(CNN) Legendary Broadway icon Harold Prince, who produced or directed some of the most famous musicals ever made, including "West Side Story" and "The Phantom of the Opera," died after a brief illness Wednesday in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was 91.

Over his expansive career that ran nearly 70 years, Prince, best known as Hal, received 21 Tony Awards, "the most for any individual in multiple categories," the Tony Awards said.

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom," which opened in London in 1986 and became an international phenomenon, is the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

"Not just the prince of musicals, the crowned head who directed two of the greatest productions of my career, Evita and Phantom. This wonderful man taught me so much and his mastery of musical theatre was without equal," Webber said on Twitter Wednesday.

Prince was born on January 30, 1928 in New York City and majored in English at the University of Pennsylvania . He began his theatrical career in 1948 as an assistant to Broadway director and producer George Abbott.

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