Oscar-winning Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci, whose films include "Last Tango in Paris" and "The Last Emperor," has died, his publicity office said on Monday.

Bertolucci died at his home in Rome at 7 am (0600 GMT), Punto & Virgola, a communications agency, said in a statement. The cause of death was cancer.

With "The Last Emperor," an epic biopic about the last Imperial ruler of China, Bertolucci won nine Oscars in 1988, including for Best Picture and Best Director.

But the Italian's most famous - and scandalous - film was arguably 1972's "Last Tango in Paris," featuring a rape scene between Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider.

Other notable works by Bertolucci are "The Conformist," "The Spider's Stratagem," and "1900," dating from the 1970s, as well as 1996's "Stealing Beauty" and "The Dreamers" from 2003.

He was awarded a career award from the Venice Film Festival in 2007 and an honorary Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival four years later.

"[We] lament the passing of Bernardo Bertolucci," the Venice Biennale, which organizes the city's film festival, tweeted. "He will be remembered among the greatest of Italian and world cinema."

Bertolucci, who started out in cinema as an assistant to poet-director Pier Paolo Pasolini, was born in the northern city of Parma on March 16, 1941. His father Attilio was a famous poet.

He spent the last years of his life in a wheelchair following complications from hernia disc surgery in the early 2000s. His last movie was "Me and You" from 2012.