Paul Newman - RIP

[Ford Fairlane]

Bit of an odd post I guess, paying tribute to an American movie star who has just passed away at age 83. But I'll unashamedly admit to being a huge Paul Newman fan. A true star of the screen, a guy who came across as a decent down-to-earth person, racing car driver, sauce entrepreneur, philanthropist. Vale.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/09/28/1222217601473.html

Screen legend bows out at 83

SCREEN legend Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as an activist, race car driver, popcorn impresario and the anti-hero of a string of popular films, has died at 83 after a battle with cancer.

Newman died yesterday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.

Newman was nominated for Academy Awards 10 times, winning a regular Oscar in 1987 for The Colour of Money and two honorary ones. He starred in comedy dramas such as The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with screen partner Robert Redford, among more than 50 other films.

In May, Newman dropped plans to direct a production of Of Mice and Men, citing unspecified health issues.

He got his start in theatre and on television in the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers.

Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Redford.

He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages.

"I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray.

They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in The Long Hot Summer, and Newman directed her in several films, including Rachel, Rachel and The Glass Menagerie.

Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on January 26, 1925. He was the son of Theresa and Arthur S. Newman, who ran a profitable sporting goods store.

His father was Jewish and his mother was born to a Slovak Catholic family in Hungary.

AP

 

[MP_]

a truly great person who devoted so muchtime to worthy causes. RIP

 

[240volt]

Cool Hand Luke is still my fav movie of all time,i have traveled to some of the southern states in the usa and must say it's still very cool hand lukish.A great actor and a great person.
R.I.P

 

[Schism]

Cool Hand Luke is still my fav movie of all time,i have traveled to some of the southern states in the usa and must say it's still very cool hand lukish.A great actor and a great person.
R.I.P

For most of his career he was a corny actor at best...but he was a top guy apparently.

RIP

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Blog from Jim Schembri.

http://blogs.theage.com.au/schembri/archives/2008/09/paul_newman_83.html

Paul Newman - an icon of Old Hollywood dies

The death of Paul Newman at 83 after a protracted battle with cancer marks a sad day for the film world.

Newman was one of our last links with Old Hollywood, when an actor's fame and star power was a measure of their talent, not their celebrity. His filmography is pitted with some of the most memorable films of the last half century, many of which reflect his core values of dignity, integrity and moral courage.

Among his most lauded works are: The Sting (1973); Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969); Cool Hand Luke (1967); Hud (1963); Exodus (1960); Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956); The Long Hot Summer (1958); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958); Hombre (1967); The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972); The Towering Inferno (1974); Slap Shot (1977); Absence of Malice (1981); The Verdict (1982); Blaze (1989); and Harry & Son (1984).

As chance would have it, the final feature film Newman ever made, the Pixar animated film Cars, was on Melbourne TV last night. In it Newman played Hudson, an old racing car who rediscovers the fire and passion of his youth. It is a theme common to many of Newman's films.

Though there are many contenders for the title, few would argue that the one film that shines above all others as the signature Newman movie is The Hustler (1961). In it Newman played Fast Eddie Falson, a gifted pool player whose promising career is cut short when he falls out with gangsters.

In 1986 Newman reprised the character for Martin Scorsese's brilliant sequel The Color of Money, in which he co-starred with an up-and-coming Tom Cruise. As the mentor to Cruise's none-too-bright but brilliant pool player, the film serves as a sterling example of an old hand teaching a new hand how big-screen acting is done.

After having been nominated ten times, Newman's performance in The Color of Money earned him his first Best Actor Oscar, and came the year after his honorary lifetime achievement Oscar. It also stands as one of the films in which Newman explored what he once declared was his favourite theme - redemption.

This was at the heart of Sidney Lumet's compelling legal drama The Verdict (1982), which arguably contains Newman's finest dramatic work. As the aging lawyer Frank Galvin, Newman gave soul to a pathetic man gripped by alcoholism and on the verge of professional collapse.

As an act of pity, Galvin is given the gift of an open-and-shut case, a medical malpractice lawsuit that has already been settled and that will earn him enough money to retire with some dignity. But he senses something is wrong in the details and decides against the wishes of his clients to reject the settlement offer and fight the case in open court.

He soon learns that this act of moral bravado was foolish and irresponsible as he has now risked the future happiness of those he was charged with protecting. Against a formidable legal team (headed by James Mason, also in his finest hour), and with no support or sympathy from anybody Galvin must lift himself from the depths of desperation and pursue the case against all odds and on his own.

Newman's final address to the jury in The Verdict ranks as one of the most powerful monologues in film history.

The mark of any great actor is that the best of their work can be summed up in a single word. With Gregory Peck it was honour. With Charlton Heston it was conviction. With Paul Newman the word is dignity. That value courses through so much of his work, from Exodus to Absence of Malice to The Sting to Cars.

Many of Newman's most memorable characters reflected his belief that through hard work, talent and good fortune it was possible for a man to claw his way back from the edge, reclaim the passion that once defined him and renew his spirit.

In Newman's own case, that spirit was one quality he never lost.

 

[240volt]

For most of his career he was a corny actor at best...but he was a top guy apparently.

RIP

Corny actor....you must be talking about Cristiano Ronaldo

 

[portentous]

He was a genuine Hollywood star who put millions of his own money to help those in need.

A true legend and he will be sorely missed.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Great actor who also lived a great life. Someone to admire.

Vale Paul Newman.