Screen Legend Paul Newman Bows Out At 83

SCREEN legend Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as an activist, race car driver, popcorn impresario and the anti-hero of a string of popular films, has died at 83 after a battle with cancer.

Newman died yesterday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.

Newman was nominated for Academy Awards 10 times, winning a regular Oscar in 1987 for The Colour of Money and two honorary ones. He starred in comedy dramas such as The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with screen partner Robert Redford, among more than 50 other films.

In May, Newman dropped plans to direct a production of Of Mice and Men, citing unspecified health issues.

He got his start in theatre and on television in the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers.

Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Redford.

He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages.

"I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray.

They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in The Long Hot Summer, and Newman directed her in several films, including Rachel, Rachel and The Glass Menagerie.

Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on January 26, 1925. He was the son of Theresa and Arthur S. Newman, who ran a profitable sporting goods store.

His father was Jewish and his mother was born to a Slovak Catholic family in Hungary.