Sir Robert Stephens, British Actor

LONDON - Sir Robert Stephens, one of Britain's most colorful Shakespearean actors and one of its most accomplished King Lears, has died at 64.

Stephens, a professed "knight errant" whose hard living took a toll on his health, died in his sleep Sunday in London after suffering from liver and kidney problems.

He was formerly married to Maggie Smith, the Oscar-winning actress with whom he acted in the 1960s and early '70s on stage and in such films as "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." They divorced in 1975.

Among Stephens' film roles was a cocaine-addicted Holmes in Billy Wilder's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" in 1970. Recent films included "Henry V," "Empire of the Sun," and "Bonfire of the Vanities."

He won the 1993 Olivier Award - London's Tony - as Falstaff in the "Henry IV" plays. The following season, he was acclaimed as the most affecting Lear in a generation.