Oscar award-winning actress, Maureen Stapleton, died at her home in Lenox, Massachusetts, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the age of 80.

Stapleton was an amazingly versatile actress and she covered a wide range of roles in her 60-year career. She was well-known and respected for her work in stage, television and film and was often asked for advice and insight. In her 1995 autobiography, Hell of a Life she wrote: There are many roads to good acting and I've been asked repeatedly what the 'key' to acting is, and as far as I'm concerned, the main thing is to keep the audience awake."

Born Lois Maureen Stapleton, in Troy, New York, she was the daughter of an abusive alocholic father. She left home after finishing high school and made her way to New York city with only $100 to her name, where she studied at the Herbert Berghof Acting School and later at the Actors Studio. She soon made her debut on Broadway in Burgess Meredith's 1946 production of The Playboy of the Western World and by the time she was 24, she won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Serafina Delle Rose in Tennessee Williams' Broadway hit The Rose Tattoo. She went on to appear in numerous other stage productions, including Lillian Hellman's Toys in the Attic and Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady, for which she won her second Tony, in 1971.

Her work in film was equally captivating and Stapleton was nominated several times for a supporting actress Oscar before winning an Academy Award for her role as anarchist-writer Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's 1981 film Reds. Even though she didn't win, she was honoured by being nominated for her first film role in 1958, Lonelyhearts, as well as Airport, in 1970, and Woody Allen's Interiors, in 1978. Among her other film credits are, Bye Bye Birdie, Johnny Dangerously, Cocoon, The Money Pit and Addicted to Love

On the smaller screen, Stapleton earned an Emmy for Among the Paths to Eden in 1967, and was nominated for Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, in 1975, The Gathering, in 1977, and Miss Rose White, in 1992.

Stapleton was married twice, to theatrical manager Max Allentuck and screenwriter David Rayfiel, but both of her marriages ended in divorce. Beside Allentuck, Stapleton is survived by a daughter, Katharine Bambery, and a brother, Jack Stapleton.