Santa Fe, New Mexico-Genne Hackman was a lot, especially a winning actor of awards, but what many do not know is that Hackman loved a good joke.
His friend and his ex Business partner Doug Lanham, 76, said he played Golf with Hackman, and while on the course, they would bet – something he said Hackman never thought it was a good idea.
Lanham told NBC News that after a couple of years, he asked Hackman to collect the $ 22 owned.
Of course, Hackman repaired his friend, in the Pennies worth $ 22, entered the restaurant they owned together in a large chest, Lanham recalled, along with a note he read: “I paid this debt under protest after judging it from elderly people.” Hackman signed the letter “Captain Hollywood”, a nickname called his friends.
Lanham and Hackman met years ago, when Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, entered Lanham, Jinja Bistro in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a mutual friend. Lanham said he invited the couple again the next day to cook at his restaurant, and the couple were forced.
“We cooked and we had a lot of fun and at one point Gene and Betsy … they said ‘we want to invest,” and out of losing a quarter of dollars [in the first year] We said ‘this is a great idea, “” Lanham recalled.
They were business partners for almost 10 years, Lanham said.
Hackman and Arakawa were found dead in separate rooms of Santa Fe, New Mexico, at home on Wednesday. Officials have called their deaths “suspicious”.
One of the couple’s dogs – a female German shepherd named Bear, according to Lanham – was found dead in a Kennel, while two others were found alive on property.
The cause and manner of death have not been determined, the Santa Fe district sheriff’s office said on Friday.
An initial autopsy showed no sign of external trauma either for Hackman or Arakawa, and the couple had negatively tested carbon monoxide poisoning, Sheriff Adan Mendoza said on Friday. Results from toxicology tests and complete autopsy are pending.
Hackman is likely to die on February 17 – his last Pacemaker date recorded a “event”, Mendoza said. He previously said the couple had died “enough time” until they were found.
Hackman and Arakawa were very private people, something Mendoza said on Friday there are complicated efforts to unite a time limit of their last days, and which Lanham repeated.
Lanham discussed how the couple helped many local businesses financially, “but always under radar,” he said, because they did not want or needed credit. The same goes for 14 original works of art Hackman painted that line of jinja walls – none of them is signed; Another effort by the Hollywood icon to remove concentration away from itself.
“It is heartbroken, it’s startling,” Lanham said about their death and the mystery that surrounds them. “They were so dignified and to read about it, to hear about it, there is no way to connect the points when you know them as people.”
Lanham waited for his friend to die one day – Hackman was 95 at the time of his death – “but not like this,” he said.
“Totally is completely out of the realm of everything you would associate with both and that’s what just brings you to your knees,” he said.
‘Ordinary man’
Lanham said “it was just a privilege” to be friends with Hackman, whom he called “the best”.
“When there was trust and that door opened, it was amazing,” Lanham said.
He said Hackman had a “gold heart” and said he was “very lucky” for their years of friendship.
Stuart Ashman, a friend of Hackman’s classes through Pilates and works at the Georgia O’KEFFE museum, said one of the most impressive things about Hackman is how when he spoke, he really wanted to get to know you. Lanham said the same thing.
“He was the ordinary man,” Ashman told Hackman. “He was very easy to go, he really liked life. I think. And he was really interested in everything, everything and everyone.”
Ashman said that Hackman “really added the Santa Fe structure in a great way.”
In a statement, Jesse Kesler, the couple’s personal contractor, thanked them “for the 16 years of opportunities, friendship and faith”.
He especially thanked Hackman for borrowing a hand on projects and for treating the son and his employees as equal.
He said when Hackman was at work, he was just one of the boys.
“I couldn’t believe at the time when I was actually working side by side with a legend,” Kesler said.
Dana Griffin reported from Santa Fe and Rebecca Cohen from New York City.