Screen legend Paul Newman dies at the age of 83

Paul Newman was an Oscar-winning actor, film-maker, racing driver, philanthropist and political activist. "I was always a character actor," he once explained. "I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood." Photograph: Kobal

He made an inauspicious film debut in The Silver Chalice, a flouncing, flabby historical drama. According to its star, The Silver Chalice was "the worst film made in the 1950s." When it later screened on American TV, he took out an advert in Variety, apologising for his performance and pleading with fans not to watch it. Photograph: Kobal

Newman only snared the lead role in this Tennessee Williams adaptation after the producers original choice - Elvis Presley - turned it down. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof he plays an alcoholic ex-football star, locked in a childless marriage with a fiery Liz Taylor. The film was a major box office hit and bagged Newman the first of his 10 Oscar nominations. Photograph: Kobal

How could he lose? The Hustler provided what was arguably Newman's greatest role - as the driven, damaged pool-hall tyro "Fast Eddie" Felson. Robert Rossen's classic drama was at once a dazzling sports picture and a tragic account of human frailty. Critic Roger Ebert describes is as 'one of the few American movies in which the hero wins by surrendering'. Photograph: Kobal

This torrid Texas saga cast the actor as the brash, whoring 'no account' son of a principled old ranch owner (Melvyn Douglas). Newman so despised the character that he was appalled when Hud was subsequently adopted as a hip anti-hero for younger 60s audiences. Photograph: Kobal

The actor divorced his first wife, Jackie Witte, to wed Joanna Woodward in 1958. It was a rare example of a happy, faithful Hollywood marriage. 'Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?' he once remarked. Photograph: Martha Holmes/Getty

Cool Hand Luke was a powerhouse prison saga, casting Newman as the rambunctious convict turned Christ-like martyr. Four decades on it remains one of his best-loved roles. But did he really eat all those eggs? Photograph: Kobal

The traditional Hollywood western had all but bitten the dust when Butch Cassidy happened along. George Roy Hill's whimsical, freewheeling outlaw caper struck a chord with 60s viewers and made pin-ups of Newman and co-star Robert Redford. They would later re-team (again with Hill in the chair) for the 1972 hit The Sting. Photograph: Kobal

As a supporter of Eugene McCarthy's failed presidential bid, Newman attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention alongside playwright Arthur Miller. His political activism would later land him on Richard Nixon's infamous 'Enemies List' - an achievement he was apparently very proud of. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

The Towering Inferno was arguably the biggest (and certainly most fiery) disaster flick of the 70s, a star-stuffed, action-packed studio behemoth that rang cash-tills across America. At the insistence of co-star Steve McQueen, he and Newman had exactly the same number of lines of dialogue in the movie. Photograph: Kobal

Acting on the 1969 film Winning sparked an enduring love of motorsports. 'It was the first thing I ever found I had any grace in,' he said. Newman went on to race at Le Mans in 1979, placing second in his Turbo Porsche. Photograph: Getty

Now nudging 60, Newman gave one of his finest performance in Sidney Lumet's The Verdict. He stars as a booze-sozzled, ambulance-chasing lawyer who gets a belated shot at redemption when he takes on a medical malpractice case. Look out for a youthful Jerry Seinfeld in the closing courtroom scene. Photograph: Kobal

A quarter-of-a-century on from The Hustler, Newman reprised his role as an older, (marginally) wiser "Fast Eddie" Felson in The Colour of Money. Martin Scorsese's flashy pool-hall drama may not have been Newman's greatest film but it earned him what the others could not - the Academy Award for best actor. Photograph: Kobal

Paul Newman divorced his first wife to marry actor Joanne Woodward in 1958. The pair worked together on Merchant-Ivory's stately Mr and Mrs Bridge, playing a traditional WASP couple in 1930s Kansas City. Newman would later confess that the uptight, reserved Mr Bridge was the role closest to his own personality. Photograph: Kobal

The Road to Perdition was a cold, implacable gangster movie, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Tom Hanks, Jude Law and Daniel Craig. But it was galvanised by one last, blistering performance from Newman as an Irish-Catholic mob boss - a man at once kindly, protective and terrifying. Photograph: Kobal

Since 1982 Newman has operated a neat sideline running the food company Newman's Own ... or at least it would have been a neat sideline if he hadn't ploughed the profits (an estimated $220m) into charitable causes. Here he is on his last British visit in 2004 - entertaining 300 sick and disabled children in the guise of a circus clown, Butch Bolognese. Photograph: Andy Butterton/PA

Paul Newman officially announced his retirement from acting in 2007 - "It's pretty much a closed book for me," he said. Earlier this year he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on September 26 2008. Photograph: Frederick M Brown/Getty