Luis Tiant, a Cuban-born right-hander who was one of baseball’s most entertaining and charismatic pitchers, and whose personal story was among the game’s most poignant, died on Tuesday. He was 83.

His death was announced by the Boston Red Sox, for whom he pitched in the 1970s. The team did not say where he died or cite the cause.

El Tiante, as he was known on the sports pages — or Loo-ee! as stadiums full of fans would often chant while he was on the mound — won 229 games over 19 big-league seasons, playing for teams in six cities, notably Cleveland and Boston, where he led the Red Sox to a World Series and became one of the most beloved players in the team’s storied history.

In a career that necessitated a long separation from his family and from Cuba, his homeland, and that was bifurcated by a serious shoulder injury, Tiant won 20 or more games four times and threw 187 complete games (more than Don Sutton, Don Drysdale, Lefty Gomez or Dizzy Dean) and 49 shutouts (more than Roger Clemens, Whitey Ford, Catfish Hunter, Sandy Koufax or Bob Feller).

But beyond his achievements, he was one of the game’s memorable showmen, distinctive in almost every way — from his Fu Manchu mustache, barrel-shaped torso and ever-present mammoth cigar (ever-present, that is, except on the field, including in the locker room shower) to his dizzying repertoire of breaking balls and delivery angles, as well as perhaps the most elastic, twisty-turny windup in history.