Watsupptoday Desk

Ben Cross, who portrayed the gold medal-winning Olympic sprinter Harold Abrahams in the 1981 Oscar best picture winner Chariots of Fire, has died. He was 72.

Cross died Tuesday in Vienna of an unspecified illness, his daughter Lauren reported on Facebook.

"I am utterly heartbroken to share with you that my darling father died a few hours ago," she wrote. "He had been sick for a while but there was a rapid decline over the past week."