The Verdict, 1982

A character actor trapped in a movie star's charisma, Paul Newman had to inch toward 60 before receiving his due acclaim for roles that were neither heroes nor heels. His Frank Galvin, an alcoholic

lawyer, scrounges up one last case that will expose venalities in the medical establishment and the

Catholic Church. For once playing someone viewed with contempt, not envy, Newman did full justice to a

wizened creature in a movie whose "winter light," David Thomson wrote, "got through his mask and into a

raw soul." It earned Newman the cover of TIME and his sixth Oscar nomination. He lost to Gandhi.