'Bonnie And Clyde' director Arthur Penn dies

American filmmaker Arthur Penn has died at the age of 88.

Penn, who earned three 'Best Director' Oscar nominations in the '60s, passed away on Tuesday night, the day after his birthday.

The director worked on stage and TV in the early '50s before making his feature debut with Paul Newman's 1958 Western The Left Handed Gun.

Penn's most highly-regarded film Bonnie And Clyde arrived in 1967, turning Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty into overnight stars and helping to kick-start the "New American Cinema" movement that saw Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola establish Hollywood careers.

"Arthur Penn brought the sensibility of ‘60s European art films to American movies,” Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader told The New York Times. “He paved the way for the new generation of American directors who came out of film schools.”

Penn is survived by his wife of 55 years Peggy Maurer and their two children.