British actor Alan Bates dies
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Bates was knighted earlier this year.
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LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British star of stage and screen Alan Bates has died after battling cancer, his agent said on Sunday.
"He has passed away," agent Rosalind Chatto told Reuters. "He had a long battle with cancer."
Bates, who was 69, died in a London clinic on Saturday.
He came to fame as one of a new breed of gritty actors as Britain threw off its post-war shackles -- the "Angry Young Man" era -- and was knighted earlier this year, after a career spanning six decades.
His big break came with John Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger" in 1956. But Bates went on to play classical leads on the stage in "Hamlet," "Richard III" and "Antony and Cleopatra."
On the big screen, he starred in films such as "Zorba the Greek," "Far From The Madding Crowd" and "Women in Love," in which he famously grappled naked with Oliver Reed.
More recently, in 2001, he featured in Robert Altman's period drama "Gosford Park."
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