Actor Barry Newman died at the age of 92 at New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York.
The Boston-born entertainer, best known for his role as Kowalski in the 1971 crime thriller Vanishing Point, died May 11, his wife Angela said. The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday.
Newman starred in the Richard C. Sarafian film Vanishing Point after a stint on Broadway and in the 1970 film The Lawyer.
The film, which also starred Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger and Victoria Medlin, starred Newman as a dishonourably fired Vietnam veteran/former stock car driver/cop tasked with driving a Dodge Challenger R / T 440 Magnum white 1970 from Denver to San Francisco.
He said of his career defining role, according to THR: “It was very unique. I had just made this film about a lawyer, a Harvard graduate, and I thought it was a different kind of thing. The guy was the rebel, the antihero. I really liked doing that.
The latest: Actor Barry Newman has died aged 92 at New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. Photographed in 2013 in Los Angeles
The Boston-born entertainer, best known for his role as Kowalski in the 1971 crime thriller Vanishing Point, died May 11, his wife told THR on Sunday.
The film was shot in eight weeks and is considered a cult classic, with acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg among its biggest fans.
Newman was also known for his role as defense attorney Anthony Petrocelli in the 1970 film The Lawyer, which was based on the case of Cleveland surgeon Sam Sheppard, who was convicted and later exonerated of the murder of his wife, in a story that also inspired The Fugitive franchise.
Newman reprized his role as Petrocelli in the 1974 TV movie Night Games and in the television series Petrocelli, which aired 44 episodes over two seasons from September 1974 to March 1976.
Some of his most significant projects later in his career include roles in The OC in 2005, the 2002 comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights, the 1996 Sylvester Stallone action film Daylight, and the 1999 comedy by Eddie Murphy-Steve Martin Bowfinger.
Other notable films he appeared in include City on Fire (1979), King Crab (1980), Amy (1981) and Good Advice (2001), while he starred in television shows such as LA Law, Murder, She Wrote, The Fall Guy. and The Cleaner.
He stopped working regularly after being diagnosed with vocal cord cancer in 2009, his last project coming with the 2022 independent film Finding Hannah.
Newman was born in Boston on November 7, 1930 and later graduated from Boston Latin School and Brandeis University before pursuing an acting career studying under famed filmmaker Lee Strasberg.
Newman was cast in the Richard C. Sarafian film Vanishing Point after a stint on Broadway and in the 1970 film The Lawyer
Newman played a disgraced Vietnam veteran/former stock car driver/cop tasked with driving a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum from Denver to San Francisco
He said of playing the part: “The guy was the rebel, the anti-hero.” I really liked doing that’
The film was shot in eight weeks and is considered a cult classic, with acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg among its biggest fans.
Newman was also known for his role as defense attorney Anthony Petrocelli in the 1970 film The Lawyer and the mid-1970s television series Petrocelli.
Newman was pictured with his wife Angela Newman in Los Angeles in December 1999
Newman in 1957 began work on Broadway in Herman Wouk’s play Nature’s Way, and later appeared in Mel Tolkin and Lucille Kallen’s play Maybe Tuesday the following year.
Other plays he has appeared in include What Makes Sammy Run? as well as Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and Pretty Boy Floyd.
He spoke about Vanishing Point’s popularity in a 2019 interview with Paul Rowlands, saying: “In England I was a hero, and in America I was just a guy collecting his bags at the airport terminal. plane!”
“It reopened in America after playing in Europe and then people started getting into the movie. It’s become a cult movie without me even realizing it. To this day, I still get asked to talk about it somewhere.
