Hollywood legend Paul Newman dies at 83

Legendary film star Paul Newman, whose brilliant blue eyes, good looks and talent made him one of Hollywood's top actors over six decades has died at age 83 after a long battle with cancer.

Newman died on Friday night at his farmhouse near Westport, Connecticut, said his Los Angeles-based spokesman Jeff Sanderson.

"His death was as private and discreet as the way he had lived his life, a humble artist who never thought of himself as 'big,' surrounded by his beloved family and the close circle of friends," said a statement released by his family yesterday.

Paul Leonard Newman, known as 'PL' to his friends, appeared in more than 50 movies, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting. He earned nine Oscar nominations for acting and won the best actor honour for 1986's The Color of Money.

Famed for his philanthropy as well as his acting, Newman was married to Oscar-winning actress Joanne Woodward for more than 50 years.

His Newman's Own Foundation gave more than $250 million to thousands of charities worldwide and his Hole-in-the-Wall Camps provided summer breaks for children with serious illnesses.

"Our father was a rare symbol of selfless humility, the last to acknowledge what he was doing was special. Intensely private, he quietly succeeded beyond measure in impacting the lives of so many with his generosity," his five daughters said in a statement.

"Always and to the end, dad was incredibly grateful for his good fortune. In his own words: 'It's been a privilege to be here,'" they said.

Newman was born in a Cleveland suburb on January 26, 1925, and was a Navy radio man in the Pacific during World War Two. Afterwards, he went to Kenyon College in Ohio on a football scholarship but took up acting after being cut from the team because of a barroom brawl.

After his father's death, Newman helped run the family sporting goods store before heading to the Yale Drama School.

He ended up in New York, finding bit parts on TV and a Broadway role in Picnic in 1953. His first major movie role was portraying boxer Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me. From there, his career was on the rise.

In 1958, Newman starred in The Long Hot Summer with Woodward, who he married that year shortly after divorcing his first wife, Jacqueline Witte.

He also played an alcoholic loser in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, opposite Elizabeth Taylor and the pool shark Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler. Then came hits like Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a 1969 Western pairing him with Robert Redford. The two also teamed up as con men in the 1973 movie The Sting. Newman was also recognised for his work behind the camera, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and a Golden Globe award for Best Director for Rachel, Rachel, which he produced and directed, and which starred Woodward.

Though his film career slowed in later years, Newman picked up Oscar nominations in 1994 for drama Nobody's Fool and again in 2002 for the crime thriller Road to Perdition.

He returned to the stage the same year in Our Town for Connecticut-based Westport County Playhouse. The show moved to Broadway and Newman was nominated for a Tony award for his performance and won an Emmy for the 2003 broadcast of the show on PBS.

In 2005 he won another Emmy, US television's highest award, for Best Supporting Actor in the HBO mini-series Empire Falls. His last movie part was a voice-over role in the 2006 animated film Cars.

Throughout his career, Newman resisted the glare of Hollywood's spotlight. He said once that his profession had "nothing to do with being an adult" and he bristled at the attention to his blue eyes, which happened to be colour blind.

His long marriage to Woodward ran counter to Hollywood convention, where fast weddings and quick divorces seem to be the standard, and the pair lived in a 200-year-old Connecticut house, far from the heart of the entertainment industry. Asked the secret of his marriage, Newman once said: " I know this is going to sound corny but there's no reason to roam. I have steak at home. Why should I go out for a hamburger?"