Nicolas Roeg, celebrated director of 'Don't Look Now,' dies aged 90

Nicolas Roeg, the acclaimed filmmaker whose cult movies starred the likes of Mick Jagger and David Bowie, has died aged 90, according to media reports.

Roeg's family confirmed his death to the PA news agency on Saturday, with son Nicolas Roeg Junior remembering his father as "a genuine dad."

The British director's best-known film, the 1973 thriller "Don't Look Now," starred Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as parents mourning the loss of their daughter.

The couple's graphic sex scene became the focus of debate for years to come, with many speculating that the actors were having intercourse on camera.

The British Film Institute late Saturday described Roeg as "a true great if ever there was one."

"A pioneering force of cinema who created some of the most affecting moments of beauty, terror and sadness ever seen," the institute added on Twitter.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), which presented the director with an Outstanding Creative Contribution to Cinema award in 2009, said its members were "deeply saddened" by Roeg's death.

Director Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie, paid tribute to Roeg on Twitter: "Just heard another great storyteller, the inimitable Nicolas Roeg left us today. What an incredible body of work he's left us with!"

Bowie, who died in 2016, worked with Roeg on "The Man Who Fell to Earth," in which the singer starred as an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet.

US comedian and actress Sandra Bernhard, who was directed by Roeg in the 1988 film "Track 29" and whose 1990 musical "Without You I'm Nothing" he produced, said it was an "honor to work with" him.

"A brilliant original whose canon is impeccable... never another like him," Bernhard tweeted.

Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro was among those who paid tribute to Roeg at the awarding of his 2009 BAFTA.

Following the filmmaker's death, del Toro praised him for breaking "fresh ground" in cinematography and for his "infinite talent and multiple achievements."