Actor Lou Myers, best known for his role as Mr Gaines on the hit television series A Different World, has died.

Tonia McDonald of Myers’s non-profit organisation, Global Business Incubation, said he died at Charleston Area Medical Centre in West Virginia, aged 76.

McDonald said yesterday that Myers had been in and out of the hospital since before Christmas and collapsed recently.

A native of Chesapeake, West Virginia, Myers had returned to the state and lived in the Charleston area.

His TV credits included NYPD Blue, ER, The Cosby Show and Touched by an Angel.

He also appeared in a number of films, including Tin Cup, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Wedding Planner. A Different World ran from 1987 to 1993 and originally starred Lisa Bonet of Cosby fame. (AP)

Myers (third from right) as Mr Gaines in A Different World.

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