Sylvia Miles has died aged 94.

Sylvia Miles

Sylvia Miles

The 'Midnight Cowboy' actress passed away on Wednesday (12.06.19) in Manhattan in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, her publicist Mauricio Padilha confirmed to The New York Times.

She earned two Academy Award nominees for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in 1975 movie 'Farewell, My Lovely', and in 1969's 'Midnight Cowboy', alongside Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie's father Jon Voight.

Sylvia's character was an ageing kept-woman who invited Jon's alter-ego Joe Buck to her apartment to have sex.

She managed to earn an Oscar nomination for the brief part, despite only appearing on screen for around six minutes.

And her second Academy Award nod was for an eight-minute role opposite Robert Mitchum in 'Farewell, My Lovely', in which her former entertainer character traded information with his detective alter-ego Philip Marlowe for a bottle of bourbon.

Sylvia was once described as "one of New York's leading party girls", but later hit back at the claim.

Speaking in 1994, she said: "I go out a lot because that's the only way I get to meet people.

"I don't go as far as going to meet the planes when the producers come in. I don't think I have to be ashamed."

Born in 1924, she made her Broadway debut in the 1954 production 'A Stone for Danny Fisher', and she previously played Sally Rogers in a pilot episode of what went on to be 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', with Rose Marie taking on the role for the main series.