Deadwood star Powers Boothe dies at 68

Powers Boothe, who often played Hollywood villains, has died at his Los Angeles home aged 68.

The veteran character actor, famous for his role as a ruthless saloon owner on HBO's Deadwood, died "in his sleep" of natural causes on Sunday morning, his publicist Karen Samfilippo said.

She added: "There will be a private service held in Texas where he was from. A memorial celebration in his honour is being considered for a future date."

Actor Beau Bridges, brother of Jeff Bridges, broke the news on Twitter, writing: "It's with great sadness that I mourn the passing of my friend Powers Boothe. A dear friend, great actor, devoted father & husband."

Boothe won an Emmy Award in 1980 for playing cult leader Jim Jones in the TV movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story Of Jim Jones.

Guyana was his first big break, and led him to the 1983 detective TV show Philip Marlowe, Private Eye and later to his first big screen success Red Dawn.

Born in Texas, Boothe built a career playing villains and cowboys, like the murderous Curly Bill Brocius in the 1993 Western film Tombstone or Senator Roark in Robert Rodriguez's Sin City movies.

He was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild awards, alongside Ed Harris and Bob Hoskins in the Oliver Stone-directed Nixon and for his role as Cy Tolliver in Deadwood.

More recently he starred alongside Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton in the musical drama Nashville.

Boothe was born on a farm in Snyder, Texas, the son of a rancher.