Winston Ntshona, the veteran South African actor and playwright has died, his family confirmed on Thursday. He was 76.

Ntshona had been ill for eight years, reports Times Live South Africa. Ntshona had a long and successful career in theatre, earning two Tony awards in 1975 along with his collaborator John Kani—who most recently starred in Black Panther—for their plays Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, focusing on South Africa's discriminatory "pass laws," and The Island, about two cellmates at Robben Island who stage a production of Antigone.

Both artists were briefly arrested altering performing the anti-apartheid plays in South Africa the following year.

He also appeared in other notable films including The Wild Geese, The Dogs of War, Marigolds in August, Tarzan and the Lost City, and he had a standout role in the 1989 film A Dry White Season, in which he played a father whose son is beaten by white police officers during an apartheid protest.

He earned a Lifetime Achievement Award at the South African Film and Television Awards in 2011.

"When we started our involvement in local theatre, it was just entertainment. South Africa was a strange place," said Ntshona in a 2001 interview with The Globe and Mail. "Everyone was totally oblivious to the need to express the plight of the black people. Everybody wanted to forget there was pain—they just wanted to be entertained. This worried us, and when the time was ripe, one picked up the responsibility to do something about one's life."

One fan on Twitter, put together a brief compilation of some of Ntshona's work.

Since the news of his passing friends, family and supporters have been sharing heartfelt messages about the celebrated thespian's influence and contribution to the arts.