NEW YORK, July 21 (UPI) -- Emmy-winning actor Jack Warden, best known for playing gruff but likeable characters for five decades, has died in New York at 85.
Warden -- who won an Emmy for his performance as football legend George Halas in the 1971 TV movie "Brian's Song" -- also received two Oscar nominations during a career in which he appeared in more than 100 films.
He died Wednesday at a New York hospital, his business manager, Sidney Pazoff, told The Los Angeles Times. Pazoff said he did not know the cause of death but said that Warden, who had been living in Manhattan, had been in poor health for months.
Warden's breakthrough movie performance came as an impatient juror who wanted to decide a case quick so he could go to a ballgame, in the 1957 courtroom drama, "12 Angry Men." He was nominated for supporting actor Oscars for two films he made with Warren Beatty -- "Shampoo" (1975) and "Heaven Can Wait" (1978).
Warden appeared on network TV in the 1950s in "Mr. Peepers," and starred in "Crazy Like a Fox" in the 1980s.
Warden married actress Vanda Dupre in 1958. They separated in the 1970s, but never divorced, Pazoff said.
Warden is survived by his companion Marucha Hinds, his son and two grandchildren, the Times reported.
