LOS ANGELES - He played a suicidal bum in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," but Nick Nolte was crowned king of Hollywood on Tuesday with a star on the iconic Walk of Fame.

The 76-year-old actor was honored for a career spanning five decades that has seen him lavished with acclaim, not to mention three Oscar nominations.

Sporting a business suit and a thick white beard, the famously gruff-voiced actor gave a shorter than usual acceptance speech celebrating the magic of Tinseltown rather than dwelling on his own career.

"There's a reason why this street and this town is such a center to the United States and to the world, the center of filmmaking," he told fans gathered on Hollywood Boulevard.

"That's because they honored the street with these stars along the way, and that's unlike any other street in LA."

Nolte has made a name for hard partying off screen and playing brusque, unstable characters on screen, including a hard-nosed cop in "48 Hrs." (1982) and a rapist's lawyer in "Cape Fear" (1991).

He has best actor Oscar nominations for his roles as a troubled man who falls in love with his sister's psychiatrist in "The Prince of Tides" (1991) and as a small-town New Hampshire police officer in "Affliction" (1997). - AFP