An Irish poet who played an Irish poet in the Federico Fellini film, La Dolce Vita, has died at the age of 78. Irish president Michael D Higgins led tributes to Desmond O’Grady, describing him as one of Ireland’s best-known poets.

Higgins said: “From wherever he was writing, be it Cairo or Kinsale, his work invoked a sense of what was Irish in both heritage and contemporary life. He established a fine reputation as a translator of literary works from various languages into English. He leaves a fine collection of work, reflecting both his migrant experience and his affection for his homeland, that will be studied and cherished by future generations.”

O’Grady was born in Limerick in 1935. He moved to Paris in the 1950s and worked in the Shakespeare and Company bookshop before teaching in the city. He also taught and wrote in Rome and America. He was a teaching fellow at Harvard University where he completed his MA and Ph.D. He taught at the American University in Cairo and the University of Alexandria in Egypt.

The poet was a founder member of the European Community of Writers, and was European editor of the Transatlantic Review. Collections of his own poems include The Road Taken: Poems 1956-1996 and The Wandering Celt. He also published 12 collections of translated poetry, including Kurdish Poems of Love and Liberty in 2005.

The late Seamus Heaney had described O’Grady as “one of the senior figures in Irish literary life, exemplary in the way he has committed himself over the decades to the vocation of poetry”.

The Irish Independent quoted O’Grady’s daughter Deirdre, who said her father embraced “a bohemian lifestyle” and lived a life dedicated to his work, poetry and the arts. “He left Ireland when he was 18 and went to Paris, and from there he travelled the world. He had a few pounds in his pocket at the time and thought he would give it a go. He got in with all the literati and, of course, he was very charming.” She added: “He was the young pretender out to follow in their footsteps. They really took to him.”

He also appeared in a scene in Fellini’s 1960 Oscar-winning film La Dolce Vita, alongside the film’s star Anita Ekberg.

O’Grady had three children and six grandchildren. He returned to Ireland and had been living in Kinsale until recently when his health began to fail.