LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Actor Henry Gibson, who played roles ranging from loopy poets to vengeful Illinois Nazis and cranky judges during a 40-year film and television career, has died at age 73, his representatives said Wednesday.

Henry Gibson had a role as a neo-Nazi in the cult movie classic "The Blues Brothers."

Gibson was a regular on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," where he was known for popping up to read short, humorous poems during the show's 1968-71 run.

He was a frequent guest star on television shows from the 1970s through the mid-2000s, with a recurring role as a judge on ABC's "Boston Legal" as late as 2008.

His movie roles included turns in two of director Robert Altman's 1970s films, "Nashville" and "The Long Goodbye," and as the neo-Nazi leader pursuing John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in "The Blues Brothers."

No details of his death were immediately available, said Peter Gross, a spokesman Talentworks LA, which represented Gibson.



CNN's Doug Ganley contributed to this report.