Paul Newman, Actor: 1925 – 2008
Legend, icon, hero, anti-hero. Pick your adjective. Actor Paul Newman finally succumbed to cancer at his Westport Connecticut home on Friday. He was 83 years old.
In so many ways, Newman was a bridge. He represented a link between old Hollywood and new Hollywood. He had the classic star’s charisma, but he practiced the modern Method. He got his start under the studio system but he paved the way in an era where stars were in control. He was a character actor with a leading man’s looks. He was an actor my mom could love, but one whom the kids also thought of as cool.
I knew him first as Henry Gondorff in The Sting, but discovered The Hustler and Hud and Cool Hand Luke later. I can’t pick a favorite. I’m happy to have them all.
His passing doesn’t come as a shock — rumors of his poor health have been circulating for months — but it comes with sadness. One of the people who made me fall in love with movies is gone.
By all accounts as big in life as he was on the screen, Paul Newman will be missed.
Newman biographer Shawn Levy takes a terrific look at Newman’s life and career in The Oregonian.
Filed under: News, Obituaries
Tags: Paul Newman
An enormous loss.
It’s still sinking in even though I was somewhat prepared for it.
I’m devastated. Completely. I, just, whoa. Too much for me, sorry.
Wow, the world really is falling apart.
This is incredibly sad and disappointing news, even if there was an indication of his illness a few months back. Vanity Fair also had a nice and lengthy biography of Newman recently.
A terrible loss for the cultural community and humanity for that matter, as he gave millions to charity through his food holdings. We will hear much about him in upcoming days, but suffice to say that this is the end of an era, and we are all so much poorer today, as Newman was an iconic American.
My own favorite of all his performance was the sublime, low-key one he gave in the Merchant/Ivory vehicle, MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE, but of course there are many more great ones.
Hard to pick a favorite and I still have yet to see at least half of his film performances, but my favorite remains Cool Hand Luke.
My Mom used to joke when I was kid that if Paul Newman ever called on the phone, she was gone. She’d do anything for us and always be there, but if Blue Eyes wanted her to run away with him, all bets were off. I always took that as a testament to how amazing that guy was that my mother would even joke about something like that.
There is no one in Hollywood today with the humility and giving heart that Newman embodied. He truly was one of a kind.
My fave is Cool Hand Luke as well, if I was forced to pick. But there are so many I love.
Oh I hear you on that anecdote. My own mother, who passed away in 2003, alwasy considered Paul Newman her favorite actor, and at least equal to Frank Sinatra in her overall affections.
T_T
I agree with everyone here that it’s impossible to pick a favorite movie of his. He was excellent in everything he did and chose projects that were both entertaining and interesting. Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Fort Apache: The Bronx, Nobody’s Fool – what a body of work this man had. Well, there was the occasional The Towering Inferno, but we can forgive him that.
Thanks for the wonderful anecdotes from everyone. I’ll add my own. My father always liked to tell us about how he met Paul Newman in person while he was still an unknown. He was filming Somebody Up There Likes Me. My father was having lunch at a restaurant and Newman was sitting at the next table. They ended up talking a bit. My dad said he was really nice. And he remarked also about how amazing-looking he was in person. The eyes. :-)
Both he and my mom were always huge fans. And my dad introduced me to some of his movies that I may never have watched, like The Young Philadelphians. He loves when everyone is partying on Christmas and Anthony is still working and ends up snagging the rich client. :-)
Like everyone else, it’s still sinking in even though we all saw it coming for months.
RIP, Paul. You will be missed.
Thanks for that link to The Oregonian article, Craig. A terrific piece.
Alison, that’s a wonderful story. I had one other to share. My mother lives in Lakewood, Washington, which is a small suburb of Tacoma, Washington. Lakewood is mostly strip malls, apartment complexes serving the local military bases, and old money (a lot of lakefront property…it’s where Linda Evans settled down in the late 80’s). There’s a diner/bar near my Mom’s home that we’ve gone to for years called Bur’s. Very greasy spoon, very small neighborhood establishment, very working class blue-collar patrons.
A couple years ago Paul Newman came in with a buddy of his, had dinner, and later hung out in the bar with some of the patrons and staff. People were afraid to ask for his autograph or take pictures, but he was very kind and friendly to them.
I don’t have much to offer other than that it tells you a lot about the guy that he would eat there rather than any of the fancier restaurants catering to the local well-to-do.
My mom will take the disappointment to her grave that she was out of town the night Newman was in her neighborhood.
RIP, Paul Newman. A giant, one of the most innately likable actors in the history of the cinema, a genuine movie star, but as Craig notes his acting was fierce, passionate and at times scary, especially when he was younger, but he held on to that onscreen power and gravity throughout his entire deservedly celebrated career. As others have said, however, his life beyond onscreen immortality has been a beautiful one, befitting such a strikingly handsome, in every way, fellow, imbued with grace and strength.
Not unexpected, but it’s still an awful blow.
Great stories here from Alison and Joel.
My mamma loved him too. What a ladies man, and this is another reason why so many people liked him, he was a man’s man too. With bravado spirit, but a cool and calm disposition, he just exuded passion in everything he did. Shucks. What a legend.
Aw, Joel, your poor Mom! Wonderful story though.
My mother loved him. She wouldn’t have even compared him to Frank Sinatra, who she recognized as talented but didn’t like – her impression of him was that he was always saying “broad” and “dame” and that’s what stuck with her, lol.
Also, Joel, this comment you made was spot on:
There is no one in Hollywood today with the humility and giving heart that Newman embodied. He truly was one of a kind.
Absolutely true. Not one man (or woman) in Hollywood today holds a candle to him (or his lovely wife Joanne Woodward). He was 100% genuine, and while there are some today who try to follow in his footsteps or have the same type of off-screen persona I feel a certain amount of artifice from every single one of them. Paul Newman was the real deal.
He was bigger than a movie star. He was huge, but he never seemed to make a big deal out of it.
I remember through high school I was a huge fan of David Letterman and every time Newman was on, the cynical, smartass Letterman was always just floored by how cool the guy was.
Effortlessly cool, not phony cool. He was the kind of cool that people who weren’t cool liked to pretend they were.
Pretty devastating news for the Wilding family yesterday.
Now this on top of it.
Paul Newman was a beautiful man. Both inside and out. I grew up adoring him.
I will miss him very much.
But I’m extremely grateful that he was here. He leaves exceptional legacies in terms of his career and his wonderful philanthropic work.
RIP, Paul.
He WAS amazing. And beautiful: handsome just isn’t the right word for those piercing blue eyes and sharp, classic features. He could have made it in movies based just on his looks, but he was such a great actor that he never became reduced to just that.
I can’t even pick a favorite. The Sting and Butch Cassidy are great, but I love Cool Hand Luke as well, and some of his later roles have a gravitas (but always with a twinkle in his eye) that simply blows you away.
I’m sorry this sounds like the tip of the ice berg for you Miranda. I hope things start to look up.
Beautiful is an excellent word Hedwig. He really was more than just handsome. He was physically beatiful, like a greek statue. And it wasn’t just external, either.
Yes, he was certainly a gorgeous man.
Some favorite performances of mine not mentioned directly above are The Left Handed Gun, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Sweet Birth of Youth, Hud, The Verdict, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge… There are so many, though, so many.
Whenever tribute is paid to someone’s career, I always like to highlight the more obscure films that I’m fond of. So I’ll gladly namedrop a couple of western comedy-dramas he made in the 70s: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson. Underrated gems, both of them.
And just for hell of it, I’d like to show a very funny appearance he made on Letterman’s first CBS show (”Where the hell are the singing cats?”).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cku2IeoP3QA
Both great ones, alynch; I especially have a soft spot for Huston’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.
He was some kind of man.
In his youth a method pioneer, and then with middle age segueing as a performer into emotionally nuanced character studies. The possessor of an intelligence as clear and striking as those famous blue eyes. A great humanitarian and champion of equality and liberty. He deserves all the respect and kudos we can give him.
Thanks for the recollections Joel and Alison.
MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE brought in a Newman ability not seen in all his previous work. His reserved approach was wholly successfully in a film where his wife Joanne Woodward was robbed of an Oscar, losing out to the vastly inferior performance Kathy Bates gave in MISERY.
Rather than echo the sentiments of others here (thanks to all of you), I’ll talk about Newman’s wife. Although I know she’s getting up in years, I’d be ecstatic to see her do more screen roles in the future, both film and TV. Throughout their marriage, Joanne Woodward often let her career take second place, eschewing what might have been a more dominant position in the annals of film. Although Woodward’s roles are many and great, quite frankly I’d like to see more of her. Like her husband, she’s an original.
While it’s a nice thought, Woodward seems pretty much retired at this point. Seeing as Empire Falls is now officially Newman’s last real performance, it’s a shame that both he and Woodward were in it, yet they couldn’t find a way of giving them some small scene together.
I read your great tribute early Saturday morning but I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. I’m still not. It’s just sad. I hope he was appreciated enough in life, and I hope young Hollywood takes a cue on how to conduct yourself like a responsible human. He was a class act, as everyone has given evidence to here. I really admire their long marriage as well.
Sigh…what a year this has been.
Good call on Buffalo Bill and Judge Roy Bean, alynch.
it’s hard not to admire Paul Newman for putting his money to work in such productive ways, such as his Newman’s Own line–high quality stuff and the proceeds go to good causes… very smart.