Oscar-winning US actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, according to reports.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, he received two Academy Awards, two Baftas, four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

A statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff in New Mexico said: "We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail.

"This is an active investigation - however, at this time we do not believe that foul play was a factor."

Hackman won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's 1971 thriller The French Connection, and another for best-supporting actor for playing Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven in 1992.

His other Oscar-nominated roles were in the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde, as Buck Barrow, in 1970's I Never Sang for My Father, and as the agent in Mississippi Burning (1988).

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed the news to local media just after midnight on Wednesday that the couple had died, along with their dog.

Hackman was aged 95 and his wife 63.

Mr Mendoza said in an interview that there was no immediate indication of foul play.

But he did not provide a cause of death or say when the couple might have died.

"All I can say is that we're in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant."

Much celebrated actor Hackman played more than 100 rules including Lex Luthor in Superman movies in the 1970s and 1980s.

He also starred in the hit movies Runaway Jury and The Conservation, as well as Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums.

His last big screen appearance came as Monroe Cole in Welcome to Mooseport in 2004.