'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' actor Eli Wallach dead

The prolific American actor Eli Wallach, known by many for his role in the "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" over a busy career spanning six decades, has died at the age of 98, US media reports said.

(Getty)

The New York Times said Wallach's death Tuesday was confirmed by his daughter Katherine.

   

Another big movie that the character actor Wallach starred in was the 1960s western "The Magnificent Seven," in which he played a Mexican bandit.

   

Wallach was never nominated for an Oscar but in 2010 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him an honorary one.

Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The academy hailed him as "the quintessential chameleon, effortlessly inhabiting a wide range of characters, while putting his inimitable stamp on every role," the Times reported.

   

At that awards ceremony, the Brooklyn, New York native said: "As an actor I've played more bandits, thieves, warlords, molesters and mafioso than you could shake a stick at," the Hollywood reporter quoted him as saying.