Sada Thompson, a durable US stage and screen actress, has died at the age of 81.

Thompson died of a lung disease at a hospital in Connecticut, agent David Shaul said in Los Angeles.

She won a Tony Award for her portraits of three sisters and their mother in the 1971 comedy Twigs, and an Emmy Award for playing the eternally understanding mother in the television series Family.

Ms Thompson won wide acclaim during an illustrious career that spanned more than 60 years, during which she gravitated towards quality work that allowed her to plumb her characters’ complexities.

“When you start off acting, it does seem very romantic, and the make-believe part of it all seems very exciting,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991.

“It’s only later that you begin to realise how fascinating the work is – that it’s a bottomless pit, and you never get to the end of it. Human character is just endlessly fascinating.”