June 4, 2023 – 9:20 p.m
Barry Newman, whom most people in Hungary probably know as the main character of the Petrocelli series, has died at the age of 92.
The actor passed away on May 11 in a medical center, but his ex-wife just announced it With The Hollywood Reporter.
Petrocelli was produced in the 1970s and lasted 45 episodes, and was shown for decades on Hungarian television. In the series, Newman played a defense attorney who himself solved criminal cases and saved his clients. When he’s not investigating, he regularly fights with his wife over their unfinished house, so they stay in their trailer.
Newman got his start as a stage actor on Broadway, his first major success being The Lawyer, and then he starred in the action movie Rush to Nowhere. His character, Kowalski, a Vietnam veteran and fired police officer, is pumping amphetamines, trying to get to his destination as quickly as possible in a white Dodge Challenger.
Rushing to Nowhere has become such a cult movie that Steven Spielberg even called it one of his favorite movies.
Newman was active until the beginning of the 2000s, and Hungarian audiences could see him in the series Killing Rows and JAG – Honorable Cases, as well as in the films 40 Days, 40 Nights and The Orange Country as well as Petrocelli.
In 2009, his vocal cords were attacked by cancer, after which he performed only a few roles. In 2022, he’s shooting again with an independent filmmaker.
