LOS ANGELES (AFP) - An award-winning sound mixer died after falling from a balcony on the set of a new movie starring Tom Hanks as the children's television presenter Mr Rogers.

James Emswiller, who won an Emmy award in 2015, appeared to have fallen from a balcony in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, during a break in shooting, police said.

Police said witnesses reported that Emswiller, 61, "was alone on the balcony taking a cigarette break when he may have suffered a medical emergency resulting in his fall from the balcony".

"Initial information does not indicate any foul play," the police said.

Emergency services rushed Emswiller, who previously worked on the superhero film The Avengers as well as the teen tear-jerker The Fault In Our Stars, to hospital, but he died shortly afterwards, local media said.

Police said shooting of the movie, provisionally titled You Are My Friend, was halted while they investigated the fatal fall.

The movie is based on the creator of the much-loved children's show Mr Rogers' Neighbourhood, which launched in 1968 and ran until 2001.