Hollywood hero Paul Newman dies

Paul Newman, whose piercing blue eyes and handsome looks lit up some of the best films of the past half-century, has died of cancer at the age of 83. A spokesman for the actor said he was surrounded by family and friends when he died on Friday at his farmhouse near Westport, Connecticut.

There were reports earlier this summer that Newman was seriously ill when he pulled out of directing a production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men due to be staged at Connecticut's Westport Country Playhouse this autumn. He was understood to be receiving treatment for lung cancer at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

It is exactly 50 years since Newman broke through in Hollywood with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in which he played Brick opposite Elizabeth Taylor's 'Maggie the Cat'. The Hustler in 1961 and Hud in 1963 confirmed his star quality. He was nominated for best actor Oscar in all three films but had to wait until 1987 and The Color of Money before winning the Academy Award.

Among many strong movies he made in the meantime were two in which he teamed up famously with Robert Redford - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969 and, four years later, The Sting.

There was much more to his life, however, than film acting. He put his Hollywood career on hold in the Seventies while he became a professional racing driver, taking second place at Le Mans in 1979. Last year, aged 82, he finished fourth in the Glen Nationals, driving a 640 horsepower Corvette.

Newman was a philanthropist who established the Hole in the Wall Gang summer camps (named after the gang he led in Butch Cassidy) for children suffering from life-threatening illnesses. And he donated profits from his Newman's Own food range to a number of charitable organisations.

He was married for 50 years to the actress Joanne Woodward with whom he acted in several films including Long Hot Summer and Paris Blues. Asked about infidelity, he said: "Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?"

Although his good looks and blue eyes made him the perfect romantic lead, Newman often played rebels, tough guys and losers. "I was always a character actor," he once said. "I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood."

When he played a cad in Hud, the New Yorker's film critic Pauline Kael wrote: "They could cast him as a mean man and know that the audience would never believe in his meanness."

Robert Forrester, vice-chairman of the Newman's Own Foundation, said: "Paul Newman's craft was acting. His passion was racing. His love was his family and friends. And his heart and soul were dedicated to helping make the world a better place for all."