Fans are mourning the loss of one of the most prolific American actors of stage, screen, and television. Eli Wallach has died at the age of 98. The actor passed away on Tuesday at his home in New York City. The cause of death has yet to be released.

Wallach was a multi-talented actor who appeared in over 167 films and television series, often playing villains, thieves, and mobsters, before segueing in his later years to comical, grandfatherly roles in small bit parts that called for shopkeepers or sagely elders who imparted words of wisdom to the hero of the story.

But Wallach is probably best known for his roles in two of the most iconic Westerns of all time, The Magnificent Seven from 1960 and the Sergio Leone epic The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly from 1966, the film that made Clint Eastwood a star. Wallach played the role of Tuco, the desperate hooligan who teams up with Eastwood’s character to track down a fortune in buried gold. Eastwood was the cool, calculated anti-hero and co-star Lee Van Cleef the smarmy, reptilian villain of the piece, but it’s Wallach who brought comic relief to the violent classic.

Although the actor worked often in films and television, his first love was the stage. He won a Tony award in 1951 for his portrayal of Mangiacavallo in Tennessee Williams’s The Rose Tattoo. Wallach was an ardent fan of the playwright, appearing in a number of his productions both on and off Broadway.

He is considered one of the best Method actors of our time and was a member of the famous Actors Studio in New York City, founded by director Elia Kazan, who gave Wallach his very first movie role in the film Baby Doll in 1956. From there he went on to work with some of the biggest stars and directors in film history, including the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, Audrey Hepburn, Peter O’Toole and filmmakers John Sturges, John Ford, William Wyler, and John Huston among countless others. Comic book fans will probably remember him best as Mr. Freeze in the 1960’s Batman TV series.

Wallach is survived by his wife of 66 years, actress Anne Jackson, and their three children.