Paul Newman

There have been a significant number of actors who have died since I first began this blog in December of 2004, and I have rarely used this space for official R.I.P.s., even when they have been performers I have greatly admired. But after hearing of the death of Paul Newman (age 83), I felt almost obligated to say a brief something.

First, merely as an actor, Newman was head and shoulders over most. Giving flat-out brilliant performances for some fifty or so years in films like "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof", "Hud", "The Hustler", "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid", "The Sting", "Cool Hand Luke"... right on up to more recent roles like "Road To Perdition", "Empire Falls", the wonderful but woefully neglected "Nobody's Fool" and his vocal contribution to Pixar's "Cars", the man had a career longer and more impressive than almost anyone else you could name, and was amazingly consistent in his performances. Newman was definitely not one of those actors who seem to lose their touch as they get older. No matter what kind of character he was portraying, you always bought it.
And right on into his eighties, his characters always had an intensity and power about them that never faded... you don't even want to THINK about crossing his mob boss character in "Road To Perdition".

But in spite of his Hollywood veteran status, and the seriousness with which he obviously took his craft, the man never took himself or Hollywood too seriously. I was surprised once to learn that he owned a yacht... it didn't seem like him... but then I learned that it was named "El Caca De Toro", and all was forgiven. I also have fond memories of the two times I vacationed in Hollywood and saw Newman & Joanne Woodward's hand and foot prints in the courtyard of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Newman's footprints were the only ones in the entire courtyard in BARE feet, and Woodward's were in high heels, with each of them labeled "his" and "hers" just in case you thought Woodward's feet were that big, or that Newman wore high heels. And certainly anyone who ever saw him on a talk show (especially with his neighbor David Letterman) knows what a hysterical sense of humor the man had, most of the time directed at himself and his profession.

And of course there is the Newman's Own Foundation and line of products. Through his work with his charities, Newman has genuinely helped to make the world a better place than it had been before he came along, something all of us ought to be thinking of but all too rarely do... ESPECIALLY wealthy showbiz types. He wasn't so concerned about his own status that he had no time to devote to improving the lives of those less fortunate than him.

And even someone such as myself, now less than 3 months short of 56 and never married (and pretty safe to say never will be) has to admire his roughly five decade long marriage to Joanne Woodward. That's definitely something you don't see anymore in contemporary Hollywood.

How many movie stars these days are as genuinely accomplished as Newman purely as actors? AND can continue those accomplishments over a fifty-plus year careet? AND manage to have both a strong sense of self-esteem AND a lack of self-involved egotism? Who are dedicated to their craft but never take their profession too seriously? Who in spite of their success are still involved in helping others to such an extent? And who don't keep turning up in the tabloids every couple of weeks with a new "relationship", and every year or two with a new marriage? Paul Newman was a real giant in each of the areas in which he made a big impact. And as far as I'm concerned, if there was ever one single individual in show business who was the absolute embodyment of pure cool, it was him. Each time a veteran celebrity dies, you'll hear someone saying that we won't see their like again. With Paul Newman, that statement has never been more true. He will genuinely be missed.