Attenborough in 1983 with his two Oscars for ‘Gandhi’.

Prolific British acting great and film director Lord Richard Attenborough has passed away at the age of 90, his son has told the BBC.

He died at lunchtime on Sunday, according to his son.

Lord Attenborough was well-known for his many film roles, including a breakout performance in 1963’s The Great Escape.

Lord Attenborough also appeared in the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park, beloved children’s film Miracle on 34th Street, and Elizabeth, alongside Cate Blanchett.

As a director, he was best known for his work on the Oscar-winning Gandhi.

Lord Attenborough was the older brother of well-known wildlife broadcaster David Attenborough.

He had been living in a nursing home with his wife and had been in a wheelchair since a fall six years ago, according to the BBC.

Dear dear Dickie: a true legend of the screen and a delightful man. Very sad news. RIP. #RichardAttenborough

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 24, 2014

As an actor, Lord Attenborough was respected enough for top directors Satyajit Ray and Steven Spielberg to lure him out of self-imposed retirement to appear, respectively, in The Chess Players and the blockbuster Jurassic Park.

But, above all, his deep passion and unflagging energy as actor, director, producer, fund-raiser and chairman of numerous charities were genuine, and his good-nature was renowned in a notoriously tough world of clashing giant egos which he inhabited.

Lord Attenborough’s life was not without tragedy, however. On Boxing Day 2004, his elder daughter Jane Holland, as well as her daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the south-Asian tsunami.

“His acting in Brighton Rock was brilliant, his directing of Gandhi was stunning – Richard Attenborough was one of the greats of cinema,” British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote on Twitter.

— with AAP