Barry Newman has died at 92 … actor best known for work in Vanishing Point and Petrocelli

Actor Barry Newman has died aged 92 at New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

The Boston-born entertainer, best known for his role as Kowalski in the 1971 crime thriller Vanishing Point, passed away May 11, his wife Angela said. The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday.

Newman was cast 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 Vietnam veteran/ex-stock car driver/dishonorably discharged cop tasked with driving a white Dodge Challenger R/T 440 1970 Magnum from Denver to San. Francisco.

He said of the career-defining role according to THR, “This was very unique. I had just made a movie about a lawyer who graduated from Harvard and I thought this was something else. The man was the rebel, the anti-hero. I really enjoyed doing that.’

The Boston-born entertainer, best known for his role as Kowalski in the 1971 crime thriller Vanishing Point, passed away May 11, his wife told THR on Sunday.

Filmed over eight weeks, the movie is considered a cult classic, with celebrated filmmaker Steven Spielberg being one of its biggest fans.

Newman was also known for his role as 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 acquitted of his wife’s murder, 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 TV series Petrocelli, which ran for 44 episodes from September 1974 to March 1976 over two seasons.

His more prominent projects later in his career included roles in The OC in 2005, in the 2002 comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights, in the 1996 Sylvester Stallone action film Daylight, and in the 1999 Eddie Murphy-Steve Martin comedy Bowfinger .

Other notable films he appeared in include City on Fire (1979), King Crab (1980), Amy (1981) and Good Advice (2001), while acting in TV shows such as LA Law, Murder, She Wrote, The Fall Guy. and The Cleaner.

He regularly retired from work following a 2009 diagnosis of vocal cord cancer, and his graduation project came with the 2022 independent film Finding Hannah.

Born in Boston on November 7, 1930, Newman graduated from Boston Latin School and Brandeis University before pursuing an acting career with 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 Vietnam veteran/ex-stock car driver/dishonorably discharged cop tasked with driving a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum from Denver to San Francisco

He said of playing the role, “The guy was the rebel, the anti-hero. I really enjoyed doing that’

Filmed over eight weeks, the movie is considered a cult classic, with celebrated filmmaker Steven Spielberg being one of its biggest fans.

Newman was also known for his role as attorney Anthony Petrocelli in the 1970 film The Lawyer and the mid-1970s TV series Petrocelli.

Newman was photographed in LA in December 1999 with his wife Angela Newman

Newman began working on Broadway in 1957 in the Herman Wouk play Nature’s Way, then appeared in the Mel Tolkin and Lucille Kallen play Maybe Tuesday the following year.

Other plays he appeared in included What Makes Sammy Run? as well as Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and Pretty Boy Floyd.

He opened up about the popularity of Vanishing Point 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 airplane terminal!

“It opened back up in America after playing Europe and people started getting into the movie at that point. It became a cult movie without me realizing it. To this day I am always asked to talk about something.’