Jack Lemmon dies at Age 76.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jack Lemmon, one of America's best loved actors, won a clutch of awards including two Oscars (news - web sites), an Emmy, the Golden Globes and the American Film Institute (news - web sites) Life Achievement Award in a career spanning over 50 years.

A Harvard graduate, his dithering style of acting suited both comedy and drama and won him the enormous devotion of fans and colleagues.

Whether playing the comically conniving Ensign Pulver in ``Mr. Roberts'' (1955) for which he won the Best Supporting Award, or the desperate businessman in ``Save the Tiger'' (1973), which won him the Best Actor Oscar, Lemmon displayed a sense of humanity that audiences could easily relate to.

Critic David Shipman called Lemmon ``Mr. Average Guy, Junior Executive version, immeasurably committed to Right and Truth, and permanently insecure about the choice he has made.''

Lemmon also starred in such popular movies as ``Some Like It Hot'' (1959), ``The Apartment'' (1960), ``The Days of Wine and Roses'' (1962), ``The Odd Couple'' (1968), ``The Front Page'' (1974), ``The Prisoner of Second Avenue'' (1975) and ``The China Syndrome'' (1979). He also teamed up with his friend hangdog-faced Walter Matthau in several films most notably ``Fortune Cookie'' and the surprise hit ``Grumpy Old Men'' in 1993.

His last known work was a made for television film ``Tuesdays with Morrie'' in 1999 which won him an Emmy.

An accomplished pianist, Lemmon was nominated for a total of eight Academy Awards (news - web sites) and, in 1988, won the American Film Institute's 16th Life Achievement Award. But he attributed much of his success to ``remarkable coincidences that have nothing to do with me.''

``But I will say this,'' he said. ``When you're conducting an overall career -- be it in acting or golf -- it's a selfish process. You must believe totally in what you are doing even if it is garbage.''

In 1989, he played co-star Ted Danson's father in the movie ''Dad'' and also appeared in the London version of the play ''Veteran's Day.''

Born John Uhler Lemmon III in Boston on Feb. 8, 1925, -- in an elevator because his mother refused to leave a winning bridge hand -- Lemmon from an early age had his heart set on acting. While in the Navy at the end of World War Two, he studied acting at Harvard.

Theater work in stock companies led to hundreds of appearances on early 1950's TV programs, followed by his casting opposite Judy Holliday in ``It Should Happen To You'' (1954).

In that his first movie, Lemmon's screen personality was formed. He usually played an earnest but naive man whose good intentions run afoul of his manic energy.

Lemmon's Oscar-winning role in ``Mr. Roberts'' earned him plenty of movie work, but nothing particularly popular until Billy Wilder's hit ``Some Like It Hot'' -- in which Lemmon and co-star Tony Curtis spent most of their time disguised as women to hide from gangsters.

Lemmon continued to take acting risks in the sex-charged ``The Apartment,'' the liquor-soaked ``Days of Wine and Roses'' and the titillating ``Irma la Douce'' (1963). Five years later, Lemmon recovered from a string of less popular movies by playing the finicky Felix Unger in the movie version of Neil Simon's ``The Odd Couple.'' Angered by the usual role restrictions placed on Hollywood stars, Lemmon throughout the rest of his career mixed ''star'' roles in the likes of ``The Prisoner of Second Avenue'' and ''The China Syndrome'' with smaller roles in such films as ``Airport '77'' (1977).

He also produced the 1967 hit ``Cool Hand Luke'' with Paul Newman and directed frequent co-star and close friend Matthau in ''Kotch'' (1971).

His later films included the dramas ``Missing'' (1982) and ''Mass Appeal'' (1984) and the serio-comic ``That's Life (news - Y! TV)'' (1986), with Julie Andrews. In 1978, he appeared on Broadway in ``Tribute'' and he returned to the New York stage in 1985 in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's ``Long Day's Journey Into Night'' that was taped for transmission on cable television.

Lemmon, who liked to play pool and the piano, had a son, Chris, an actor, with his first wife, Cynthia Stone (their marriage lasted from 1950-56).

In 1962, he married actress Felicia Farr, with whom he had a daughter, Courtney.

Los Angeles Times critic Charles Champlin once wrote of Lemmon: ``What marks all the best work Lemmon has done are some trace elements of the man himself, some perceived truth that as clown or tragic figure, the persona within the character is likable, decent, intelligent, vulnerable, worth knowing; disorganized possibly, flawed almost certainly, but forever worth knowing.''

Mini biography
His father was the president of a doughnut company, and he attended prep schools before Harvard where he was in the Dramatic Club. After service as a Navy ensign, he worked in a beerhall (piano), on radio, off Broadway, TV and Broadway. His 1954 movie debut was with Judy Holiday. A year later he won Best Supporting Actor (Ensign Pulver, "Mister Roberts"). He received nominations in comedy - Some Like It Hot (1959), "The Apartment" (1960) - and drama - "Days of Wine and Roses" (1962), "The China Syndrome" (1979), "Tribute" (1980) and "Missing" (1982). He won the Best Actor Oscar for "Save The Tiger" (1973) and the Cannes Best Actor award for "Syndrome" and "Missing". He debuted as director in "Kotch" (1971) and in 1985 Broadway in "Long Day's Journey into Night". In 1988 he received the Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute.