LONDON, July 2 -- Long before American audiences knew his face as the Nazi colonel burning inside a tank while chasing Harrison Ford across the Republic of Venice, Michael Byrne spent his early decades on a London stage, cast by Laurence Olivier in a National Theatre Company that did not hand out roles lightly.

Byrne died on June 20 at 82, according to a statement from his representative reported by NBC News, capping a seven-decade career that ran to more than 170 credits across film, television and the stage. His representative did not disclose a cause of death.

American moviegoers most likely know him as Col. Ernst Vogel, the Nazi officer who pursues Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones through the canals and catacombs of Venice in 1989's "I...