US actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's leading male stars of the 1960s and 1970s, in such films as
The Hustler (1961),
Sweet Bird of Youth (1962),
Hud (1963),
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and
The Sting (1973). He won an Academy Award for
The Color of Money (1986).
Initially he often played alienated characters, but later he performed a variety of roles. His other films include
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956),
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958),
Cool Hand Luke (1967),
Absence of Malice (1981),
The Verdict (1982),
Mr and Mrs Bridge (1991), and
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). He directed his wife Joanne Woodward in
Rachel, Rachel (1968) and other films.
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