BEIJING, Jan. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, who gained fame as a steel guitar playing original member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and who also was an Emmy-winning animator and special effects artist has died. He was 72.

"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, who co-founded influential 1960s country-rock group the Flying Burrito Brothers, is shown in this undated publicity photograph. (Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

    Kleinow died Saturday at a Petaluma, Calif., convalescent home near the skilled nursing facility where he had been living with Alzheimer's disease since last year, his daughter Anita Kleinow said.

    During a musical career that covered six decades, Kleinow helped define the country-rock genre in the late 1960s and 1970s by taking the instrument he had mastered as a teenager in South Bend, Ind., to California.

    His expertise with the pedal steel guitar influenced a generation of rock-and-rollers, including the Eagles, the Steve Miller Band and Poco.

    Besides co-founding the Burrito Brothers with the Byrds' Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons in 1968, he was also prized as a session musician, recording with such singer-songwriters as John Lennon, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell and bands as varied as the Bee Gees and Sly and the Family Stone.

    Kleinow played and recorded regularly with Burrito Deluxe, a band he founded in 2000 following the rebirth of alt-country music and fronted until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. His last recording with the group is scheduled to be released next month, said Brenda Cline, the band's manager.

    Kleinow also won acclaim as an animator, special effects artist and director of commercials in television and film. His credits ranged from the original "Gumby" series -- he wrote and performed the theme music as well as designed cartoons -- and the relaunched "The Twilight Zone" to the movies "Under Siege," "Fearless" and "The Empire Strikes Back." He won an Emmy award in 1983 for his work on the miniseries, "The Winds of War."

    Kleinow is survived by his wife of 54 years, Ernestine, his daughters Anita and Tammy, and three sons, Martin, Aaron and Cosmo.

    Plans for a memorial service to be held in Joshua Tree, a small town in Southern California's high desert, later this month are pending.

    (Agencies)