Screen Legend Paul Newman, 83; Embraced Loner, Iconoclast Roles

Paul Newman, 83, the actor and sex symbol who surged to stardom by playing loners as well as criminal and moral outlaws -- anything to downplay his astonishing looks -- died of cancer Sept. 26 at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn.

Mr. Newman was an Academy Award-winning actor and acclaimed director, and he used his fame to propel his political activism, race-car driving and philanthropy. He donated all the profits from his Newman's Own food company -- more than $250 million -- to charities and social welfare organizations.

Brooding and sinewy, with luminous blue eyes and a husky voice, Mr. Newman resembled a preppy Greek god in his early roles. He quickly rebelled against conventional casting that tried to turn him into a pretty-boy alternative to Marlon Brando and James Dean. He became known as an introspective and nonconformist performer, a perfect antihero idol for the socially rebellious 1960s and '70s.

In many of Mr. Newman's best films -- "The Hustler," "Hud," "Harper," "Cool Hand Luke," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting," "Slap Shot," "The Verdict" and "The Color of Money" (for which he won an Oscar) -- he played amoral rats, genial louts, self-destructive idealists, drunkards and has-beens. Some of his characters redeem themselves by being defeated or killed, and others just continue bumming along.

Mr. Newman hated to see his characters triumph on charm alone. No one, he said, would pay money to see such a beautiful man win the woman and save the day. Off-screen, he mocked his sex-symbol status and said that his personality was closest to the vulgar, second-rate hockey coach he played in "Slap Shot" (1977).

His approach likely saved his career as he matured into a disciplined performer, one of the most enduring and polished of screen stars.

At one time, he gambled on directing small-budget films that often showcased his second wife, actress Joanne Woodward. Their film "Rachel, Rachel" (1968), with Woodward as an aging, virginal schoolteacher, was an unexpected hit.

They had a famously durable marriage. Mr. Newman noted how they decided to act in the comedy "A New Kind of Love" (1963).

He told Time magazine: "Joanne read it and said, 'Hey this could be fun to do together. Read it.' And I read it and said, 'Joanne, it's just a bunch of one-liners.'

"And she said, 'You [expletive], I've been carting your children around, taking care of them, taking care of you and your house.' And I said, 'That is what I said. It's a terrific script. I can't think of anything else I'd rather do.' This is what is known as a reciprocal trade agreement."

Despite his powerhouse reputation, Mr. Newman had an uneven record as an actor. He starred in several critical and commercial duds, including his debut as a Greek slave in "The Silver Chalice" (1954), a role he called "the worst motion picture filmed during the '50s."

Nor was Mr. Newman at his best as a Mexican bandit in "The Outrage" (1964), a French anarchist opposite Sophia Loren in "Lady L" (1965) or a sci-fi wanderer in Robert Altman's "Quintet" (1979). He acted in a few disaster movies -- one set in a flaming skyscraper; the other, about a volcano -- for the money. He also turned down promising parts if their shooting schedules interfered with his auto racing.