Paul Newman, 82, announced yesterday that he wouldn’t make any more films. And the world seemed a little paler and flatter.

He was an extraordinary actor – consistently brilliant, always compelling – who should have won a shelf of Oscars, but was often and inexplicably overlooked by the Academy, perhaps because he made it look so easy.

Newman was heard but not seen in his last three films, all of which were animated features. His final on-screen appearance was in HBO Films’ “Empire Falls,” in 2005, in which he played an old rogue – as irresistible as he was irresponsible.

In the course of his long career, he probably played as many so-called bad guys and/or anti-heroes, as good buys, and he inevitably inclined towards rogues.

The most notable of his last round of films was “Twilight,” in which he played an exhausted private detective. It was a dead-on perfect performance.

And, in real life, he was, and is, a dead-on perfect man.

In addition to his work on stage, he appeared in 78 films, directed a number of them, drove race cars for a while, and his non-profit line of foods raised over $200 million for a variety of worthy causes.

Bravo, Mr. Newman.

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