Gene Hackman's death being treated as 'suspicious'

Police have said that the deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife are "suspicious".

It was initially widely reported there were no signs of foul play, but new information has revealed there was an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on a countertop near Arakawa in the couple's Santa Fe home.

A search warrant has revealed the deaths were "suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation", according to AFP.

The Academy Award-winning actor, his classical pianist wife Betsy Arakawa, and the couple's dog were found dead in different rooms of their home in New Mexico on Wednesday.

Hackman was found dead in a mudroom, while Arakawa was found in a bathroom next to a space heater, detectives said.

According to local media, police officers arrived at the couple's home in a gated community to investigate the deaths of two elderly people and a dog. It remains unclear whether police were responding to a report or if they were making a welfare check, local media reported.

Hackman won Academy Awards for the violent 1971 drug saga The French Connection and the 1992 western Unforgiven.

Living outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, he was married twice and had three children.

Hackman married Arakawa in 1991.