Summary Harry Dean Stanton died at a Los Angeles hospital on Friday at age 91.
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Harry Dean Stanton, whose grizzled looks and acclaimed acting talent earned him a prolific Hollywood career playing mainly supporting roles, died at a Los Angeles hospital on Friday. He was 91 years old.
He "passed away from natural causes" at Cedars-Sinai medical center, according to his agent John S Kelly.
Despite over 150 television and film appearances spanning six decades, including roles in the "Alien," "The Green Mile," "Pretty in Pink" and "The Avengers," Stanton was not a household name -- though his weathered, drooping face is instantly recognizable.
One of his rare leading roles came in the 1984 road movie "Paris, Texas" where his turn as a father suffering from amnesia helped director Wim Wenders win the 1984 Palme D Or.
A close friend of Hollywood luminaries Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn and Marlon Brando, the drinker and smoker worked with David Lynch on TV s "Twin Peaks."
"The great Harry Dean Stanton has left us. There went the great one," the filmmaker Lynch wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.
Stanton s more recent work includes playing polygamist patriarch Roman Grant in TV s "Big Love" and a voice role in animated feature "Rango" with Johnny Depp.
A keen musician, he also founded the eclectic "The Harry Dean Stanton Band" known for its mix of mariachi, jazz and other genres.
