David Warner death: The Omen and Titanic actor dies, aged 80

British actor was diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago

British actor David Warner has died, aged 80.

Warner’s family shared the news “with an overwhelmingly heavy heart”.

His death on Sunday (26 July) followed a cancer-related illness. At the time, he was at Denville Hall, a care home for figures from the entertainment world.

Warner’s credits include horror film The Omen (1976) and 1997 blockbuster Titanic, in which he played Spicer Lovejoy, the sidekick to Billy Zane’s villainous character.

In The Omen, which was one of Warner’s most famous roles, he played photographer Keith Jennings.

His family said in a statement released to the BBC: “Over the past 18 months, he approached his diagnosis with a characteristic grace and dignity.

“He will be missed hugely by us, his family and friends, and remembered as a kind-hearted, generous and compassionate man, partner and father, whose legacy of extraordinary work has touched the lives of so many over the years. We are heartbroken.”

Warner’s film and theatre career began in the early 1960s, with a role in Best Picture winner Tom Jones and a Royal Court Theatre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Rada-trained actor, who performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company numerous times, also starred in in Sam Peckinpah‘s The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), Little Malcolm (1974), and Time Bandits (1981).

Billy Zane and David Warner in ‘Titanic’ (20th Century Fox/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock)

His other film credits include The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Tron (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), and John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness (1994). He was typically cast as the villain.

His most recent film role arrived in the 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Return.

Warner also appeared in numerous Star Trek films and a 2013 episode of Doctor Who.