Mysterious auction of Gene Hackman's prized possessions reveals obsessions he hid from the world. But who gets the money... and his $80m fortune
When Gene Hackman walked away from acting, he told the world that he was finished with Hollywood.
After 40 years in the industry, he filmed his final role in 2004, bringing down the curtain on a career that saw him share the screen with the likes of Marlon Brando, Robin Williams and Clint Eastwood - winning two Oscars in the process.
Hackman lived out his days in the artsy New Mexico city of Santa Fe, far from the public eye, and swore that he wasn't in the least nostalgic.
'I don't have any memorabilia around the house,' he told GQ magazine in his last interview, in 2011. 'There isn't any movie stuff except a poster downstairs next to the pool table of Errol Flynn from Dawn Patrol. I'm not a sentimental guy.'
Yet that wasn't quite true.
A series of three auctions of Hackman's property, concluding on Thursday, has opened the door to an Aladdin's cave of cinematic history. There are two of his four Golden Globes, photos from the set of Bonnie and Clyde, the 1967 classic that put him on the Hollywood map, production notes, scripts, contracts, contact sheets and handwritten letters.
Asked in that final GQ interview how he would like to be remembered, Hackman replied: 'As a decent actor. As someone who tried to portray what was given to them in an honest fashion. I don't know, beyond that. I don't think about that often, to be honest.'
The sad reality, however, is that his name will also be forever tied to the strange circumstances surrounding his death and, perhaps, the fate of his ever-growing $80 million estate.
When Gene Hackman walked away from acting, he told the world that he was finished with Hollywood
A series of three auctions of Hackman's property, concluding on Thursday, has opened the door to an Aladdin's cave of cinematic history. (Pictured: Paintings by Fritz Scholder, Milton Avery and Susan Hertel displayed in the Gene Hackman Collection at Bonhams auction house)
Hackman's body was found on February 26 this year, inside the home he shared with his second wife, concert pianist Betsy Arakawa. She, too, was dead - as was Zinna, one of their dogs.
Arakawa, 65, had contracted hantavirus, a rare disease linked to rodents that can cause respiratory failure. She died about a week before her 95-year-old husband, who had cardiovascular disease and advanced Alzheimer's and was reliant on her for his care. Their bodies were not found for another week.
Hackman's three adult children from his first marriage - Christopher, 65, Elizabeth, 62, and Leslie, 58 - lived far away and were only alerted to their father's passing by a local handyman.
In several interviews, Hackman expressed regret for being absent for much of his children's young lives; Leslie told the Daily Mail at the time of his death that they had not spoken 'in a couple of months' but she believed he had been 'in very good physical condition.'
Though their apparent estrangement was suggested in Hackman's will, signed in 2005. He left his entire $80 million estate to his wife, with nothing to the three siblings.
But now, since both Hackman and Arakawa are deceased, the estate will pass over to a private trust he established, and it may never be known who inherits what. At least one of the children has hired a lawyer, in what experts say is a routine step in probate procedures.
Hackman's three adult children from his first marriage - Christopher, 65, Elizabeth, 62, and Leslie, 58 - lived far away and were only alerted of their father's passing by a local handyman
Hackman's body was found on February 26 this year, inside the home he shared with his second wife, concert pianist Betsy Arakawa (pictured together at the 66th Academy Awards)
In his will, signed in 2005, he left his entire $80 million estate to his wife, with nothing to the three children. (Left: Hackman and his daughter Leslie at the 1991 premiere of Class Action. Right: Hackman and his daughter Elizabeth in 1979)
Reid Kress Weisbord, a law professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey who specializes in trusts and estates, has analyzed the publicly filed wills of both Arakawa and Hackman with his colleague Naomi Cahn, from the University of Virginia.
He told the Daily Mail that it is not even clear who is conducting the Gene Hackman Collection auction — held by Bonhams auction house — of the actor's valuable assets.
'If the estate is conducting the auction, then any proceeds would pour over into the trust,' said Weisbord.
One reason that people use trusts is for just this type of obscurity, Weisbord explained. While wills become a matter of public record when offered for probate, revocable trusts generally remained private until produced in the course of litigation.
'Unless there's a contest, I don't expect the trust document to be disclosed publicly,' Weisbord said.
The Daily Mail has not received a response to a request for clarification from Bonhams, even as more than $2 million has already been raised with hundreds of lots yet to come.
Still up for grabs are 20 years of Screen Actors Guild membership cards, Oscars invitations and voting guidelines, and stacks of scripts - among them his treatment for The Silence of the Lambs.
Asked in that final GQ interview how he would like to be remembered, Hackman replied: 'As a decent actor. As someone who tried to portray what was given to them in an honest fashion. I don't know, beyond that. I don't think about that often, to be honest. I'm at an age where I should think about it.' (Pictured: Hackman accepting his Oscar for Best Actor in 1972)
Artwork in the Gene Hackman Collection is displayed on a used easel at the Bonhams auction house
There are photos from the set of Bonnie and Clyde - the 1967 classic that put him on the Hollywood map - production notes, scripts, contracts, contact sheets and handwritten letters
Hackman and co-star Estelle Parsons in Bonnie and Clyde
Hackman had secured the rights for Thomas Harris's novel and set about trying to turn it into a screenplay but eventually gave up, realizing, he told Empire in 2009, that he 'didn't have the experience to do that kind of thing at that point.'
Also among the lots are production notes from the 1998 film Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith, and a binder of documents and photos from Crimson Tide in which he appeared alongside Denzel Washington.
The most valuable items were auctioned in New York on November 19. Thirteen works of art went under the hammer, including two Rodin sculptures - the priciest of which went for $108,450 - and a Kandinsky lithograph that fetched $46,080.
The top lot was a Milton Avery oil painting, Figure on the Jetty, which sold for $505,500 - the largest sum from the collection so far.
On November 8, Bonhams had begun the first of two online auctions, which concluded on November 21.
A Matisse drawing fetched $21,760; several black and white photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson were also sold, including one of Matisse holding a dove in his studio, which made $11,520.
Many of the items were deeply personal, such as Herb Ritts's photo of a young Willem Dafoe on the set of Mississippi Burning, the 1998 film for which Hackman was nominated for another Oscar, and a goofy black and white image of Clint Eastwood.
Eastwood has written on the back of the photo in gold pen: 'Gene, Much thanks for Unforgiven'; the lot comes with a copy of Ritts's book featuring the image, inscribed: 'To Betsy & Gene, Much Love Always, Thanks, Enjoy, Santa Fe 1/'96'. The Eastwood photo sold for $8,320; the Dafoe for $2,048.
A script for The French Connection, for which he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe, sold for $5,376. The top lot from the film memorabilia was a selection of documents from The Royal Tenenbaums, including a hand-written letter from director Wes Anderson in 2000, begging Hackman to take the role.
'I don't want to make this movie without you,' Anderson writes, offering to change the setting if it might help Hackman say yes. The lot fetched $8,960.
The most valuable items were auctioned in New York on November 19. Thirteen works of art went under the hammer, including two Rodin sculptures - the priciest of which went for $108,450. (Pictured: A Rodin sculpture on display as part of the Gene Hackman Collection)
Figure on the Jetty, a Milton Avery oil painting which sold for $505,500 - the largest sum from the collection so far - was the top lot
A script for The French Connection, for which he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe, sold for $5,376
Hackman as the hard-boiled NYPD detective Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle in a scene from The French Connection
Many of the items were deeply personal, such as Herb Ritts's photo of a young Willem Dafoe on the set of Mississippi Burning (left), and a goofy black and white image of Clint Eastwood (right)
Particularly intriguing are Hackman's own paintings - landscapes, still lifes and self-portraits. The most valuable was a copy made by him of Russian artist Philipp Malyavin's Peasant Women, which sold for $28,160.
The third and final online auction, which began on November 25 and ends on December 4, also features an attempt to copy a masterpiece - this time, Van Gogh's Starry Night. Bonhams estimates its value at between $800 and $1,200.
And while the two Golden Globes sold in the first online auction - one for 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums for $51,200 and the other for the 1992 Eastwood-directed Unforgiven for $43,520 - the two Oscars were nowhere to be seen because Hackman once said he had no idea where they were.
The auction also provides a fascinating window into the life that Hackman shared with Hawaiian-born Arakawa, who he met in the mid 1980s while she was working at the Californian gym where he worked out.
Hackman had divorced his first wife, Faye Maltese, in 1986. Five years later, he and Arakawa married and settled full time in Santa Fe.
Barbara Lenihan, whose son Aaron lived next door to the couple, told People: 'Gene was as proud of Betsy as she was of him. She had been a concert pianist. Over at their house, she had a special building, a studio that half of it was her grand pianos [and] another half was Gene's art studio.'
Three Steinway grand pianos are among the lots on offer, all valued between $8,000 and $12,000, as are multiple collections of Hackman's art supplies: paint-encrusted brushes, sketchbooks and even a paint-splattered straw hat, all valued at up to $500.
Particularly intriguing are Hackman's own paintings - landscapes, still lifes and self-portraits. The most valuable was a copy made by him of Russian artist Philipp Malyavin's Peasant Women, which sold for $28,160.
Two Golden Globes sold in the first online auction - one for 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums for $51,200 and the other for the 1992 Eastwood-directed Unforgiven for $43,520
The top lot from the film memorabilia was a selection of documents from The Royal Tenenbaums
It included a hand-written letter from director Wes Anderson in 2000, begging Hackman to take the role
Hackman played a wild and eccentric father figure in The Royal Tenenbaums, above
Before his big break, Hackman - who worked as a delivery driver in New York City - studied at the Art Students League of New York.
'I thought maybe I could feed myself as an artist while I was waiting to be an actor,' he once said.
Hackman evidently admired craftsmanship from all over the world: Thai thrones, Japanese ceramics, African sculptures and face masks are among the lots.
He also had a sense of fun: three video arcade games from the 1980s, valued each at $800, are for sale, plus a tennis kit and three sets of golf clubs.
Arakawa, in Hackman's later years, would organize his golf games and coordinate a group of friends to join him on the course.
It was a simple life, Hackman said, but one filled with love.
He wrote several books and fished, and was regularly seen walking their German Shepherds.
'I paint, I draw,' he told the Washington Post in 1996. 'Santa Fe has a world-class opera, a chamber orchestra. Culturally, it's pretty nice there.'
The couple enjoyed 'DVDs that my wife rents; we like simple stories that some of the little low-budget films manage to produce,' he told Empire in the 2009 interview.
Every Friday night was dedicated to a Comedy Channel marathon, with Hackman particularly appreciating Eddie Izzard, telling the magazine: 'The speed of thought is amazing.'
Five years after his final film Welcome to Mooseport, Hackman went on to reveal that he was at peace.
'The agents don't want me to say it, in case something good comes along, but I'm officially retired. No doubt about it.'
Does that mean his name has faded in Hollywood?
'I haven't talked to Hollywood much lately, so I don't really know,' he said. 'But I would guess that they've moved on.'
Whether Tinseltown has indeed forgotten Hackman is debatable. But the fierce competition still under way for his possessions suggests that the wider world has not.
