Oscar Winner Gene Hackman and his wife found dead in their home

(Patria) - Actor Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, police said. Hackman won an Oscar for his leading role in William Friedkin's 1971 film The French Connection, and then for best supporting actor in Clint Eastwood's western Unforgiven.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office said in a statement to Sky News that there is currently no evidence of foul play, but the exact cause of death has not yet been determined.

Local media report that the couple died along with their dog.

Hackman (95) won an Oscar for his leading role in William Friedkin's 1971 film The French Connection, and then for best supporting actor in Clint Eastwood's western Unforgiven (1992).

He spent his retirement writing novels, including westerns, crime thrillers, and three installments of historical fiction. He appeared little in public, preferring to spend time at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife Betsy Arakawa. In 2008, he appeared in an episode of The Food Network show as a regular guest at a restaurant in Santa Fe featured on the program.

When asked in the same 2011 interview how he would like to be remembered, Hackman's answer was simple.

"As a decent actor," he said.

"As someone who tried to portray what was given to him in an honest way. I don't know, beyond that. Honestly, I don't think about it that often. I'm at an age where I should be thinking about it."

He was married twice, first to Fay Maltese, with whom he had three children and from whom he divorced in 1986. He married Arakawa in 1991, a classical pianist who was 30 years his junior.