Paul Newman dies at 83

[bazgnr]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-09-27-newman-obit_N.htm

Mention Paul Newman, and a rush of unforgettable film scenes come to mind.
Such as when his prison-camp rebel gorges on those 50 hard-boiled eggs after being challenged in Cool Hand Luke.

Or that early morning bike ride, where his grinning bandit charms Katherine Ross out of Robert Redford's bed as if he were a bowler-hatted knight on a rickety steed in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Or when his enraged alcoholic lawyer in The Verdict slugs his cold-hearted lover Charlotte Rampling after learning of her deceit ? an act only someone like Newman could commit and be cheered for by audiences.

Now this rare breed of handsome rascal who connected with audiences across five decades is gone. Not even a Brad Pitt or a George Clooney could take Newman's place. You would have to mix the DNA of both Clint Eastwood (the steely toughness) and Robert Redford (the manly allure) to come close to duplicating him.

 
As Clooney himself told Men's Journal in 2000, "Nobody gets to be famous as long as Paul Newman. You can't take your eyes off of him. He's always interested in the scene, as opposed to trying to be interesting."

The blue-eyed devil, a onetime chain smoker who died at age 83 after suffering from lung cancer, considered himself more lucky than talented to have the career he achieved.

Especially since the Cleveland native ran off to Yale Drama School after his father died, mainly to avoid taking over the family's sporting-goods store.

"I had no natural gift to be anything, not an athlete, not an actor, not a writer, not a director, a painter of garden porches, not anything," the actor said in 1991. "So I've worked really hard, because nothing ever came easily to me."

What Newman did have a knack for was being one of a kind.

He was a ladies' man and a guy's guy. Someone who was able to make the act of charity taste as good as it felt. A speed addict who kept on revving his racing engine well into his golden years. A proud anti-celebrity who regularly threatened to retire but waited until 2007 to truly call it quits.

Early on, the media tried to pin the label "the next Brando" or "the next James Dean" on him, especially after he took over two movie leads meant for Dean when the younger actor died in a 1955 car crash ? Rocky Graziano in the 1956 boxing-bio Somebody Up There Likes Me and Billy the Kid in 1958's The Left Handed Gun.

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But by cornering the market on lovable rakes, rogues and rapscallions in films like his stellar '60s lineup of Hud, Harper and Hombre, the actor was able to make such roles truly, in the words of his line of charity-supporting food products, Newman's Own.

His streak lasted until 2006, when he lent his gravelly voice and crusty attitude to a look-alike 1951 Hudson Hornet named Doc in Pixar's animated Cars.

Somehow even his most villainous creations earned admiration as anti-heroes. His callous and cruel Hud ("The Man With the Barbed Wire Soul") became a popular pinup in the '60s. The poster even had a cameo in 1969's Midnight Cowboy. Somehow, audiences fell for the hateful no-account son of Melvyn Douglas' aged rancher.

That's because a magnetic Newman lurked underneath.

"Hud Bannon was a despicable character ? mean, nasty, narcissistic ? and Newman played him perfectly, and yet people still loved him," says writer Eric Lax, author of Paul Newman: A Celebration.

Newman's niche, especially later in life: The matinee idol who was a ham at heart. Check out 1989's Blaze, in which Newman plays the lusty Louisiana Gov. Earl K. Long. His passionate affair with a famous stripper causes him to act as if his pants were on fire. "I was always a character actor," he confessed. "I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood."

Typically, the lifelong liberal and activist prided himself more on making the cut on Richard Nixon's so-called enemies list than on any acting honors that came his way. Limelight unsettled him. Or as he once put it, "I am not comfortable with a certain kind of attention." He refused to sign autographs and preferred to relax at his peaceful 200-year-old Connecticut farmhouse than to seek out the Hollywood nightlife.

The nine-time nominee for an acting Oscar didn't turn up at the awards ceremony in 1986 when the academy tossed an honorary statuette his way. Instead, Newman mock-observed via satellite how grateful he was that the trophy didn't come "wrapped as a gift certificate to Forest Lawn." Then he protested that his "best work is down the pike in front of me."

Turns out, he was right. Not only did Newman win best actor the very next year for reprising his Hustler role as pool shark Fast Eddie Felson in The Color of Money, he also would be nominated two more times: for his aging blue-collar scallywag in 1994's Nobody's Fool and as an Irish crime boss in 2002's Road to Perdition.

He said of finally claiming the gold on his seventh try, "It's like chasing a beautiful woman for 80 years. Finally, she relents, and you say, 'I'm terribly sorry. I'm tired.' "

In a 2000 interview to promote the little-seen Where the Money Is, the 75-year-old declared he was looking for the right film to "bow out on."

"It's a young person's business," he gruffly observed. "It's very dry out there for us older antiques." He had burned his tuxedo on his birthday earlier that year, a protest against formality, he said.

But even gray-haired and bespectacled, Newman seemed forever young.

And he was one hunky old coot to boot. As Linda Fiorentino, his then-fortysomething co-star in Where the Money Is, observed, "He's about the only man I could think of that I would have sex with ? if he weren't married ? even if he were in his 90s."

You could summon any number of observations about the actor, director, philanthropist, race-track enthusiast and all-around cool customer that would help pin down just what caused this down-to-earth legend to be one of the most popular stars who ever lit up the silver screen.

But here's one attribute that served him particularly well: Newman got his biggest mistakes out of the way early.

There was his first marriage. He divorced actress Jacqueline Witte in 1958 after three kids and less than a decade together.

That left plenty of time for his inspirational union with his second wife, Joanne Woodward, actress, mother of his three other children and soul mate. They just marked their 50th anniversary. That's an eternity and a half in Hollywood years.

Their private relationship easily melded their professional life. Newman directed Woodward five times, including her Oscar-nominated performance in 1968's Rachel, Rachel. And they shared the screen in 10 feature films and last co-starred in HBO's Empire Falls in 2005. About why the pair collaborated so well, he once quipped, "You should see us when we get back to the bedroom."

Woodward also moved Newman to utter probably his best-known quote. When asked why he remained so faithful to his wife, he replied, "Why fool around with hamburger when you have steak at home?"

If anyone could keep him on the straight and narrow, she could. Without her, the actor told USA TODAY in 1994, he probably would have met an early end. "We're an interesting series of contrasts and that has really helped us keep our sanity. It's very hard to be excessive when your partner can't join in."

His other major error: 1954's The Silver Chalice, his big-screen debut after making a splash on Broadway in Picnic? where he first met Woodward.

Prancing about in a knee-baring toga and Caesar haircut as a Greek artisan named Basil is no way to make a first impression. "That I survived that picture is a testament to something," he once told New York magazine. "All I had in that movie was those short cocktail dresses. My legs aren't exactly my best feature."

In his usual forthright fashion, he took out a full-page ad in the trade paper Variety when Chalice aired on TV in 1966, apologizing for his performance and requesting that people not tune in. Instead, his plea just served to attract high ratings for the broadcast of what has been sometimes derisively referred to as Paul Newman and the Holy Grail.

Newman hasn't had to apologize for much of his r?sum? since, although a few folks might take exception to his dip into disaster flicks, such as 1974's The Towering Inferno. Still, any career stumbles that followed were minor by comparison.

He did like to defy expectations. Newman might have wooed a stunning array of actresses on-screen, from a slip-draped Elizabeth Taylor in 1958's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to a breast-flashing Melanie Griffith in Nobody's Fool. But the relationship that produced the most potent chemistry was with Robert Redford, his cohort in crime in both 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and 1973's The Sting.

Butch and Sundance had what nowadays would be characterized as a "bromance," an affectionate relationship between two straight males. "I don't think people realize what that picture was all about," the actor himself once observed. "It's a love affair between two men. The girl is incidental."

At the age of 52 after a post-Sting lull, Newman put on ice any sense of decorum he might have had as a pretty-boy movie star. Instead, he cursed, caroused and shocked moviegoers as the hard-drinking reprobate coach and player for a ragtag hockey team in 1977's Slap Shot, one of the rowdiest, crudest, funniest and most scathingly honest sports comedies ever.

Newman told USA TODAY in 2003 that after seeing the script, which he declared the filthiest he had ever read, "You couldn't have kept me out of that film."

Being the profane Reggie Dunlop apparently got under his skin. "Ever since Slap Shot, I've been swearing more," he admitted. "I knew I had a problem one day when I turned to my daughter and said, 'Would you please pass the (expletive) salt?"

He credited his prankish side with keeping him young, fond as he was for pulling practical jokes on his co-stars and directors. He once secretly placed a Porsche, demolished and wrapped, inside Redford's house. Robert Altman, his director on 1976's Buffalo Bill and the Indians and 1979's Quintet, exploded popcorn 9 feet deep in Newman's dressing room ? payback for having suffered through such gags as finding 200 live chickens in his trailer.

"You can't be as old as I am without waking up with a surprised look on your face every morning: 'Holy Christ, whaddya know, I'm still around!' " Newman once proclaimed. "It's absolutely amazing that I survived all the booze and smoking and the cars and the career."

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He took up racing ("the first thing that I ever found I had any grace in") when he was in his 40s and training for the 1969's Winning. At 70, he became the oldest driver to be part of a triumphant team in a major sanctioned race, the 24 Hours of Daytona, in 1995.

Newman continued to race into his 80s, but most of his time around the track came as a team owner. He founded a racing team with Chicago businessman Carl Haas in 1983, nabbing the legendary Mario Andretti as the team's first driver. Newman/Haas/Lannigan Racing, as the IndyCar Series team is known now, has captured eight series titles and 107 wins to date.

"Racing is the best way I know to get away from all the 'rubbish' of Hollywood," he told People in 1979.

When it came to causes, he was world-class. He turned the tragic loss of his only son, Scott, from an accidental drug overdose in 1978 into a positive by creating the Scott Newman Center for Drug Abuse Prevention. He built a network of Hole in the Wall Gang summer camps for kids with serious illnesses.

And what started out as a kind of a joke that grew from his giving out his homemade vinaigrette salad dressing as Christmas presents turned into a hugely successful food empire, offering everything from steak sauce to popcorn. In 26 years of operation, Newman's Own has donated $200 million to his camps and 400 other charities around the world.

"How to account for this massive success? Pure luck? Transcendental meditation? Machiavellian manipulation? Aerodynamics? High colonics? We haven't the slightest idea," it says on the company website (newmansown.com). Sounds like pure Newman ? wry, self-effacing, grounded.

One of his most prized fan letters hung over a toilet in his New York office bathroom. After complimenting his spaghetti sauce, it went on to say, "My girlfriend mentioned that you were a movie star and I would be interested to know what you have made. If you act as well as you cook, your movies should be worth watching."

There was a downside to his edible output. The entrepreneur threatened to upstage the thespian. "The embarrassing thing," he enjoyed pointing out in his later years, "is that my salad dressing is out-grossing my films."

Newman sounded especially serious when he appeared on ABC's Good Morning America in 2007. He talked of retiring from acting again, but this time it seemed as though he really meant it. This wasn't mere grousing about a lack of meaty parts.

"I'm not able to work anymore at the level I would want to," he said. "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me. I've been doing it for 50 years. That's enough."

And so he finally did leave acting behind, though he didn't slow down all that much. He was sometimes seen at the track, his thinning frame causing fan concern. He appeared frail at Hole in the Wall Gang event in June, and reports of lung cancer surfaced.

The actor's only comment on the matter? That he was "doing nicely."

He did leave behind some instructions on what to avoid upon his death. One was nixing these epitaphs: "Here lies Paul Newman, who died a failure because his eyes turned brown" and "Here lies the old man who wasn't part of his time."

But of course those baby blues twinkled till the end. And Newman not only remained relevant in his time, he was a legend for all time.

Contributing: Maria Puente, Scott Bowles, A.J. Perez

[Albert S Miller]

What a great loss.  I loved Paul Newman. May he always rest in peace, and find all the comforts of home in heaven. God Bless Paul.

[Gunner80]

Man this sucks.  the man was a great actor. RIP

[polluxlm]

You may know that the song Civil War employs a quote from what is perhaps one of Newmans crowning achievements.

What we got here, is failure to communicate...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fuDDqU6n4o

The Verdict

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVZFlBJftgg

Butch Cassidy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y87EaadjqM

A true legend. Funny thing is I've just these last weeks had a Newman period, watching his classics. Friends asked me "is he still alive"? "Yeah, but he's over 80, so probably not for too long". Bitch to be right sometimes.

[KIKO2K6]

He was an great actor, pilot and sport manager .



Paul was second on Le mans and first at Daytona on 70s.

I love that film he did with Tom Cruise, they are pool players etc....


RIP

[Dr. Blutarsky]

On a side note his salad dressing is awesome and all the profits from it go to charity.

The guy will be missed.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Paul Newman was awesome!  One of the coolest cats to ever grace Hollywood.

He'll be missed!  Glad he doesn't have to suffer anymore.

Rest in peace Mr. Newman.

[GypsySoul]

God bless his soul.

R.I.P.

 

[willow]

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What a wonderful man. I will so miss him.

[Miss Carousel]

He was pretty sexy, and a great actor.

[Albert S Miller]

He was an great actor, pilot and sport manager .



Paul was second on Le mans and first at Daytona on 70s.

I love that film he did with Tom Cruise, they are pool players etc....


RIP

The color of money, great film indeed.

[SLCPUNK]

His charities gave over 250 million since inception.

[Adam Bomb]

Loved The Hustler.

RIP.