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Daniel and Barbara Lenihan, longtime friends of Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa, reveal the last conversation their family had with the actor and his wife.

Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 64, were found dead at their home in Santa Fe Summit, N.M., on Wednesday, Feb. 26. A police investigation into their cause of death is ongoing.

The Lenihans and their children were neighbors and friends of the actor and his pianist wife, living 10 minutes from their New Mexico home. Daniel, 79, first met Hackman in 1992. They formed a close relationship with both the actor and Arakawa, whom they described as “just very kind people.”

The Lenihans exclusively tell PEOPLE that the final time they heard from the couple was when their son Brendan, 41, spoke with Betsy “two to three weeks ago” about the upcoming birth of his second child.

“[Brendan] was telling Betsy it was a boy, and she was very excited,” Barbara, 75, told PEOPLE. “It wasn’t a real long message, but then Brendan was hoping to hear back again soon.”

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Barbara fondly remembers Hackman as being a “Renaissance man” and Arakawa being “sharp” as well as “funny, very witty.” Reflecting on his friendship with Hackman, Daniel said the word that comes to mind when thinking of the actor was “intense.”

AP Photo/Lutz Schmidt

“Gene’s a fellow that when he had an idea come up about something that we were going to write or do, or something he just wanted to do, you could tell from his voice that he had such an idea and he would just lay it out like it’s something that God Almighty had demanded be done,” Daniel shared.

Their other son Aaron, 38, adds that he and his brother Brendan “really looked up to Gene.”

“He was always extremely kind to us, but everyone else I ever saw him interact with, I think he was very honest, had a lot of integrity. He was an incredible artist. He taught my brother and I to paint some, and the two of them were always so thoughtful.”

Several questions remain unanswered about Hackman and Arakawa’s deaths.

Though police first shared there was no foul play suspected, they’ve since concluded that suspicious findings — including a knocked-over heater, open pill bottle and dogs running around the house — warrant a “thorough search and investigation,” per an affidavit for a search warrant.

According to the Santa Fe County Sheriff, Hackman’s pacemaker was last operational on Feb. 17, suggesting the Oscar-winning actor had been dead for nine days before he and his wife were discovered.

Before the couple died, they had been living a private life for years. The Superman actor and Arakawa were last spotted together during a rare outing on March 28, 2024. Hackman was pictured holding onto Arakawa’s arm as the pair grabbed lunch together at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen in Santa Fe.

Hackman was a two-time Academy Award winner, receiving a Best Actor Oscar for The French Connection and one for Best Supporting Actor in Unforgiven. Arakawa was a classical pianist. The pair married in 1991.