In the darkly hued "The Equalizer," he played Robert McCall, a former spy who turns vigilante. The sinister, flip side of a conventional detective drama, McCall was the person people turned to when the police couldn't, or wouldn't, help in achieving justice. Bitter and intelligent, the elderly, button-down McCall hardly seemed the man for the job. But Woodward rendered the part a study in controlled rage, furnishing a quiet strength and sense of menace that made the character quite formidable-seeming.