Paul Newman was the most perfect-looking person ever to be considered a real actor. Yes, Brando was breathtaking for a time but he was an angry Adonis who felt the need to punish Hollywood for the easy distraction of his beauty by letting himself go to seed with a curiously vain surrender. Oh, sure, Hollywood tried to fob Newman off as a nice piece of flesh, too, in the early years but he certainly outsmarted that town. He remained beautiful until the day he died but seemed to wear the fact with such ease that you could enjoy it and weave it naturally into the fabric of everything else he had to offer.

Everything else he had to offer should be obvious before the end of Seattle Art Museum’s month-long tribute American Legend: The Films of Paul Newman, which begins tonight at 7:30 with a rare screening of 1956’s The Rack. Screenwriter Stewart Stern, Newman’s friend who adapted Rod Serling’s teleplay about a brainwashed Korean War vet on trial for treason, will be on hand to talk about the guy who managed to be a movie star and still come off like a man. And—let’s admit—what a man.