Actor Gene Hackman Found Dead

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Good morning. It's five o'clock, straight up. This is your wake up call for Thursday, February twenty seven. February's almost gone. What in the heck is going? It's time speeding up on me? Feels like it is okay. We know that. The big thing today this morning, you probably if you're just waking up, is that Gene Hackman has died. We're going to be talking about that his career. We're going to talk with ABC's Jim Ryan about what happened. He was found in New Mexico along with his wife and

Sata fake County Sheriff's deputies were sent to Hackman's Mountain Side home Wednesday afternoon to check on the welfare of the ninety five year old and his sixty four year old wife. At around one forty five pm, deputies found the couple dead, along with a dog.

ABC's Jim Ryan says officials haven't said how the couple died, but the sheriff did say foul play is not suspected. Hackman's career spanned four decades. He had a trophy case filled with awards, including two Oscars. And you know, he was in so many movies. We're gonna, as I mentioned, we're gonna be talking with Jim Ryan about this, but Will and I were talking about our favorite Gene Hackman movies and he goes, he was the best Lex Luthor and I'm like, oh, yeah, Superman, he was the best.

Hello New West Coast, My West Coast, Costa, Lex, Lutherville, Marinadlex, Odisburg, Odisburg.

And Odisburg. Oh, that was just classic. Thirty seven thousand U S Service and patient care workers are going to be out on strike for a second and final day amid contract talks. The strike started early yesterday, with picketing in all ten u SEE campuses, including UCLA, You See Irvine, and you see medical facilities across the state. Two unions representing the workers claim unfair labor practices. The university has accused them of spreading misinformation and failing to negotiate in

Closing arguments in the trial of seventy four year old judge Jeffrey Ferguson were delivered on Wednesday. Prosecutor say Ferguson shot his wife, Cheryl, while drunk and arguing with her in August of twenty twenty three. If the jury does not acquit Ferguson, it will design whether he is guilty of second degree murder or of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Ferguson testified this week the shooting was an accident. State lawmakers have introduced two bills they say would make California more competitive for the film industry.

The bills, introduced in both chambers in Sacramento, follow Governor Newsom's proposal to increase the state tax credit for Hollywood productions to seven hundred and fifty million dollars. LA Mayor Karen Bass joined lawmakers and industry representatives in support of the legislation.

I don't want to stand here five years from now and reminisce about an industry that.

Has left us.

Productions in LA have slowed in recent years due to COVID actors and writers' strikes and more lucrative tax credits offered elsewhere. Michael Monks KFI News, ok.

So, speaking of Gene Hackman, his list of movies is huge. He started his movie career in nineteen sixty one Mad Dog Call I don't I didn't hear about that one? And then he did a couple more, and then in nineteen sixty seven was Bonnie and Clyde When and that's when he got his first Academy Award nomination. And then let's see what else, the Gypsy Moths. There's a bunch of movies that I don't I was too young to remember. Downhill Racer I never sang for my father. He got

Right?

Yeah? Yeah, I think he was was he? No, he wasn't the father in that one? Was he? He wasn't. I can't remember. It's been forever. Yeah, Okay, Young Frankenstein he had a cameo. And then there was the Fringe connection too. Is that any good? I can't tell you. And of course Superman Lex Luthor he was he was in like one, two, three, four, but one was probably the best Miss Tuchbo car. And then he was in Reds and then Hoosiers was fantastic, that's right, the coach. Yeah.

Well, that's right, and it was attended by someone who was not confirmed by the US Senate, and that's Elon Musk, who is heading up the Department of Government Efficiency. He actually spoke more yesterday during that cabinet meeting than the Vice president did, which is pretty remarkable. I've covered these cabinet meetings for so many years and I can't recall a similar situation where a private citizen attended a president's

Okay, so Burgham, I know Rawlins, I don't what's he's as Secretary.

Of Brooke Rawlins, Yeah, let me correct you.

No, that's fine.

She is she Yes, she is the agricultural Secretary. I said, I think that she has the toughest job right now because of the egg situation in this country. And you know that was my primary focus of that interview is what are you doing? What is the administration doing to bring down the cost of eggs in the short term and make sure that this is not a long term problem in the US. I saw one estimate indicating that we're likely to see prices go even higher in the

I would imagine there will be a lot of spotlight on her. And as you mentioned, the President said specifically, we're going to work on getting those egg prices down, but there's no quick fix to it because they had to kill so many chickens.

Yeah, and that's because of the bird flu, the avian flu, and that's the reason why we're looking to now import eggs from some of the countries that we're actually going to be placing tariffs upon, Canada, Mexico and other places that the US does trade with. So that's the short term fix there. Today, the President meets with his British counterpart, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. That meeting will take place

I think that's kind of business as usual for Trump, though he kind of is moving at warp speed. Hey, they he and mccron were pretty chummy, which you know, they've known each other for a while. Has he met the Prime Minister of the UK yet?

This will be their first meeting. As you know, the President met with quite a few British Prime ministers during the course of his four years in office, but here Starmer is relatively new to the job as the British Prime Minister. So it's a meeting in which they're getting to know each other. In fact, they're going to have a working lunch together that will precede their joint press conference. So that's not something that we saw with the French

Okay, and here's a little inside baseball. As you know that John is our White House correspondent. He gets to get in and interview the President periodically. We'll see how much that happens with the White House's new plan to structure who gets into where. But I know that you were in the Oval the other day and you got a special something from the President.

Well, that's right. You know, what I got was one of the pens that he used to sign an executive order. Yet, why didn't he talk to me the pen? But in actuality, that's the second pen that President Trump has given me. Gave me a pen in his first term. It was the pen that he used to sign that huge tax cut bill in his first year in office. So I guess he likes giving me pens. I don't know, but

I know everybody's kind of losing it over that because it's just different than what it's different.

It's different, that's for sure. And you know what I was looking at and watching Again, I was not in that cabinet meeting yesterday, but I was watching the video and I looked at the body language of the other cabinet secretaries and to me, maybe it's just me looking at this, they didn't seem so amused by Elon Musk. You know, maybe if you can look at that video again, you can tell me what you think. Amy, But to me,

Well, he's going to last budgets.

There's that. And he's the only one in the room that hasn't been confirmed by the US Senate. He's a private citizen, and you know, I think that they view him to some extent as an interloper being at that cabinet meeting yesterday.

All right, well, it'll be interesting to watch as always. You heard the news about Gene Hackman. What was your favorite Gene Hackman movie? Can't talk?

You know, there's so many. I actually watched a Gene Hackman movie within the past few weeks. It's an old one. I don't know if you're familiar with the Conversation. It's a really all one directed by Francis port Cooppola. But I loved Gene Hackman in so many roles. When I think Hollywood casting directors say or said, you know, during the course of the height of his career, I'm looking for a real badass. They go Gene Hackman. He's your guy.

Jafi's White House correspondent John Decker, thanks so much for the information.

Thank you, have a great DAYBU you too.

Let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour new from the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a court order requiring the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in foreign aid. ABC's Nicole Antonio says the ruling came down late last night.

At issue nearly two billion dollars in foreign aid payments the administration has frozen. A lower court judge ordered the government to unfreeze those payments by midnight last night, but in order from Chief Justice John Roberts has now pushed back the deadline so the justices can consider the case.

The AP says the Trump administration is eliminating more than ninety percent of usaid contracts and sixty billion dollars in overall assistance around the world. An Israeli official says the country's military will not withdraw from a strategic corridor in the Gaza Strip, which is part of the ceasefire. The official says Israeli forces needed to remain in the area on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt to

There are lots of childhood rashes and fevers.

This is not that this is a much more serious illness. Doctor Laura Johnson at Covenant Health in Lubbock says, in addition to one death, doctors are treating about two dozen other measles cases that have taken a serious turn. She says many of the infected children are facing serious respiratory problems linked to the virus. Health and Human Services Secretary

Well, but not much really, We don't know a whole lot. But I think you're right. Probably he was ninety five years old. People wouldn't have been too surprised to wake up and find that Gene Hackman had died. But yeah, these unusual circumstances. Not only Gene Hackman, but his wife,

Yeah, your mind can go to many places on this one.

It can, and you can speculate all you want, but I'm not going to do that.

Yeah. And so you said, Gene Hackman was ninety five and his wife was sixty four, and they've been married for quite a while.

Yeah, the early nineties, I think, and fairly soon after they were married, they moved out to Santa Fe. Had been living there quietly in this mountain side home for a long time. Hackman retired from acting. I think it was seventy six years old, so he's been retired for quite a long time and kind of living his life out there. He'd been seen around Santa Fe. He would

I suppose.

Yeah, he was in the Marines, Yes he was, and he was in We got a list of some of the movies and we were going over it earlier. I mean, just the sheer number of spectacular performances.

Yeah, but I mean Stephen and I were saying, I mean he had some movies that were undeniably masterpieces, right, the French connection in Hoosiers. But he was in some bombs too. He was in Superman four The Quest for.

Peace, but he was in Superman one and was fabulous as Lex Luthor. I know it's that Smucker's.

Cigars. What's that from?

Uh cigars?

Yeah, cigars.

I don't remember that.

That sacment is the blind Hermit in Young Frankenstein.

Oh gosh, okay, I got.

A surprise for you, cigars.

Okay, here's a couple more of Crimson Tide. Yeah, that was spectacular with Denzel Washington. I love, love, love that movie.

And get Shorty the firm gets Shorty, right, unforgiven, he's got a long I mean, his resume went for miles and miles. Two Academy Awards yea, and many other accolades, and.

Of course the voice of Home Depot for several years.

Oh yeah, I remember that about that, but I guess he was.

Yeah, okay, I'm gonna leave you to work, you see. Yeah. Well he he, as you mentioned, retired from acting. Said he didn't want to do it anymore. And I found this a quote that somebody asked him. It was GQ back in twenty eleven, Hey, you know, would you consider doing acting again? And he said, well, if I could do it in my own house, maybe without them disturbing anything, and just one or two people, then he'd think about it. I love it. Rest in peace, Gene Hackman. Thanks Jim Ryan, appreciate it.

Hope to learn more later today.

Yeah, thanks sir. Thanks. Police have rated Huntington Parks City Hall and the homes of several officials, including Mayor Karina Masias.

Warts were served on behalf of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office as part of a widespread corruption investigation. DA Nathan Hoffman confirms warrants were served at eleven places. Those also include the homes of current and former city council members.

Kfi's Mark Mayfield says the raids yesterday also included the home of the city manager and a construction company in Glendale. A house cat in San Diego County's contracted bird flu. The Health Department says the cat died after likely getting the H five N one virus from eating rab had food. Kats in Washington, Oregon, and California have all contracted the flu. It has decimated chicken flocks and driven up egg prices

If we were going to put out an economic development plan, it had to be bottom up, not topped out. It had to be informed by unique diversity of each region in the state of California.

Newsom says his plan will help create jobs and grow business. It also includes ways to help LA rebuild from the wildfires.

Not naive about the economic challenges, particularly here in southern California, and that's why I was appropriate today we announced the statewide economic blueprint here in Southern California.

So far, two hundred and eighty seven million dollars has been invested, and Newsom has announced an additional one hundred and forty million in funding. Newsom says the blueprint focuses on what Californians want and their concerns about issues like displacement, macroeconomic changes, what's happening in the global economy, and impacts of tariffs. The Star of Bonnie and Clyde, The French Connection, Hoosiers, No Way Out, and many many other movies. Gene Hackman

Yeah, so this exhibition is traveling. We are the first location to have it after all of the items have been resting in Israel for a cup of years.

So we are also the.

Only location on the West coast, So if you live anywhere west of the Mississippi, you have to come out to the Reagan Library. And it's an extraordinary.

Exhibition that really highlights and showcases these ancient manuscripts that are two thousand years old that cover the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, which is also the Old Testament in the Christian faith, as well as two hundred other objects that really showcase the history and culture of ancient Judaism in the formation of Christianity.

Okay, so these scrolls are what we're used to write the Bible.

These are scrolls that I think sort of either copies of the Bible adaptations of the Bible. But they have found in their excavations of the Judaeian Desert, the entirety of the Jewish Bible, which again is a Testament, with the exception of the Book of Esther and they've actually even found scrolls that cover sections that aren't.

Even in the Bible.

These scrolls are so sensitive to light one thousand years old, they give them to live for another two thousand years, if not longer, and so these scrolls can only be in the light for three months every five years. So this exhibition's currently been open three months.

So if you don't see it now, so you're not going to see it for another yeah, five years, that's right.

So between February twenty six, twenty seven, and twenty eight, these eight scrolls we have on display are all being removed an entire new set of eight scrolls are going in.

Okay, and what language are the scrolls?

And they are almost entirely in Hebrew, however, summer in Greek and summer in Aramaic.

And what's really cool.

Is that the Hebrew scrolls are written in the exact same block Hebrew script that people read.

Today if you can read Hebrew.

So if you can read Hebrew, you can actually see these scrolls and actually build read them.

Okay, I should have brought my mother.

Okay, So now when we go and we look at the actual scrolls, I think that I actually saw them or partial ten fifteen years ago, and I was like.

Oh, that's just a little tiny piece. It's a fragment. So how do you take those fragments and decipher everything?

Right?

So I'm going to answer that in a couple of ways.

Two of the scrolls we have on display, or when you hear the word scroll, it's what you expect.

It's an actual scroll.

However, most of what they found are these little, itty bitty fragments, and it was like puzzle pieces. They spent decades putting these things back together.

In the most, you know, the hardest.

There was no box to follow for the right for the puzzle. And so some of the scrolls that we have are like you said, they're truly fragments of pieces of fragments that made up a larger scroll. Some are like the entirety of a scroll, and so it's just a's sort of fascinating to see that.

Okay, So what are some of the other things you're going to see, Because it's more than the Dead Sea scrolls.

Here, I can share a handful of my favorites.

Okay, what are your So my favorite.

Is probably an actual two ton piece of the Western Wall from Jerusalem. Sometimes you will call it the Whaling Wall, and it has never traveled outside of Israel before, as many of these objects have not, and you actually are allowed to touch it.

And if you've been to Israel and you're.

Familiar with the Western Wall, that's the wall where people go and leave notes and prayers, yep, and spend a moment to reflect.

We allow our guests to do the same thing. He also showed me there were some rocks they're like about this big, But you said that there is significance to these rocks that are rounded. What are those?

So they're actually called ballistic balls? Okay, and they are rocks there as you said about Yay big and they were the actual weapons used through sort of slingshot kind of mentality or science to literally bring down the Second Temple and bring down parts of the Western Wall.

So parts of history are here at the Reagan Library. It's literally how they're very cool. Romans defeated the area. That's okay, we're using. And then there's also pieces of the Jesus boat. I tell us about that.

Yeah, So in nineteen eighty six, the Sea of Galilee do to a drought kind of the water levels decreased, and when the water levels decreased, they found a boat and as they were pulling it out and excavating it, it took almost I think it was like three or four years to excavate, it took ten years to dry out, and once it was dry they did carbon dating, and through carbon dating they were able to prove that the wood from the boat was made as pulled from Lebanon

It could be Jesus, so they call it the Jesus Boat.

Now, the boat itself is intact, but it's really fragile and it doesn't leave Israel. So what they are traveling are wood fragments from.

The boat, and you can actually see those. Yes, how are people responding to this? I mean, I don't know if you can tell this video. It's very crowded. It's Tuesday, and it's very crowded.

We've been getting really large crowds. It's really wonderful to see, you know. I had thought that maybe we'd get a strong Jewish audience because again, these scrolls are in Hebrew and they're from Jerusalem. And what I'm really finding is that we're getting a really big Christian base because a lot of people do believe that these are the early formations of Christianity, and it really gets at the history

I love going back into history. Melissa Giller, thank you so much for your time this morning. House Dead Sea Scrolls at the Reagan Library. That's where we are out and about this week. The exhibition goes through September second, and again she mentioned that the scrolls swap out, so the next swap they're doing one like this weekend, and then the next time they swap is in June, so you would actually see different scrolls because they can only have a limited number of them out there, and as

This is definitely eye opening because more than five more than nine million, not four million, nine million folks are currently behind on their payments.

So there's a company. Are they just not paying at all or because they know they kind of paused any kind of consequences or punishments during the pandemic, But so did people just stop paying and not start restart? Yeah?

See, see what happened was during we had that big long break during the pandemic, and then the student loan bills restart in twenty twenty three. But bar's got that one year grace period from having the worst repercussions, so some of them it took them a little bit longer to be able to start paying for things. But now those who don't make the payments can be reported to

So if you have to pay, you should be paying now.

The Vantage Score, which is this credit scoring firm, they say that they could see people who are behind on their bills, that their credit score could drop by as much as one hundred and twenty nine points. And they expect and this is another crazy stat they expect two point three million people to see their scores dip below six hundred and that's the threshold to being considered subprime.

So yeah, you know it makes me want to buy a house. Yeah, makes things a lot harder for so many different things, including like renting a property now because they check your credit score to make sure that you're going to pay your bills.

Definitely. I talk once in a while about my brother. My brother works in property management, and he says a lot of people come in from great schools and they have so much debt, most of the debt being in student loans, that he just they are not qualified because of the amount of debt that they have, so he says it's unfortunate. He thinks eventually they would be good,

Okay, yesterday you said that we were watching to see what was going to happen with in video. What happened and how did it affect the market?

Well, they reported after the bell, the big chip maker, and it was good, not great, but enough for investors to be satisfied, and that's why we are seeing shares

All right, there, we are getting in your business with Bloomberg's Courtney Donaho. Courtney, thank you so much. We'll talk to you tomorrow, see you later. Okay, when we come back. What if you could give your papa pill and they'd live longer. Apparently that technology is right around the corner. So we're going to be talking about a clinical trial called Stay. It's apparently a real possibility. Gene Hackman has been found dead along with his wife and their dog

You've been talking about the Queen again.

On Independent's Day.

For the Unforgiven, Gene Heckman was ninety five. The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits last week has jumped to a two hundred and forty two thousand. That's a three month high. And if your heart stops beating, your watch can tell you about it. The FDA has approved a feature on the Pixel three watch. The feature detects if you have a pulse. If a pulse isn't detected, the watch will say hey, are you okay, and if you don't respond, it'll call nine one one for you.

Okay, worry I have I have never had an instance in my life where somebody's pronounced it right on the first try.

Well, yeah, I was going to try, and then I forgot to pre read it again and well anyway, so, uh Seline, thanks so much for coming on today. We were very fascinated about this story because we love our pets. We wish that they we could have them longer, and now there may be a way. So tell us about what this new clinical trial is and what we're looking for.

Yeah, so we are developing a drug that, if it gets approved, you'll be able to go to your vet and de prescribed a drug that's only use case to keep your relatively healthy senior dog healthier longer. So we're basically trying to help senior dogs have a higher quality of life and a longer life too.

And what does the pill do that enables him to live longer and healthier.

So the kind of cornerstone of lifespan extension has been understand is colork restriction. Actually, so you could there's a really interesting study by the dog food company Purina that showed that you could expend a lifespan sorry that's my dog, extend the lifespan of labradors by two years if you colorqically restrict at them. But literally, no one wants to

So, and when you're talking about extending lives, you said for a laboratory it's like two years. And is the goal then just longevity or is it to have them longer and have them healthier because you know, if they're if they can't move and that kind of stuff, do you really want to have them longer?

You know?

Yeah, the way to think about it is pulling out the healthy middle years. So yes, absolutely longer and healthier.

And is this only for dogs? Are you looking at other at cats or just dogs?

Well, my kitten is also running around and we have a contingency at a company that are heavy cat people, so we would consider cats too. I think it's definitely going to be on the docket, but we're currently focusing on dogs right now.

Okay. So, and you are you have to get approval before you can start doing this from governmental organizations, So how do you go about getting that.

Oh, well, it's a lot of work. We've been working on it for about five years. So yeah, it's actually like a it's like a human drug that you might get from your doctor. Right, you have to get FDA approval on you know, does it work, is it safe? And we are running through those processes and we're hopefully we're projecting FDA approval at the end of this year.

Okay, And you are doing a study and is that before the FDA approval where you're doing some trials or does that come after.

It's in parallel actually, okay, so yeah, we are running in parallel to the drug being on market. We are going to have about a thousand dogs in the US that are going to be followed for five or more years to look at Okay, how long does this extend our lifespan? And how how do they age over the years of being on this drug?

Okay, and you're looking you're going to do a thousand dogs. You have all the dogs you need or do you need more?

We're pretty close, but we could take some more. We could always take more dogs. And we have a couple of sites local in the area too. We have Plaza to the animal torrents. We have one a Norco one in Santa Clarita. If you're a dog owner and you're interested in being a part of a really important canine longevity study, you can go on our website loyal dot com and dropping your zip code and find all the study sites.

Okay, So if you're interested in participating, and then does it also have information about this if people want to find out more about the new drug and where it's at, is that also? Okay?

So that's Lloyd a lot of cute dog photos and.

Lots of cute dog photos, which is so important. Okay. So it's loyal dot com and we've we've been talking to the founder and CEO of Loyal and I'm just going to say it's Selene, perfect all right, Thank you so much. Selene. Again, if you want more information, Loyal dot com is where to find it. Good luck. I think it would be wonderful if our furry friends could live longer and hang out with us for longer periods of time.

Thanks, thank you, all.

Right, Thanks Selene. I want to say congratulations to Travis in Hysperia, Robert in Laverne, John in Riverside, Kim in u Kaipa and Leslie in West Covina. All winners of tickets to go see Lyle Lovett coming to the Critos Center for the Performing Arts on March sixth at seven point thirty, and you can get tickets. If you didn't just win them, you can get them at Critoscenter dot com. And let me tell you if you go, you're in

Santa Fe County Sheriff A Don Mendoza confirmed that the ninety five year old Hackman, his sixty four year old wife, and their dog were all found dead in their home. Despite that, Mendoza says no foul play is suspected.

ABC's Jim Ryans is the deaths were discovered yesterday afternoon when deputies did a welfare check at the couple's home. Hackman retired in the early two thousands. He'd been nominated five times for Academy Awards. He won twice for the French Connection and again for Unforgiven. The awards came twenty one years apart. Two teenagers have been arrested in connection with smash and grab robberies at the Anelope Valley Mall. Police say the first robbery happened February sixth at Kay's Jewelers.

The acknowledgments aren't new. LA County starts its supervisors meeting with one every week, but City Councilman John Lee says the acts lack any real direct action to make life better for Native Americans. Unfortunately, sometimes these non acknowledgements have become performative platitudes, and honestly, they don't address today's realities.

And thousands people around the US are expected to run for wildfire victims on Saturday. Runners are being invited to log their miles on the workout app Strava for the Together LA Wildfire Relief Run. It'll raise money for the communities devastated by last month's fires in LA. It's the first event leading up to the fortieth LA Marathon, which happens March sixteenth. LA Marathon organizers say Recovery is a marathon,