'Deliverance' Mountain Man Actor McKinney Dies at 80

U.S. actor Bill McKinney, who played a sinister and sadistic mountain man in the 1972 classic "Deliverance" and acted in several Clint Eastwood films, has died aged 80, his family said.

McKinney, whose character in the disturbing movie sodomized one of four city friends whose weekend river trip descended into a prolonged nightmare, died of cancer of the esophagus, said a statement on his Facebook page.

"An avid smoker for 25 years of his younger life ... he was 80 and still strong enough to have filmed a Doritos commercial two weeks prior to his passing," it said.

McKinney's movie breakthrough came with "Deliverance," which also starred Burt Reynolds and featured a famous banjo dueling scene between one of the friends and a local hillbilly youth.

McKinney's career had started on the small screen -- including a spot in "The Monkees," but he went on to specialize in "sickos," as Reynolds called them, including playing the assassin in "The Parallax View" with Warren Beatty.

The actor made a string of films with Eastwood, notably "The Outlaw Josey Wales" in 1976, in which he played Captain "Redlegs" Terrill.

More recently he worked regularly on both TV and the big screen, including parts in 2003's JFK assassination movie "The Commission" with Martin Sheen and "How do you Know?" which starred Jack Nicholson.

McKinney was working on co-writing his autobiography until his final weeks, his Facebook page said, adding: "Hopefully 2012 will bring a publisher for the wild ride his life was."

He is survived by his son Clinton, "along with several ex-wives," it noted.