Betsy Arakawa is a former classical pianist best known as the wife of Gene Hackman, an American retired actor and author. Arakawa was born in Hawaii.

Quick Facts

She is the second wife of Gene Hackman.

For three decades, her husband was married to his first wife, Faye Maltese. Hackman and his first wife, Maltese, met in New York City when Hackman was 25 and struggling as an actor, and Maltese was working as a bank clerk. It was love at first sight for the couple, who married on New Year’s Eve 1956 at the Pasadena Playhouse Theater after a year of dating. Hackman enrolled in acting school at Pasadena Playhouse Theater when the couple moved to California.

Maltese has been with Hackman since the beginning of his career. They returned to New York after Hackman was kicked out of the acting program due to poor grades. Hackman then began training twice a week with George Morrison, a graduate of Lee Strasberg’s acting school. In 1964, Hackman co-starred with Warren Beatty in the movie Any Wednesday. During an interview, Hackman admits to being an absent parent because he was preoccupied with his growing job. He said that despite having a family, he chose a job that required him to be away for three or four months at a time.

After nearly three decades of friendship, Hackman and Maltese decided to part ways. In 1986, their divorce was formalized. However, the cause of their separation remains unclear. The mother of Hackman’s three children, Christopher, Elizabeth and Leslie, Hackman’s first wife, died in April 2017 at the age of 88. Because there was no mention of her illness or accident, it is believed that her death was a natural death.

Marriage & Children

Arakawa married her husband in December 1991 and she is 30 years her junior. According to the reports, they initially met at a fitness club in Los Angeles where she worked part-time. Hackman and his first wife were previously divorced, which is why he was not officially divorced at the time. Despite being married to her husband for nearly three decades, she has no children with him. She is a stepmother to her husband’s three children, with whom she has a very strong bond.

For the 50th anniversary of “The French Connection,” Hackman granted a rare interview.

At the age of 74, Hackman announced his retirement from acting. Prior to his retirement, there was no press release, notice or anything. During an interview with Empire, Hackman revealed that his retirement was due to health issues. According to him, the straw that broke the camel’s back was a stress test he took, where the doctor told him his heart wasn’t healthy enough to be stressed.

He also didn’t want to waste his time on things like watching DVDs his wife rented, fishing and painting, so he pursued a second profession as an author. His passion for writing started when he composed a handful of monologues for his son Christopher, who wanted to become an actor one day. He loved to write. Where am I going with these three things? What am I doing? What am I looking for? His three basic things that can take you a long way as an actor and as a writer, he added.

Hackman and Arawaka have led a quiet life away from the spotlight since his retirement. On the 50th anniversary of “The French Connection,” the movie that won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, Hackman conducted an email interview.

Filmmaking has always been dangerous, both physically and emotionally, but he chooses to see that film as a blip in a long line of successes and failures. He also stated that he had not seen the film since its first screening 50 years ago in a dark, small viewing room in a post-production company’s facility and that if the film has a legacy, he is not sure what it is. time seemed to be a reverent tale of a cop who was simply able to solve and stop a major crime family’s attempt to infiltrate the New York drug scene for him. In addition, he said that the photo has undoubtedly helped him in his career, for which he is grateful.

Net value

Her net worth is still being calculated. We now know the net worth of her husband, one of the greatest artists of all time, Gene Hackman. He has received nearly 30 awards in his six decades in the entertainment world, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs, and a Silver Bear. He has an incredible net worth of $80 million.