Truly, it seemed Paul Newman would always be with us. His characters on screen were usually so full of life, of raucous, irrepressible energy. His offscreen life — his 50-year marriage to Joanne Woodward, his food empire, his philanthropy, his auto racing — seemed thoroughly active and fulfilling as well. And he aged more gracefully than just about anyone in Hollywood history, remaining a handsome leading man well into his 70s, thanks to those granite cheekbones and those piercing, ice-blue eyes. So his passing in 2008 came as a shock, even though he was 83.

In the early part of his long film career, Newman specialized in playing grinning rascals, rebels, and reprobates — including rangy drifter Ben Quick in "The Long Hot Summer" (1958), pool shark Eddie Felson in "The Hustler" (1961), the indomitable title characters in "Hud" (1963) and "Cool Hand Luke" (1967), and Butch Cassidy in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). As he matured, he found himself playing aging outsiders getting one last shot at redemption — hockey star Reg Dunlop in "Slap Shot" (1977), an older and wiser Eddie Felson in 1986's "The Color of Money" (the film that finally won him an Oscar, after eight tries), or wistful crime boss John Rooney in "Road to Perdition" (2002). In some later roles, like wily grandpa Max Roby (his last onscreen role) in 2005's “Empire Falls,” you can still see the young, restless rebel inside the old man. Even his heels were heroes, if only for their unbreakable spirit in confronting whatever life threw at them.

An outspoken liberal, Newman was proud of having made Richard Nixon’s enemies list, but everyone else seemed to love him — his family, his fellow actors, the racing world, the kids at his Hole in the Wall camps, generations of moviegoers, and everyone who ever encountered his smiling face on a bottle of salad dressing. We were all Newman’s Own, and we will be for years to come. —Gary Susman