Lou Rawls, the silky-voiced singer known as much for his velvet voice as his charitable work, died of cancer Friday.

Rawls died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was hospitalized last month for treatment of lung and brain cancer, said his publicist Paul Shefrin.

Shefrin said the singer was 72, but other reports suggest he was 70.

Rawls has sold more than 40 million albums and won three Grammys during a career. His hits include Love Is a Hurtin' Thing, Dead End Street and You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine.

Frank Sinatra once said Rawls had the "silkiest chops in the singing game."

The singer was also well known for his charity work. He founded the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars telethon, which helped raise nearly $200 million for the United Negro College Fund.

Rawls also had a love of acting, and has appeared on the big and small screen. His movie appearances include Leaving Las Vegas and Blues Brothers 2000. He also lent his velvet voice to television shows such as Hey Arnold and Garfield.

Rawls, who had a four-octave range, began by singing gospel in his hometown of Chicago. As a teenager, he was known to harmonize with classmate Sam Cooke.

He joined a touring gospel group known as The Pilgrim Travelers in the 1950s. After a three-year stint in the army, Rawls rejoined the group and sang with Cooke.

It was while on tour with Cooke and the Travelers that he was in a serious car accident that almost ended his life. Rawls was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital, and slipped in and out of a coma for several days. It took him a year to fully recover, and afterwards he would say the experience helped him understand about acceptance and direction.

The singer was signed by Capitol Records in 1962. Just four years later, he earned his first two Grammy nominations with his top-of-the-chart hit Love Is a Hurtin' Thing.

In close to five decades as a recording artist, Rawls won three Grammys, earned 13 Grammy nominations, had one platinum album, five gold albums and a gold single.

"I've gone the full spectrum -- from gospel to blues to jazz to soul to pop -- and the public has accepted what I've done through it all. I think it means I've been doing something right at the right time," Rawls says in a biography on his website.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2004, and brain cancer in May 2005.

Rawls has four children: Louanna Rawls, Lou Rawls Jr., Kendra Smith and Aiden Rawls.

He is also survived by his wife, Nina, who was at his bedside when he died.

According to a report by The Associated Press, published in December, the pair were estranged.

Rawls was attempting to annul the two-year marriage. He said in court papers that he wanted to protect hundreds of thousands of dollars of assets that his wife "absconded with.''

His estranged wife says she transferred nearly $350,000 US into an account that she solely controls to prevent one of Rawls' two adult daughters from seizing the money.

She worked as Rawls' manager since 2003.