Since then Newman has appeared in around 50 other feature movies and along the way he has picked up an Oscar for best actor. This summer he can he heard in the animated feature Cars, in which he provides the voice for an angsty cartoon version of a 1951 Hudson Hornet.

Yet now at the age of 81, Newman has suggested his career as an actor may almost have run its course. Speaking to reporters recently, he said he may only have one more film left in him . . . a project he has apparently already decided, but about which he will not yet provide details. "I will probably have one film left in me . . . the last hurrah, " he said. "It's time. When it's time to get out, it's time to get out."

By now, he considers himself something of a Hollywood survivor. "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, " he once said.

As to the project that might lure him in front of the cameras one last time, he recently gave a clue in an interview, saying: "It would have to be either a wonderful character in a wonderful film or a character that was acceptable in a film with some social content."