Eli Wallach, the raspy-voiced character actor, earned film immortality as a conniving, quick-on-the-draw bandit in the classic Western The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.

He starred in dozens of movies and Broadway plays over a remarkable and enduring career before he died aged 98 this week.

The actor’s son, Peter Wallach, confirmed on Wednesday that his father died on Tuesday evening in New York from natural causes.

“The best way to honour him is to put on one of his movies,” he said.

“Put on Baby Doll or Magnificent Seven. Those live forever.”

Wallach and his wife, Anne Jackson, were a formidable duo on the stage, appearing in several plays dating back to the 1940s. He won a Tony Award for his supporting role in Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo in 1951 and was an original member of the Actors Studio.

He was still starring in films well into his 90s.

“He was as wonderful a person as he was an actor,” said Robert De Niro.

“He will be missed.”

Wallach may be best remembered for his role as Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In the Sergio Leone spaghetti Western, Clint Eastwood (The Good), Lee Van Cleef (The Bad) and Wallach (The Ugly) attempt to outwit and out shoot each other in pursuit of a trove of gold coins buried in a Civil War cemetery.

The movie – with a haunting score by Ennio Morricone – was the third film in a trilogy that included Fistful Of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, and influenced a generation of filmmakers. Wallach’s character had several memorable lines, including, “When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk,” after being confronted by a rival gunslinger.

“Everywhere I go, someone will recognise me from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and start whistling the theme song,” he said in a 2003 interview.

Wallach, an eager storyteller, even titled his 2005 memoir The Good, the Bad, and Me: In My Anecdotage.

Wallach also starred in the steamy Baby Doll (1956); The Magnificent Seven (1960); The Misfits (1961), an Arthur Miller-written film that starred Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable; Lord Jim (1964) with Peter O’Toole; and The Godfather III (1990), in which he played a murderous mobster who dies after eating poisoned cannoli.

He and Jackson starred in a series of plays together.

“Although I limp in life as a result of my two hip operations, whenever I go onstage with Anne, the lights give my body a lift and I prance on to the stage and dance off,” Wallach said in his 2006 memoir.

“I feel I can play a 16-year-old if the author calls for that. Which is why I prefer live acting to film – I come alive with the lights.”

Wallach was born in Brooklyn on December 7, 1915, the son of an immigrant lolly store owner. He dabbled in dramatics in high school, while becoming a table-tennis champion.

His brother and two sisters became teachers and other family members were doctors and lawyers. Wallach, who had appeared in plays as far back as grade school, elected to study acting.

His drama training was interrupted by World War II service in the Army medical corps, in which he earned the rank of captain. From 1945 to 1948, he appeared in several Broadway plays but had to work as a swimming instructor and camp counsellor to make ends meet.

His stage career eventually took off, thanks in large part to his success in Tennessee Williams productions. He appeared in The Rose Tattoo, then Camino Real and later had a long run in Teahouse Of The August Moon.

His debut film, directed by Elia Kazan, was Baby Doll, based on the Williams’ play. It was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency for what was termed its “carnal suggestiveness”.

Wallach met Jackson while they were appearing off-Broadway in Williams’ This Property Is Condemned. They married in 1948 and had three children, Peter, who became a film animator, and two daughters, Roberta and Katherine, both of whom followed their parents into acting.

Though he never won an Oscar, Wallach was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2010, hailing him as “the quintessential chameleon”. Eastwood presented the award, calling him “a great performer and a great friend”.

“I’ve played more bandits, thieves, killers, war lords, molesters and Mafiosi than you could shake a stick at,” said Wallach.

“As a civilian, I collect antique clocks, tell endless stories of my days as a medic in World War II, watch every tennis match, live for my family, daily mail, run the dishwasher, take pictures of faces in the bark of trees.”

“I don’t act to live,” he said. “I live to act.”