David Warner, the British actor known for work on films such as The Omen and Titanic, is dead at the age of 80, according to BBC News. Warner died of a cancer-related illness while at Denville Hall, a retirement home in London for professional actors. “Over the past 18 months he approached his diagnosis with a characteristic grace and dignity,†said Warner’s family to the BBC in a statement. “He will be missed hugely by us, his family and friends, and remembered as a kind-hearted, generous and compassionate man, partner and father, whose legacy of extraordinary work has touched the lives of so many over the years. We are heartbroken.â€
Warner is well-known for turns like Spicer Lovejoy, Billy Zane’s sidekick in villainy in Titanic and Keith Jennings in The Omen (opposite Gregory Peck) and for playing multiple roles across the Star Trek universe. Warner won an Emmy Award for his role as Senator Pomponius Falco in the 1981 mini-series Masada, which he starred in with Peter O’Toole and Peter Strauss.
Trained in theater, Warner began his career with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Critic Ronald Bryden particularly loved Warner’s work as Hamlet in a 1965 production, noting that Warner was “young enough to play the prince as a real student, learning as he goes along.†Bryden additionally said that Warner got “more of humanity into the part than any previous Hamlet I’ve seen.â€