KARL MALDEN, the Academy Award-winning actor whose intelligent characterisations on stage and screen made him a star despite his plain looks, died yesterday, his family said. He was 97.

American actor Karl Malden, who won an Oscar for his performance in the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire, has earned another honour for his portrayals in westerns.

Kim Hunter, the actress who won a supporting Oscar in 1951 as the long-suffering Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire and appeared in three Planet Of The Apes films, has died. She was 79.