The American actor Walter Matthau has died of a heart attack at a hospital in California. He was 79. A spokesman for Saint John's Health Centre in Santa Monica said that he was admitted to the hospital last night, but died a few hours later. Mr Matthau rose to stardom playing the loutish sports writer Oscar Madison in "The Odd Couple,". He won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for Billy Wilder's 1966 comedy "The Fortune Cookie." During his carreer, he appeared in up to 50 films, including "The Front Page," "The Sunshine Boys" and "The Bad News Bears." One of the actor's best known traits was his irreverent sense of humour.
