Robert Michael Morris has died at the age of 77.

The actor and former school teacher was best known for portraying hairdresser Mickey Deane in HBO series 'The Comeback' and his co-star Lisa Kudrow - who played Valerie Cherish - has paid tribute to the late star, who sadly passed away on Tuesday (30.05.17).

The former 'Friends' star wrote on Twitter: ''We lost Robert Michael Morris today. He left us with many wonderful gifts, most importantly, an example of what a truly good soul looks like. (sic)''

The creator of the show, Michael Patrick King, was a student of Morris and he made the role specifically for him, and has hailed him an ''inspiration''.

In a statement, he said: ''Robert Michael Morris was an inspiration to write for and to be around.

''His creativity was only matched by the joy and gratefulness he felt for each day he got to live his life as an artist.''

His cause of death is as yet unknown.

Morris also appeared in the comedy shows '2 Broke Girls', 'The Middle' and 'How I Met Your Mother'.

The actor and playwright started out working in education before moving to New York where he landed work in adverts and his talent was noted when he appeared in a production of 'Cary Churchill Cloud Nine'.

Morris said that he wanted to get into acting so he could tell his students what it is really like to be an actor.

On his decision to move to the Big Apple, he said: ''I move to New York so I could find out what it was like to be a professional actor because my students were all asking questions and all I had was academic knowledge.''