He played supporting roles in Alien and The Green Mile

Harry Dean Stanton, whose grizzled looks and acclaimed acting talent earned him a prolific Hollywood career playing mainly supporting roles, died at a Los Angeles hospital on Friday. He was 91 years old.

He “passed away from natural causes” at Cedars-Sinai medical centre, according to his agent John S. Kelly.

Despite over 150 television and film appearances spanning six decades, including roles in the Alien, The Green Mile, Pretty in Pink and The Avengers, Stanton was not a household name — though his weathered, drooping face is instantly recognisable.

One of his rare leading roles came in the 1984 road movie Paris, Texas where his turn as a father suffering from amnesia helped director Wim Wenders win the 1984 Palme D’Or in Cannes.

A close friend of Hollywood luminaries Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn and Marlon Brando, Stanton worked with David Lynch on Twin Peaks.

‘Great human being’

“The great Harry Dean Stanton has left us. There went the great one,” filmmaker Lynch wrote in a statement posted on Twitter. “Everyone loved him, and with good reason. He was a great actor —actually beyond great. And a great human being,” Lynch added.

Stanton’s more recent work includes playing polygamist patriarch Roman Grant in TV’s “Big Love” and a voice role in animated feature “Rango” with Johnny Depp.

One of his last films, Lucky, on the spiritual journey of an atheist, will be released in late September in the United States.