LONDON: Irish actor Pierce Brosnan said on Tuesday that his 41-year-old daughter Charlotte had died after a three year battle with ovarian cancer, the same disease that killed his first wife more than 20 years ago.

Brosnan, 60, who was the fifth actor to take on the role of the fictional British spy 007 in the James Bond movies, said his daughter died last Friday, leaving behind her husband and two children.

Charlotte's mother was Brosnan's first wife, Australian actress Cassandra Harris, who died from the same type of cancer at the age of 43 in 1991.

"Charlotte fought her cancer with grace and humanity, courage and dignity. Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our beautiful dear girl," Brosnan said in a statement.

"We pray for her and that the cure for this wretched disease will be close at hand soon."

Brosnan adopted Charlotte and her brother Christopher in the 1980s after their father died and they took his surname. He went on to have another son, Sean, with Harris.

Brosnan married Keely Shaye Smith in 2001 and the couple has two children.

Angelina Jolie revealed in May that she underwent a double mastectomy after discovering she carried a gene that increased her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, the same disease that killed her mother Marcheline Bertrand age 56.