James Coburn has died from a heart attack at the age of 74.
Mr Coburn was listening to music with his wife at his California home, his manager, Hillard Elkins, said.Mr Coburn made his movie debut in Ride Lonesomein 1959 and gained the public's notice a year later when he starred in The Magnificent Seven.
Although he had few lines compared with his other co-stars, film historian Mr Leonard Maltin noted Mr Coburn's mere screen presence grabbed the public's attention.
The actor won a best supporting actor Oscar for his portrait of a dissolute father in Afflictionin 1998.He played sidekicks and villains until the late 1960s when he cashed in on the James Bond mania with the humorous spy spoofs Our Man Flintand In Like Flint.
Such films as The President's Analyst, which he also produced, the Second World War epic The Great Escapeand Golden Girlfollowed.
In the 1980s Mr Coburn all but disappeared from the screen with the onset of arthritis that left one hand crippled.
He said he "healed himself" with pills that had a sulphur base. His knuckles remained gnarled, but he said in a 1999 interview that the pain was gone.
PA