LOS ANGELES, July 9: Veteran screen actor Rod Steiger, who won an Academy Award for his role as a bigoted small-town sheriff in the 1967 film “In the Heat of the Night”, died on Tuesday, his publicist said. He was 77.

The actor, who was born in April 1925, died of kidney failure and pneumonia, his publicist, Lori De Waal said.

Steiger, known for the meticulous craft that he brought to his acting, also was remembered for playing Marlon Brando’s racketeer brother in “On the Waterfront” (1954), the lovelorn lout Jud in “Oklahoma!” (1955), the Jewish shopkeeper in Harlem in “The Pawnbroker” (1965) and the bad guy in “Doctor Zhivago” (1965).

Steiger made more than 100 movies in his long career, including “The Longest Day” (1962) and “Lucky Luciano” in 1974.

—AFP