Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The life and career of Jack Klugman

US actor Jack Klugman, who starred in hit TV series in the 1970s and 80s, has died at the age of 90.

He passed away in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, his son Adam said, without giving further details.

Klugman played a no-nonsense medical investigator in Quincy M.E. and a sloppy sports writer in The Odd Couple.

The actor lost his voice to throat cancer in the 1980s but later trained himself to speak again. He returned to acting in the 1990s.

In his later years, he guest-starred on TV series including Third Watch and Crossing Jordan.

Off-screen, he owned racehorses and enjoyed gambling.

"The only really stupid thing I ever did in my life was to start smoking," he said in 1996. He said seeing people smoking on television and films "disgusts me, it makes me so angry - kids are watching".

'Great life'

Klugman's first wife, actress-comedian Brett Somers, played his ex-wife, Blanche, in the Odd Couple series. They married in 1953 and had two sons, Adam and David, but had been estranged for years by the time of her death in 2007.

In February 2008, aged 85, Klugman married long-term partner Peggy Crosby, who was with him when he died Monday.

"He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it and he would encourage others to do the same," son Adam Klugman was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

His brother David added: "His sons loved him very much. We'll carry on in his spirit."

"RIP Jack Klugman. You made my whole family laugh together," actor-director Jon Favreau wrote on Twitter.

"He was a wonderful man and supremely talented actor," wrote actor Max Greenfield. "He will be missed."