'Full Monty' star Tom Wilkinson dies aged 75
Two-time Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson, who starred in The Full Monty about a group of unemployed steel workers who launched new careers as strippers, died "suddenly" on Saturday.
The British actor's death was confirmed in a statement released by his agent on behalf of his family. He was 75.
"It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30. His wife and family were with him."
Wilkinson was nominated for Academy Awards for actor in a leading role for In The Bedroom in 2001, and for a supporting role in "Michael Clayton" in 2007.
He most recently reunited with his Full Monty co-stars, Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy, in a Disney+ series of the same name.
The original 1997 smash hit about an unlikely group of men stripping won an Oscar for best original musical or comedy score and was nominated for three others, including best picture and best director.
Wilkinson’s character played ex-foreman Gerald Cooper who was recruited to help the unemployed men dance.
The actor also took a home Best Supporting Actor BAFTA for the role.
Carlyle paid tribute to his co-star calling him a "real titan of an actor, one of the greats of not only his, but of any generation".
Wilkinson won a 2009 Golden Globe and 2008 Emmy for his role as American political figure Benjamin Franklin in the HBO series John Adams, opposite Paul Giamatti.
He was also known for his roles in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens novel Martin Chuzzlewit; the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility; the 2014 Wes Anderson comedy drama The Grand Budapest Hotel; and 2011 ensemble comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. (AFP)