This gets sadder every day. Such a wonderful actor and such a tragic end for him, his wife and the poor dog, clearly dead from starvation, unable to get out of his vet cage. It looks like the wife collapsed just after coming back from the vet and died without being able to do anything. And Gene knew nothing. Isn't dementia awful?

Yes so sad. I'm surprised they didn't have a carer in for Hackman; but there we are: she probably prided herself on doing it all.

It is terribly sad and tragic. I wonder if Gene Hackman also hadn't eaten in his final days if his wife was his carer. One can only hope that, if he didn't, he didn't suffer and wasn't compos mentis enough to be in a distraught state at the end.

No pride just love I think from the wife who seems to have been a wonderful carer and could never have guessed she'd be struck down before him. And before the dog. Awful, tragic tale.

Dreadfully sad. A truly great man taken so cruelly.

Awful to think Gene was on his own for days without his loving wife.

hedda wrote:
Awful to think Gene was on his own for days without his loving wife.

Probably like thousands of others but has they have status they don't get a mention.

JK2006 wrote:
No pride just love I think from the wife who seems to have been a wonderful carer and could never have guessed she'd be struck down before him. And before the dog. Awful, tragic tale.

I didn't mean pride in a pejorative sense; rather, pride born out of love.

Green Man wrote:
hedda wrote:
Awful to think Gene was on his own for days without his loving wife.

Probably like thousands of others but has they have status they don't get a mention.

a reasonable point. Ancient me is having so much trouble to access government services for the elderly but others are worse off.

Just filling in forms is a nightmare. I always remember my dear NYC pal when applying for welfare in the 70s (actually quite generous in the US) and that he said you needed a College education to understand the forms to fill in.

I'm a bit puzzled by Hackman's daughters who apparently hadn't seen him for months. Was their a family rift?

Also surprised that at his advanced age and with wealth, he didn't have a live-in or daily carer,