Sunday, September 28, 2008

Sad News, This Weekend .....

Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" — and as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario — has died. He was 83.
Here is the rest of the story from the Associated Press

For more than fifty years - with major roles in more than fifty films - Paul Newman has been one of movie-goers' best friends. Each of us has a favorite Newman film ... or two, or three, or ... mine include Harper, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Slap Shot, Absence of Malice and The Verdict. Here is a complete list of his films. What are some of your favorites?

Something about Newman's life, his career and his work on- and off-the-set ... on the announcement of his death, people aren't saying something like, "Oh, I remember him" or "I wondered whatever happened to him." This cool, good-looking, talented young man never missed a beat as he grew older. Nominated many times for an Academy Award as Best Actor, he finally won for one of his later roles, in The Color of Money - though I, personally, would have given him the Oscar for his performance in The Verdict.

You could go on and on, talking about his acting ... then you could go on and on about his racing ... then go on and on about his advocacy and charities.

He lived well, and I will miss him.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's quite a list. He was in Cars, too? How appropriate. What a career he had.

Movie watchers would see him on the screen and not see Paul Newman but the character he played. That's how good he was.

Anonymous said...

P.S. I'm sure TCM will be showing a bunch of them next week.

Jeff said...

George, it's almost as if the creators of Cars had Newman in mind when they created the Doc Hudson character.

And I agree about TCM ... I know I'll be watching.