of Joseph Haydn’s Keyboard Concerto in G major, as reported in the Honolulu Star Bulletin.

Arakawa attended USC from 1981 to 1983 for his undergraduate studies. She worked as a production assistant on the TV game show Card Sharks and cheered for the professional soccer club the Los Angeles Aztecs during her summer vacation.

The 1989 film The Package, which featured Arakawa and her future husband Gene Hackman, took place in the Altenheim Geriatric Center in Forest Park, Illinois, which was transformed into a German nursing facility for the sake of the plot. While she was a part-time employee at a gym in Los Angeles in the ’80s, she met Hackman.

They were married on December 1, 1991, after dating for seven years. She ceased her concert career when they tied the knot. Speculation circulated after Hackman and Arakawa’s marriage that he had abandoned his first wife Faye Maltese for her. In an interview he gave in 2021, he denied the rumor.

Along with Barbara Lenihan, Arakawa established Pandora’s in Santa Fe in 2001, a business selling home furnishings and linens.

Betsy Arakawa Death

Additional details: the demise of Gene Hackman
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, on February 26, 2025, the bodies of Arakawa, Hackman, and one of their three dogs were discovered at their residence. Near Arakawa’s corpse, on the bathroom countertop, were a number of medications and a prescription bottle, and there was also a portable heater in the room.  Authorities first said there was no foul play, but now they’re calling the deaths “suspicious” and saying they’re investigating.