Earl Scruggs, the American banjo legend who brought bluegrass music to a mass audience, has died aged 88.

As part of the Flatt & Scruggs duo, the banjo player helped define bluegrass − a country genre combining vocal harmonies and the playful, jazz-like interplay of guitars, banjos, mandolins and fiddles.

“He was one of the first and best three-finger banjo players,” fellow bluegrass veteran Ralph Stanley, 85, said. “He did more for the five-string banjo than anyone I know.”

Mr Scruggs and Lester Flatt shot to fame with the memorable theme song of the 1960s television hit The Beverly Hillbillies, and their Foggy Mountain Breakdown, written by Mr Scruggs, accompanied the chase scenes in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.

Star and producer Warren Beatty requested Flatt & Scruggs do the theme music for the film and the song became an instant hit.

More than 30 years later, film-makers Ethan and Joel Coen named the bluegrass band in their 2000 film, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, the Soggy Bottom Boys, a clear allusion to Flatt & Scruggs’s Foggy Mountain Boys band.

Starting in the 1960s, Mr Scruggs played alongside numerous music legends, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the Byrds, Elton John, The Eagles’ Don Henley and John Fogerty.

He also inspired comedian Steve Martin, who worked the banjo into his act and played alongside Scruggs in 2005 on The Late Show with David Letterman. Flatt & Scruggs were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985.

Earl Eugene Scruggs was born on January 6, 1924, in Flint Hill, North Carolina, and began playing the banjo at the age of four following the death of his father, who also played the instrument.

He is survived by sons Gary − who announced the bluegrass legend’s death from natural causes − and Randy. His wife Louise died in 2006 and his son Steve died in 1992.