Cult sci-fi actor Nader dies

Film star Tony Curtis has paid tribute to Nader

Actor George Nader, who is best known for his starring role in the 1950s kitsch sci-fi classic Robot Monster, has died at the age of 80.

The actor died from pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country Home, near Los Angeles, his publicist said.

Nader was also well known as one of the inner circle of the late actor Rock Hudson.

His long-term partner, Mark Miller, was Hudson's secretary for many years.

Nader was named as a beneficiary in Hudson's will after the actor's death in 1985.

..one of the kindest and most generous men I've ever known.

Tony Curtis

In 1986, Hudson's biographer,, Sara Davidson, said Nader and Miller were key members of "Rock's family for most of his adult life".

Tony Curtis, who appeared with Nader in the 1955 crime drama Six Bridges to Cross, called him "one of the kindest and most generous men I've ever known".

Nader became an actor after serving in World War II.

Robot Monster, in 1953, in which he battled an alien, was his big break.

The cheaply-shot film - it was made in just four days - became an instant cult classic among connoisseurs of amusingly bad movies.

But it also made money at the box office.

Nader won a Golden Globe Award as best male newcomer of 1954.

He went on to appear in Sins of Jezebel, with Paulette Goddard, and The Female Animal, with Hedy Lamarr.

Among his more serious projects was a role in the 1956 war drama Away All Boats.

In the 1960s, Nader moved to Germany, where he became famous for his portrayals of the tough FBI agent Jerry Cotton in eight crime thrillers shot in Europe.

He retired from acting in 1973 and took up writing.

His 1978 novel, Chrome, portrays the forbidden love between a man and a robot set in a tyrannical future.

It was considered groundbreaking for its portrayal of a homosexual relationship.