By The Associated Press

Powers Boothe, the character actor known for his villain roles in TV's "Deadwood," and in the movies "Tombstone," ''Sin City" and "The Avengers," has died. He was 68.

Boothe's publicist said he died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Fellow actor Beau Bridges tweeted the news and called him "a dear friend, great actor, devoted father and husband."

Boothe won an Emmy in 1980 for playing cult leader Jim Jones in the TV movie "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones." The ceremony was held amid an actors strike, and Boothe was the only acting winner to show up for his award.

"This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest," he quipped after accepting the prize.

He went on to play other memorable antagonists, including ruthless saloon owner Cy Tolliver in "Deadwood," the gunman Curly Bill Brocius in "Tombstone" and a corrupt senator in "Sin City." More recently he appeared as Gideon Malick in 2012's "The Avengers" and ABC's "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Peter MacNicol, who acted alongside Boothe on Fox's "24," tweeted Monday that Boothe was a great, old school actor whose every word on camera "sounded like a first time utterance."

Born to a farming family in the west Texas town of Snyder, Boothe eventually left for New York to pursue an acting career. He told The Associated Press in 1981 that he made ends meet at first by working in a Broadway restaurant and eventually found theater roles, but his family was always ready to welcome him back.

"They kept telling me, 'Come home and we'll have a place for you on the farm,'" he said.

A private service will be held in his native Texas.

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