Gene Hackman’s Grave Still Lacks Headstone as Estranged Kids Enter Estate Fight

Over a year after Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home, his three estranged children have yet to place a proper headstone on their father’s grave.

Hackman and Arakawa were buried in the Santa Fe Memorial Gardens, but the only evidence of a grave is a single conch shell placed by a tree where the couple was laid to rest.

Court papers obtained by the Daily Mail on Monday, March 9, show that his three children – Christopher, 66, Elizabeth, 64, and Leslie, 59 – have filed to be recognized as interested parties in the probate case involving their father’s will and multimillion dollar estate.

Hackman’s will excluded the three children from inheriting any of his $90 million fortune.

Instead, The Royal Tenenbaums actor opted to leave everything to Arakawa, who he married in 1991. However, Arakawa made no mention of Hackman’s children in her will either.

According to documents obtained by People, Arakawa specified that if she and Hackman died within 90 days of one another, the assets would go to a charity “to achieve purposes beneficial to the community, consistent with the charitable preferences and interests expressed or indicated by my spouse and me during our lifetimes.”

Hackman was married to their mother Faye Maltese for over 30 years before divorcing in 1986. Faye later died at the age of 88 in 2017. While the specifics of the Unforgiven star’s estrangement from his kids has never been revealed, he previously spoke about the difficulties of having a family while being in the spotlight.

“You become very selfish as an actor,” he told The New York Times in 1989, per BBC. “Even though I had a family, I took jobs that would separate us for three or four months at a time. The temptations in that, the money and recognition, it was too much for the poor boy in me.”