Paul Newman, the legendary actor whose steely blue eyes, good-humored charm and advocacy of worthy causes made him one of the most renowned figures in American arts, has died of cancer at his home in Westport, Connecticut. He was 83.

Newman, who had been battling cancer, passed away on Friday, Newman’s Own Foundation said in a statement from Westport, Connecticut.

“Paul Newman’s craft was acting. His passion was racing. His love was his family and friends. And his heart and soul were dedicated to helping make the world a better place for all,” Foundation Vice-Chairman Robert Forrester said.

Newman played youthful rebels, charming rogues, golden-hearted drunks and amoral opportunists in a career that encompassed more than 50 movies. He was one of the most popular and consistently bankable Hollywood stars in the second half of the 20th century.

Newman attained stardom in the 1950s and never lost the movie-star aura, appearing in such classic films as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Exodus,” “The Hustler,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting” and “The Verdict.”

He finally won an Oscar in 1986 — on his eighth try — for “The Color of Money,” a sequel to “The Hustler.” He later received two more Oscar nominations. Among his other awards was the Motion Picture Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Newman was also a philanthropist, a health food mogul — he once quipped that his salad dressing was making more money than his movies — a race car enthusiast and a leftist political activist.

Many however will remember him for his good looks: in 1990 People Magazine chose him as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, and in 1995 Britain’s Empire Magazine picked him as one of the 100 sexiest stars in film history.

Born Paul Leonard Newman on January 26, 1925 in Shaker Heights, Ohio into a well-off middle class family. His father ran a successful sporting goods chain, but young Paul was taken with his mother’s and uncle’s interest in the arts. Newman acted in school plays as a youth.

“I wasn’t running toward the theater but running away from the sporting goods store,” he said later.

He joined the navy in World War II wanting to be a pilot, but tests showed that he was colorblind. Instead he served as a rear-seat radioman and tail gunner aboard Avenger torpedo bombers in the Pacific theater.

After the war Newman went to college, enrolled in the Yale drama school, and moved to New York where he acted in plays. That job eventually landed him television roles, and then in the movies.

Newman’s film career almost ended with his first movie — he considered his performance in the sword-and-sandal 1954 drama “The Chalice” so mediocre he paid for a page-size ad in a Hollywood trade publication to apologize.

Newman redeemed himself in his next movie, “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1956), a portrayal of boxer Rocky Graziano, and by 1958 was nominated for an Oscar as an alcoholic ex-football player in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” starring alongside Elizabeth Taylor.

Hit movies rolled on from there, including “Exodus” (1960), “The Hustler” (1961), “Hud” (1963), “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “The Towering Inferno” (1974) and “Slap Shot” (1977).

A committed liberal, Newman openly campaigned for several Democratic Party candidates — which got him onto Republican president Richard Nixon’s famous list of enemies in the 1970s.

“Being on president Nixon’s enemies list was the highest single honor I’ve ever received,” Newman said in a 2006 interview. “Who knows who’s listening to me now and what government list I’m on?”

In recent years, Newman talked about doing another film with his friend Redford, but the two couldn’t settle on a script. In 2007, Newman said he was retiring from acting, saying he’d lost confidence in his abilities. Still, he marveled at his own resilience.

“You can’t be as old as I am without waking up with a surprised look on your face every morning: ‘Holy Christ, whaddya know – I’m still around!’ It’s absolutely amazing that I survived all the booze and smoking and the cars and the career.”

Newman, who was married to Jackie Witt from 1949 to 1957, is survived by his wife, Joanne Woodward, and five children.

Rest in peace, Paul. You will be forever missed!