Barry Newman-Showed himself off as the new kind of brooding anti-hero
Barry Newman
Barry Newman

The son of an Austrian father and Swedish mother, Newman received a liberal education, ranging from Latin to Hebrew and music. Graduating from Brandeis University with an Anthropology degree, Newman decided to become an actor when he attended a class conducted by Actors Studio mentor, Lee Strasberg.

Newman was busy, if not well known, on stage and in Manhattan-based TV, notably the daytime drama, The Edge of Night. His first film was the gangster potboiler, Pretty Boy Floyd (1960) but he made his breakthrough with The Lawyer (1969), where he made an excellent impression in the role of a cocky gonzo attorney, a character reprised in the 1974 TV movie Night Games.

An unlikely early 1970s cult star, actor Barry Newman managed it with one of his first movies, as Kowalski, the weary ex-cop loaded up on drugs, who takes it on himself to drive from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours pursued by the police in the counterculture road flick Vanishing Point (1971). The adventures of this rebel without a cause certainly shows its age nowadays, but back then it had the requisite existential feel and most certainly was a symbolic sign of the times a la Peter Fonda’s Easy Rider (1969). Newman showed himself off as the new kind of brooding anti-hero that the average-looking Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino were making popular at the time. Newman didn’t hit the kind of heights that Hoffman and Pacino achieved, but has continued on solidly for three decades in tough-talking supports. Throughout the 1960s, he appeared on stage in such plays as “Night Life,” “The Mouse Trap” and “What Makes Sammy Run?” A couple of minor films came his way, including Pretty Boy Floyd (1960). It was his hard-hitting role in The Lawyer (1970) that finally opened the doors needed to get ahead and then Vanishing Point (1971). His cocky, self-assured presence made him even sexier than he appeared. He carried this attitude into his own TV series Petrocelli (1974), in the 1970s, playing a hot-shot attorney but, following the show’s demise, his career flattened out. An obvious talent, Newman’s later films such as Amy (1981), Daylight (1996) and The Limey (1999) have managed to keep him in the public eye.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.