I was a big fan because my dad was a big fan. He fancied himself a Paul Newman type, and was gracious when people (mostly women) told him he looked like Paul Newman–thankfully, I was not cursed with those looks.
But Dad introduced me to Cool Hand Luke, and when you’re 13 or so and you’re not getting along well with your family or yourself, it’s easy to identify with the guy who doesn’t seem to fit into the world around him. After that movie, I became a fan. Never really thought he was the best looking guy around so I never truly understood why people always seemed to call him “beautiful”. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good looking guy, but, perhaps it WAS because my dad did look a little like Paul Newman, I just never really saw that aspect of him. It was there, but it was like a suit on him so other than noting it…well, that was it. It was just a suit.
But beneath the suit, underneath the “movie star good looks” was a guy who could act. I think William Goldman said it in one of the commentaries, Harper or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, that Newman was a great character actor trapped in a leading man’s body. True.
Is he the last movie star? I’m trying to think of any others, maybe Nicholson? Beatty? (Warren, not Ned, though Ned’s a fine actor, too). The list is very short. But I think it’s Newman who is truly the last great movie star, who helped usher in the movies of the anti-hero, and who seemed to start the habit of actors thinking they’re all race car drivers.
Plus, he’s the only movie star that sold salad dressing, turning it into a mult-million dollar franchise and giving away hundreds of millions to charity. Seriously. How many people can say that they were world-reknowned for their acting, AND their philanthropy? I don’t know, but my guess is going to be…one.
I didn’t know the guy, just what I saw onscreen, though I did visit New York once which is by Connecticut, where he lived, so I did get that close to him, and all I have is praise, envy, awe, and incredulousness that one guy had all that. I mean, if it came out that Newman ate live babies for breakfast every morning, I still don’t think I’d care. So yeah, I’m a fan, emphasis on fanatic.
Newman lived a good long life, had his share of tragedy so he didn’t lead a charmed life, but he knew what he had, made do with what he had, and came out on top, while still giving to others. What more could one ask of one’s life?
Rest in peace, Mr. Newman.
Tags: paul newman
October 12, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Paul Newman and my father were both born in 1925 and my father is still around. He doesn’t look like Paul Newman.
Paul also drove race cars. Not just because he could afford to, but because he found he was good at it. He explained it once in a documentary that he was no good at dancing or tennis, or many other things that a movie star is supposed to be good at but he found driving a race car was something that clicked with him. He not only enjoyed it, he was good at it.
I remember going to Lime Rock in Connecticut and watching him drive there. His trailer said “ol Blue eyes”. At first the professional drivers didn’t take him very seriously. A.J. Foyt calling him “Steve” – the reference to Steve McQueen.
Of his movies I really liked Hombre. He did a bunch of “h” movies. Hombre, Hud, Harper, etc. He did some crap movies too, but when he made a good movie it was a great movie. It was nice to be alive when he was making movies.