Gene Hackman appointed his wife, Betsy Arakawa Hackman, as the beneficiary to his $80 million estate, but her death opens the successor question to Hackman's three adult children and closest living heirs.

A month after the couple died separately in their New Mexico home, an outside party has been appointed as the representative for their estates.

Fresh mystery surrounding the death of Gene Hackman has been sparked after a doctor claimed that his wife, Betsy Arakawa, called his clinic 24 hours after the police said she died. Hollywood icon Hackman was discovered dead in his home along with his wife last month,