Alan Arkin, a versatile and prolific American actor who thrived in both comic and dramatic roles and won an Oscar for playing a heroin-using grandfather in the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine, has died at 89, Variety reported on Friday, citing a statement from his family.

Arkin died at his home in Carlsbad, California on Thursday, Variety said.

“Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed,” Arkin’s sons Adam, Matthew and Anthony wrote in a joint statement to People.

Arkin appeared in scores of films, was nominated for an Academy Award four times and won a Tony Award, Broadway’s top honours, in 1963 for his first major stage role in Carl Reiner’s Enter Laughing.

His first major movie role also earned him an Oscar nomination — best actor for playing a Soviet sailor in the 1966 Cold War comedy The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!

Arkin was initially turned down for the Little Miss Sunshine role that ultimately won him a best-supporting-actor Oscar because the directors thought he was too healthy. The character was a foul-mouthed 80-year-old grandfather who was frail and shaky from years of drug abuse and bad behaviour.

“It’s the best rejection I ever got in my life — they thought I was too virile,” Arkin said, flexing his biceps and striking a muscleman pose during a 2007 interview with The New York Times.

Arkin delivered a memorable dramatic turn as a psychopathic killer in the 1967 film Wait Until Dark, opposite Audrey Hepburn.

He later said he hated the scenes in which his character terrorises Hepburn, saying, “I didn’t like being cruel to her. It made me very uncomfortable.”