US game show regular Reilly dies

He was famous for his oversized glasses and colourful suits during numerous TV appearances in the 1970s and '80s.

And he gained attention for being openly gay at a time when few on-screen stars acknowledged their homosexuality.

His role in the 1962 Broadway show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying earned him a Tony Award.

He was nominated twice more without winning - for playing Cornelius in Hello, Dolly! and then for his work as a director on a revival of The Gin Game, starring Julie Harris and Charles Durning.

He had begun his career in New York, taking acting classes at a studio with future cinema icon Steve McQueen, among others.

But he conceded in 2001 that his association with TV quizzes such as Hollywood Squares and Match Game - plus about 100 appearances with Carson - had left him typecast and struggling to find acting roles.

"You can't do anything else once you do game shows," he told American magazine The Advocate. "You have no career."

Reilly's partner and only immediate survivor, Patrick Hughes, confirmed details of his death to the New York Times.