Paul Newman, who died on Friday aged 83, was lauded by British director Sam Mendes and actor Daniel Craig, both of whom worked with him on the 2002 film "Road to Perdition."
Oscar-winning director Mendes said working with Newman was "the highlight of my professional life."
"To say he was an extraordinary man would be an understatement," he said.
"He saw himself as a working actor, not a movie star, and insisted that everyone else did the same. There was no ego, no entourage, no hangers on. Only Paul, his script and his incredible spirit.
"One can say this about very few people, but he was a truly great man," said Mendes, who won the Academy Award for 1999 film "American Beauty".
Craig, the star of the recent James Bond film, described Newman as "one of the greatest screen actors of all time and a beautiful man."
"I think an era just ended," he said.
Newman, who had been battling cancer, appeared in more than 50 movies and was one of the most popular and consistently bankable Hollywood stars in the second half of the 20th century.
Two of his most popular movies included "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) and "The Sting" (1973), in which he co-starred with an equally popular and handsome actor, Robert Redford.
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.
Copyright 2008 AFP European Edition
