Catch-22's Alan Arkin dies at 89

COMIC actor Alan Arkin, who played the lead in Catch-22 and won an Oscar for his role in Little Miss Sunshine, has died aged 89.

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

In a career spanning eight decades he was nominated for four Academy Awards but got Best Supporting Actor for 14 minutes on screen as grandad Edwin Hoover in the 2007 hit.

His outsize impact was no surprise to fans of 1992 drama Glengarry Glen Ross, in which he held his own against legends including Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino and Jonathan Pryce.

More recently, he won new fans in Netflix comedy drama The Kominsky Method as Norman Newlander, agent of Michael Douglas's lead character acting coach Sandy Kominsky.

Paying tribute to his late co-star, Douglas praised his "intelligence, sense of comedy and consummate professionalism over the past 70 years".

John Cusack, who starred with Alan in 2001's America's Sweethearts and 1997's Grosse Pointe Blank, hailed his wicked sense of humour and said he "spread light everywhere he went".