Paul Newman: Film Legend

• Posted: September 27, 2008
• |
• Author: Christina
• |
• Filed under: film,writing
• |
• Tags: film, in memory, movies, paul newman, RIP, stars, the greats

Paul Newman was more than just an actor, or even a star; he was a legend. A great man, a great humanitarian, and a great artist, he will be missed.

Above: Paul New­man with Robert Red­ford in Octo­ber 2004. Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images.

As with Syd­ney Pol­lack and Tim Russert, this is one of those entries I really hate hav­ing to write. Paul New­man, died on Fri­day at age 83, after a long bat­tle with cancer.

Paul New­man was more than just an actor, or even a star; he was a leg­end. In today’s increas­ingly here today, for­got­ten tomor­row era of celebrity, being a leg­end is extremely rare, and Hol­ly­wood has lost one its remain­ing few.

More than just a great actor and artist, New­man was also a human­i­tar­ian and a gen­uinely good per­son. All that money from Newman’s Own went to char­ity. He started camps and char­ity funds for ter­mi­nally ill chil­dren. He was mar­ried to Joanne Wood­ward for 50 years — some­thing almost unheard of, Hol­ly­wood or any­where else.

A few years ago, Robert Red­ford spon­sored this thing for Sun­dance called “Icon­o­clasts”, where celebri­ties inter­view peo­ple they con­sider icons or per­sonal heroes. Red­ford inter­viewed New­man, and I remem­ber watch­ing that pro­gram and walk­ing way with even more respect for both men.

George Roy Hill (who would direct New­man in both The Sting and Slap Shot) directed my favorite New­man film, Butch Cas­sidy and the Sun­dance Kid. I first saw “Butch Cas­sidy” in high school, and it res­onated with me in a way few films have. The par­al­lels between Butch and Sundance’s real­iza­tion that their way of life is end­ing and the tur­bu­lence and end of ide­al­ism of the 1960s remains one of the more sub­tle, and I think pow­er­ful, mes­sages in all of cinema.

Paul New­man owned that role. He owned every role he every played. Whether it was Brick, the alco­holic and tor­tured (and tor­tu­ous) hus­band in Richard Brooks’ adap­ta­tion of Ten­nessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, or his roles as anti-heroes in Cool Hand Luke and The Color of Money and The Hus­tler, New­man made roles his own.

And the man was funny! In addi­tion to “Slap Shots,” New­man was bril­liant in The Hud­sucker Proxy, you know, “for kids.”

My cousin’s son LOVED him in Cars — the last film he did any major press for.

Just look­ing at his fil­mog­ra­phy, it is clear that the man was just flat out good.

Still, it was his per­sonal con­tri­bu­tions to help chil­dren, the sick and the poor that really stand out. He was on Nixon’s Ene­mies List — some­thing of which he was very, very proud, and was never embar­rassed to be labeled “a lib­eral.” If more peo­ple like Paul New­man would embrace the lib­eral label today, we might be able to fight back from the stigma ass­holes like Rush Lim­baugh, Sean Han­nity and Bill O’Reilly try to attach to that ideology.

Paul New­man was a leg­end, IS a leg­end, and his pres­ence will be missed.

Rest in Peace.

• (3) Comments
• Permalink
• RSS 2.0
•