The Oscar-nominated British film and television actress Susannah York has died at the age of 72.

According to the Daily Mail, the They Shoot Horses, Don't They? star was diagnosed with advanced bone marrow cancer, passing away from the disease on Friday.

York was best known for her role as Alice in the 1969 Sydney Pollack-directed drama, for which she received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, and also starred in 1966 movie A Man For All Seasons and Zee And Co in 1972.

She most recently played hospital manager Helen Grant in BBC medical drama Holby City, a part she reprised in 2004 in Casualty, and had a guest role in soap Doctors last year.

Her son Orlando Wells paid tribute to his mother by saying: "She was an absolutely fantastic mother, who was very down to earth.

"She loved nothing more than cooking a good Sunday roast and sitting around a fire of a winter's evening. In some sense, she was quite a home girl. Both my sister Sasha and I feel incredibly lucky to have her as a mother."

York is survived by Orlando and Sasha, as well as two grandchildren