An anti-hero of alarming beauty

Paul Newman, that pure and concentrated essence of classic movie stardom, reinvented himself a couple of times in the span of his long career, until he ended up playing the kind of guy he might have become had he never left his native Shaker Heights, Ohio: an ultra-conservative, cold-fish Midwestern lawyer, married for decades to the same woman (see his performance in the Merchant-Ivory jewel box “Mr. And Mrs. Bridge,” from 1990).

But he’ll be best remembered for playing the polar opposite, a recurring persona he took up and reprised from 1958 through 1969, the nonconformist ne’er-do-well, idolized by criminals and women who knew better, reviled by authority and tradition.

A quick survey of the characters Newman inhabited during that time reveals several recurring traits. There’s the matter of his alarming beauty, which was almost always treated as a complicating factor in his characters’ lives. An otherworldly Adonis, he could have simply gone the tuxedo route, but he had a fondness for playing rough-and-tumble losers, drunks, failures and outcasts. His rebel nonconformists were often nonconformist in pointless, self-serving, usually self-destructive ways that he refused to romanticize.

Remarkably, he was almost never paired with the great beauties of his time, appearing instead opposite actresses of lesser looks than his. Piper Laurie, Patricia Neal, even Joanne Woodward -- whom he would eventually marry and remain with for life -- played characters in thrall to his charm and charisma, usually to their detriment. The most beautiful actress he was ever cast opposite also happened to play the character he rebuffed most cruelly: Elizabeth Taylor’s sex-starved Maggie, longing hopelessly for passion from his closeted gay Brick in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

It’s not the sort of thing you see much at the movies anymore -- the examination of the male bombshell, a character as irresistible as he is casually destructive to himself and others. It’s hard to imagine a modern-day movie star putting his sex appeal to such complicated, fascinating use. Even when Newman’s characters liked women, he wasn’t very good to them. In “Hud,” he tried to rape his housekeeper. In “The Hustler,” he took up with a disabled alcoholic who, for a while, supported him. In “Sweet Bird of Youth,” he hustled rich older women for money and an entree into show business, repeatedly abandoning the girl he loved to pursue his dream of stardom. In “Cool Hand Luke,” where the only woman in sight was his mother, he broke her heart.

And yet the Paul Newman anti-hero, a rake if ever there was one, was irresistible to men and women alike. (What is “Cool Hand Luke” if not a polyamorous bromance writ large?) His early characters were at once vulpine and preyed upon; twice, in separate films, he uttered a variation of the line, “Everyone wants a piece of me.” Newman was savvy enough to know when to start moving away from the roles that used his beauty as a basis for his characters. And that intelligence and grounded self-awareness shines through in all his performances. The slow Newman grin, the same one that charms George Kennedy in “Cool Hand Luke,” made it clear that he was always aware of the effect he had on others, and when and how to modulate it for maximum impact.

His characters’ vanity got them into worlds of trouble, but Newman’s complete lack of it came across clearly in the roles he chose and the life he lived.

--

carina.chocano@latimes.com

--

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Actor’s legacy

Paul Newman’s films include:

* “The Silver Chalice,” 1954

* “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” 1956

* “The Rack,” 1956

* “The Helen Morgan Story,” 1957

* “Until They Sail,” 1957

* “The Long, Hot Summer,” 1958

* “The Left-Handed Gun,” 1958

* “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” 1958

* “Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys!” 1958

* “The Young Philadelphians,” 1959

* “From the Terrace,” 1960

* “Exodus,” 1960

* “The Hustler,” 1961

* “Paris Blues,” 1961

* “Sweet Bird of Youth,” 1962

* “Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man,” 1962

* “Hud,” 1963

* “A New Kind of Love,” 1963

* “The Prize,” 1963

* “What a Way to Go!” 1964

* “The Outrage,” 1964

* “Lady L,” 1965

* “Harper,” 1966

* “Torn Curtain,” 1966

* “Hombre,” 1967

* “Cool Hand Luke,” 1967

* “The Secret War of Harry Frigg,” 1968

* “Winning,” 1969

* “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” 1969

* “WUSA,” 1970

* “Sometimes a Great Notion,” 1971

* “Pocket Money,” 1972

* “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,” 1972

* “The Mackintosh Man,” 1973

* “The Sting,” 1973

* “The Towering Inferno,” 1974

* “The Drowning Pool,” 1975

* “Silent Movie” (cameo), 1976

* “Buffalo Bill and the Indians . . . or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson,” 1976

* “Slap Shot,” 1977

* “Quintet,” 1979

* “When Time Ran Out,” 1980

* “Fort Apache, the Bronx,” 1981

* “Absence of Malice,” 1981

* “The Verdict,” 1982

* “Harry and Son,” 1984

* “The Color of Money,” 1986

* “Fat Man and Little Boy,” 1989

* “Blaze,” 1989

* “Mr. & Mrs. Bridge,” 1990

* “The Hudsucker Proxy,” 1994

* “Nobody’s Fool,” 1994

* “Twilight,” 1998

* “Message in a Bottle,” 1999

* “Where the Money Is,” 2000

* “Road to Perdition,” 2002

* “Cars” (voice), 2006

Source: Associated Press

--

Voices

‘I was blessed to have known him. The world is better because of him. Sometimes God makes perfect people, and Paul Newman was one of them.’

-- Sally Field, actress

--

‘I simply loved that man. And today I am thinking about him and savoring every moment I was with him, every conversation we had on the phone, every dime I ever lost to him in a bet. I could laugh out loud thinking about things we did together over the last 25 years, but it’s agonizing at the same time.’

-- Mario Andretti, race car driver

--

‘He was committed equally to justice and pranks. He was something you don’t hear mentioned often these days: a good man. He taught me to appreciate the home-grown tomato, championship badminton and chamber music.’

-- Susan Sarandon, actress

--

‘He was a master of his craft -- an artist respected and emulated by his peers and beloved by movie fans around the world. Incredibly, the effect of his charitable work will rival and perhaps even exceed the legacy he leaves us all on the silver screen.’

-- Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Assn. of America

--

‘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.’

-- Robert Forrester, vice chairman of Newman’s Own Foundation

--

‘He was always a hero of mine, both as an actor and as a man, and it was an honor to have known his wonderful spirit, to act with him, to laugh with him, and to sit in the passenger seat while he drove 100 mph with mischief in his eyes.’

-- Tim Robbins, actor

From Times Staff and Wire Reports

--

On latimes.com

A closer look

For more on the life of Paul Newman, including photos, videos and remembrances, go to latimes.com/newman.