Hollywood legend Gene Hackman and his wife have been found dead at their home in the New Mexico city of Santa Fe, police have said.

Hackman, 95, and is wife Betsy Arakawa, 64, were found dead with their dog, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said.

A statement to Sky News said: “We do not believe foul play was a factor in their deaths, however exact cause of death has not been determined at this time.”

Spokesperson Denise Avila said deputies responded to a request to do a welfare check on Wednesday around 1.45pm local time to find the couple and their dog dead at the scene.

Hackman won an Oscar for a leading role in The French Connection, a 1971 action movie by William Friedkin, and another for best supporting actor in Clint Eastwood’s 1992 western, Unforgiven.

He was also known for playing Lex Luthor in the Superman films of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Roles in the Francis Ford Coppola mystery thriller The Conversation and in the historical drama Mississippi Burning, where he starred as an FBI agent alongside Willem Dafoe, helped cement his career as one of Hollywood’s greats.

Long career

The former US Marine appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and the stage, during a lengthy career that started in the early 1960s.

He earned his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde.

He is also remembered for playing Captain Frank Ramsey alongside Denzel Washington in the 1995 thriller Crimson Tide.

In the early 2000s, he starred as an eccentric patriarch in The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson.

Hackman’s final film appearance was in 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, after which he retired from acting and began co-writing adventure novels with friend and underwater archaeologist Daniel Lenihan.

“It’s very relaxing for me,” Hackman told Empire Magazine in 2020. “I don’t picture myself as a great writer, but I really enjoy the process.”

‘He could play anyone’

Michael Caine revered Hackman as “one of the greatest actors” he had known while presenting him with the Cecil B DeMille Award in 2003.

Arakawa was a classical pianist. The couple married in 1991 and lived outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Hackman had three children, Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, with his late ex-wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017.

Star Trek star George Takei said: “We have lost one of the true giants of the screen,” in a tribute on X.

“Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it.

“He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was,” Takei wrote on X.

“He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”

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Irish comedian Dara O Briain called Hackman “the finest screen actor ever”.

“Not a single duff performance, in a long, long career,” he wrote in a post on X.

Hackman was versatile on screen, working with a face that he described to the New York Times in 1989 as that of “your everyday mine worker.”

StudioCanal, the UK arm of the leading European film studio, called Hackman’s death “a colossal loss for cinema” in a tribute posted on X.

Nineties boyband Five are reuniting and will be touring the UK later this year.

The group – made up of Abz Love, J Brown, Ritchie Neville, Scott Robinson and Sean Conlon – haven’t performed together for a quarter of a century.

In their heyday, the platinum-selling band topped charts across the globe and sold more than 20 million records worldwide.

Their 12-date UK arena tour, Keep On Movin’ 2025, will begin in Brighton at the end of October, before travelling to Bournemouth, Cardiff, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and London where they will perform at The O2.

They will perform some of their biggest hits, including If Ya Gettin’ Down, Everybody Get Up and international success When The Lights Go Out.

Fans will also be treated to some of their past number ones, with Keep On Movin’, We Will Rock You, and Let’s Dance also on the playlist.

Speaking ahead of the tour, band member Robinson said: “This has been a long time coming and it really does feel right for all of us now – 25 years on, and we’re so ready for it. Reconnecting as a 5 over the last year has been special and I know I speak for all the boys when I say we can’t wait to do this all over again. Hope you’re ready!!”

Abz Love added: “We really can’t wait to get back on stage together & see the fans, it’s gonna go OFF! Buzzing to have Naughty Boy on tour with us too… 5 bad boys and a naughty boy, that sounds like a lot of fun. Let’s gooooo!”

Formed in 1997, Five is the only UK act to hit the Top 10 with all of their 11 singles, including three number ones. Their first and second albums both went double platinum.

Their tour announcement comes 25 years after the band won their first BRIT Award for best British pop act in 2000.

Tickets go on general sale on 7 March, with a pre-sale from 5 March.

The government has signalled that plans to bring a second runway at Gatwick into regular use will get the green light if environmental conditions are met.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “minded to approve” the airport’s plans but the deadline for a decision had now been pushed back until the end of October.

The main stumbling blocks facing Gatwick’s proposals are related to its provisions for noise prevention and public transport.

The Planning Inspectorate had made recommendations in those two areas after initially rejecting the scheme.

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The airport welcomed the government’s statement but did not say whether it saw a need to adjust its plans to meet the conditions.

Gatwick has until April 24 to respond to the new proposals.

The northern runway already exists at the airport parallel to the main one, but cannot be used at the same time as it is too close.

It is currently limited to being a taxiway and only used for take-offs and landings if the main one has to shut.

Gatwick wants to move it 12 metres further away to solve this problem.

It says being able to run both at the same time would allow around 100,000 more flights per year and create 14,000 jobs.

Gatwick says the £2.2bn project would not need government money, would be 100% privately funded, and could be complete by the end of the decade.

The airport is already the second busiest in the UK, and the busiest single runway airport in Europe.

Campaigners argue the additional traffic would be catastrophic for the environment and the local community in particular.

Today’s update comes after the chancellor said last month the government also supported a third runway at Heathrow as part of its wider effort to bolster UK economic growth.

However, the formal planning process is still to take place.

Gatwick’s additional runway would be unlikely to open until the end of the decade, assuming any legal challenges were swiftly overcome.

A government source told Sky News: “The transport secretary has set out a path to approving the expansion of Gatwick today following the Planning Inspectorate’s recommendation to refuse the original application.

“This is an important step forward and demonstrates that this government will stop at nothing to deliver economic growth and new infrastructure as part of our Plan for Change.

“Expansion will bring huge benefits for business and represents a victory for holidaymakers. We want to deliver this opportunity in line with our legal, environmental and climate obligations.

“We look forward to Gatwick’s response as they have indicated planes could take off from a new runway before the end of this Parliament.”

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick’s chief executive, said: “We welcome today’s announcement that the Secretary of State for Transport is minded to approve our Northern Runway plans and has outlined a clear pathway to full approval later in the year.

“It is vital that any planning conditions attached to the final approval enable us to make a decision to invest £2.2bn in this project and realise the full benefits of bringing the Northern Runway into routine use.

“We will of course engage fully in the extended process for a final decision.”

He added: “We stand ready to deliver this project which will create 14,000 jobs and generate £1bn a year in economic benefits. By increasing resilience and capacity we can support the UK’s position as a leader in global connectivity and deliver substantial trade and economic growth in the South East and more broadly.

“We have also outlined to government how we plan to grow responsibly to meet increasing passenger demand, while minimising noise and environmental impacts.”

A spokesperson for campaign group Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (Cagne) responded: “We welcome the extension by the secretary of state until October as she has obviously recognised the many holes in the Gatwick airport submissions during the planning hearings.

“Cagne do not believe Gatwick has been totally up front with their submissions, and the planning hearings left so many questions unanswered.”

Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, said of the process ahead: “By approving Gatwick’s expansion the government will hang a millstone the size of a 747 around the country’s neck.

“Such a decision would be one that smacks of desperation, completely ignoring the solid evidence that increasing air travel won’t drive economic growth. The only thing it’s set to boost is air pollution, noise, and climate emissions.”