1) The coupling that never was: James Dean and Paul Newman screentest for East of Eden. Dean pouts, Newman postures.
2) His first great role: as "drunken whelp" Brick Politt in the adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Here, he outlines his methodology for getting through the day.
3) But Newman was never fundamentally a glowering, Method-driven angst poster boy. He was always best when playing stuff light, dancing with the audience. The grin is deployed to thrilling, Machiavellian effect in 1961's The Hustler.
4) Exhibit B: pure, unadulterated charm in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, even when he's persuading Robert Redford that a belated swimming lesson might be a good call.
5) Another part of his appeal was that, for a stupidly good-looking guy who could have hidden himself in Brando-like mystique or plumped for Eastwood's brand of armour-plated stardom, he was never above his audience and clung to his down-to-earth strengths. And he was easy enough to let the cracks show - in 1961's Paris Blues, he's looking distinctly off-the-beat as the squarest "hip" trombonist this side of Jazz Club. Hey, who's gonna cut it opposite Louis Armstrong, anyway?
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