The musician and country-music ambassador has died in Nashville, Tennessee from a heart attack

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

George Hamilton IV, the US country music star, has died aged 77.

The singer, born in North Carolina, suffered a major heart attack at the weekend and died in Nashville, Tennessee.

Hamilton began performing in the 1950s,he was inducted into Nashville’s Grand Old Opry in 1960 and had 40 hits throughout the 1960s and 70s. He also achieved a top five hit in the US with A Rose and a Baby Ruth, which prompted tours with the likes of Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers.

Although known as a country star, Hamilton’s most recent album, released in 2010, was a gospel collection featuring a host of guest artists. In the 1980s, he joined American Christian evangelist Billy Graham at rallies around the globe as a guest singer.

Hamilton brought American country music to international audiences, playing shows in the UK in 1967 and becoming the first country singer to perform in the the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. In 2004, he released an album of songs called Hamilton’s Other Country that paid tribute to Scotland.

Aside from his career in the music industry, Hamilton entered the stage world in 1990, narrating a production of Pasty Cline: The Musical for five years.