Bottoms' brothers - Timothy, Joseph and Ben - also became actors

US actor Sam Bottoms, best known for his role as surfer-turned-soldier Lance B Johnson in Apocalypse Now, has died of brain cancer at the age of 53.

The third of four actor brothers, he was remembered as "handsome, tall... and very sweet-natured" by that film's director Francis Ford Coppola.

"Sam was a good actor who seemed right for that part," he continued.

Bottoms, who died on Tuesday, made his film debut at 15 alongside his brother Timothy in The Last Picture Show.

While visiting his sibling in Texas, he was spotted by director Peter Bogdanovich and cast as a disabled boy forced to lose his virginity to a prostitute.

Producer

Bottoms went on to appear in Clint Eastwood westerns The Outlaw Josey Wales and Bronco Billy before reuniting with Coppola on Gardens of Stone.

In recent years he was seen in Seabiscuit, Shopgirl and SherryBaby, in which he played the father of Maggie Gyllenhaal's troubled title character.

Born in Santa Barbara, California in 1955, Bottoms began acting in local theatre productions at the age of 10.

He is survived by second wife Laura Bickford, a producer whose films include the Oscar-winning Traffic and two-part biopic Che.



