I agree with all of this. Paul Newman was pretty damned cool, too. But, McQueen gets the nod from me.
It helps that McQueen and I share a birthday, as well. 
Paul Newman kicks Steve McQueen’s ass in every category you could care to name.
Not in the category of people in Bullitt and The Great Escape. If Newman was so great, why wasn’t he in those movies?
Or the category of starring in the best racing films. Heck, even James Garner tops Newman there.
But the category of best salad dressing? Well, ya got me there.
Steve had always been pathologically insecure about being compared to Paul, so when the two made The Towering Inferno together, it was Steve who made sure that not only his salary was the same, but that Paul didn’t get any more lines of dialogue than he did.
That, by definition, makes Paul cooler.
Rick Moranis
After all, he was the ‘key master’.
** goes off to Google the phrase “mother scratcher” **
Seriously? This is a thing? This is a functioning / understood euphemism for motherfucker??
Paul Newman was by far the better actor, Steve McQueen was cooler.
I am tired of these monkey-fried snakes on my Monday-Friday plane!
I regret not having phrased that as “And yet, Sean Connery outlasted both of them.”
He certainly would have improved them ;).
I never did get the appeal of Bullitt and I live in the SF Bay Area. It just isn’t that great.
Now The Great Escape is great. But I think McQueen’s shoe-horned roll was about the weakest thing in it. Not bad, but really transparently extraneous to the plot ( woohoo! motorcycle stunts that accomplish nothing! ). At least Garner had something worthwhile to do.
Paul Newman in a cool walk. McQueen isn’t even in spitting distance IMHO.
In a certain, narrow context of movie cool that existed only during a short period of the 1960s, McQueen ruled. In every other imaginable use of the word, Newman bitchslaps McQueen so hard McQueen wears a faceprint.
ConsiderSteve McQueen vs. a basic bad guy.
Compare to Paul Newman vs. a bigger, badder guy.
For that matter, watch James Garner take on Clint freakin Eastwood.
And Robert Mitchum could outcool all of them.
Though of a different era, I always thought William Powell was pretty cool.
Mitchum, Garner, Moranis, Powell. McQueen, Newman - all of them reached the level where there cannot be a decisive answer - there can only be an acknowledgement that they all have a valid spot in the consideration.
Well, assuming I did The Maths correctly, I tally a dead heat at 7 to 7, with 4 “others”.
Totally unsatisfactory! It’s like kissing your sister…
A favorite Paul Newman story by someone who only met him twice as a kid.
Jerry Seinfeld performed once at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and was doing his thing when Paul Newman came up on stage and just stood there. For minutes. Finally JS turns to him and says, “Hello, Newman.” Brought down the house.
For one thing, they never made a movie called The Tao of Paul.
Context is everything.
In the Wanted Dead or Alive, that was the first episode of the first season, and it was setting up the episode. Josh had to get beat so he could be falsely accused of the Marshall’s murder. He kicked ass many times later.
And Garner as Rockford handling bigger bad-ass William Smithis better than Newman/Butch in the knife fight.
Of course, in real life, Garner got his head handed to him in a fight over a road rage incident, so it always helps when the writers are on your side! 