SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – While Gene Hackman’s longtime business partner Dough Lanham awaits answers regarding the legendary actor’s mysterious death, he is left with fond memories, including the time the Oscar winner settled a golf bet with a toolbox full of pennies.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, Dough Lanham explained that the mysterious deaths have him asking a lot of questions and yearning for answers. Authorities have said Hackman and Arakawa had been dead for several days when they were discovered in their secluded home, but have not released a cause of death.
“She’s incredible,” Lanham said of Arakawa. “Her love for animals, her love for her German Shepherds, was unbelievable. They were the loves of her life and that’s why the news from the past couple of days is really unnerving, hard to understand. Hopefully we get some answers.”
Lanham told Fox News Digital that Hackman and Arakawa were “very, very private until you got to know them.”
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Lanham told Fox News Digital that it’s “too hard” to narrow down just how Hackman will be remembered. He decided instead to tell a fond memory he has of the late star.
“They were the loves of her life and that’s why the news from the past couple of days is really unnerving, hard to understand. Hopefully we get some answers.”
“Let me tell a story. This is Gene. We used to play a lot of golf, and we’d have friendly wagers, and it was Gene, Tom Allen, myself and. And Gene was notorious for kind of welching on the bets.
“So finally I said, ‘Gene, how about some cash, buddy?’ and he just kind of gave me that Gene Hackman look and shook his head, didn’t say anything. Well, about a week later, I was in my office and the hostess came back and said ‘Mr. Hackman’s here’ and I said ‘Oh, great. What table are they?’ and they said ‘No, he’s got this big toolbox and it’s on wheels, and he’s coming to your office.’
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“I said ‘What!’ So he pulls up, opens the door, he’s got this huge, huge toolbox on wheels. He said ‘Here. Here’s your bet. Enjoy it. And there’s a note inside.’ He turned around and walked out,” Lanham said.
“Well, I opened the toolbox and there was probably $700 worth of pennies. And then there was this document that he had tucked inside about his feelings about having to pay this bet. So we called him Captain Hollywood,” Lanham concluded.
It had been five or six years since Lanham had seen the couple, but he told Fox News Digital about the time he first met them and what sparked their partnership.
“We actually met here in the restaurant. A mutual friend was having lunch with Gene and Betsy, and he introduced us. He was quite interested in the restaurant and the food,” Lanham said.
“Betsy’s a wonderful chef in her own right, just an incredible person. So, like an idiot, I said ‘Hey, we’re gonna be cooking tomorrow, would you all like to join us?’ and they said ‘Oh yeah, that would be great.’ I said, ‘Okay, let’s see what happens tomorrow.’”
Lanham recounted that at “exactly 2 o’clock” Betsy and Hackman walked into the restaurant with a “cooler full of food” that Hackman’s wife was going to prepare for everyone.
A criminal investigation into the death of Hackman and his wife was launched Wednesday after New Mexico authorities deemed the deaths, and that of one of their dogs, suspicious.
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Detectives believe the circumstances surrounding the death of Hackman and his wife, a classical pianist, require a thorough search and investigation. Officials confirmed no external trauma was seen on either Hackman or Arakawa, and the case remains open pending autopsy and toxicology results.
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The bodies of Hackman and Arakawa tested negative for carbon monoxide poisoning and the Oscar-winning actor likely died about nine days before his body was discovered by authorities, officials have revealed.
During a news conference Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed the last event noted on Hackman’s pacemaker was Feb. 17. When asked if Feb. 17 — nine days before his body was found — could be the day Hackman died, Mendoza noted that was a logical conclusion.
“According to the pathologist, I think that is a very good assumption that that was his last day of life,” Mendoza said. He also confirmed after a discussion with the medical examiner that Hackman and his wife “tested negative for carbon monoxide.”
“The manner and cause of death has not been determined.”
“The manner and cause of death has not been determined,” Mendoza said.
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Jinja Bar & Bistro executive chef Fernando Flores shared details with Fox News Digital about what it was like to have Hackman as a boss.
WATCH: Gene Hackman was a ‘really nice’ boss at Santa Fe restaurant he co-owned
“When I met him, I got a little impressed by him because he was really, for me, somebody really important. So, I tried not to ask too many questions and listen to what he said. He was a really nice person,” Flores told Fox News Digital.
Lanham told Fox News Digital that over the years, Hackman created artwork that is now displayed inside the restaurant. His first piece was a large mural that the actor was unsure if he’d be able to create.
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“So we brought it down, had it framed,” Lanham said of the mural. “Gene wouldn’t come look at it. We said, ‘Gene, this thing is gorgeous, everyone’s talking about it.’ Now Betsy came in, ‘Gene, it’s beautiful.’ A couple of months later, he came in, took a quick look, left, and that was it on the mural. But we’ve had it for probably 20 years now, and that’s the story.”
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Giang-Paunon contributed to this report.
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