Jack Lemmon dies

Lemmon won a Spencer Tracey award last November

Actor Jack Lemmon has died aged 76.

The star of Some Like It Hot and The Odd Couple had recently had surgery to remove his gall bladder and was recovering from pneumonia.

He was renknowned for his versatile acting style raning from comedy in The Apartment to the drama of Days of Wine and Roses.

Of his seven Oscar nominations for lead actor, two were for comedies, five for dramas.

The star won Oscars as best supporting actor in 1955 for Mister Roberts and best actor for Save The Tiger in 1973.

He played a dress manufacturer going along with shady business practices in Save the Tiger.

It was a hard-hitting film which was rejected by the studios untill Paramount agreed to make it on a slimline budget.

But Lemmon is probably best-known for his comedy roles.

He often played a well-meaning man-in-the-street who was both easy to relate to and inspiring in his ability to cope with the on-screen disasters that befell him.

Lemmon's career in film was marked by two inspired collaborations, with Billy Wilder and Walter Matthau.

Wilder first directed Lemmon in Some Like It Hot - with Marilyn Monsroe and The Apartment, with Shirley Maclaine.

Both performances won Oscar nominations for the actor.

From his first film with Matthau, The Fortune Cookie in 1966, the pair were a perfect mismatch.

The 1968 hit The Odd Couple cemented their relationship and the costarred in six more films.