RIP Paul Newman ..dead at 83

[exile]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/27/paul.newman.dead/index.html

[Dave C]

Sad news. He had so many great performances in so many great films. RIP.

[Jordan_E]

One of the greatest of all time.

RIP.

[Parrish]

A great quote from the NYTimes obit:

 

“When a role is right for him, he’s peerless,” the film critic Pauline Kael wrote in 1977. “Newman is most comfortable in a role when it isn’t scaled heroically; even when he plays a bastard, he’s not a big bastard — only a callow, selfish one, like Hud. He can play what he’s not — a dumb lout. But you don’t believe it when he plays someone perverse or vicious, and the older he gets and the better you know him, the less you believe it. His likableness is infectious; nobody should ever be asked not to like Paul Newman.”

[King of All Cosmos]

Damn. He was a man of great integrity. Gonna watch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in his honor.

[Dimness]

One of my favorite old school actors. RIP.

[PoisonJam]

Here is a lovely tribute, written by Slate's Dahlia Lathwick (who worked at his Hole in the Wall Gang camp for very sick kids, here in CT) that focuses on his philanthropic endeavors, rather than his storied movie career. I love this passage:

 

Each summer of the four I spent at Newman's flagship Connecticut camp was a living lesson in how one man can change everything. Terrified parents would deliver their wan, weary kid at the start of the session with warnings and cautions and lists of things not to be attempted. They'd return 10 days later to find the same kid, tanned and bruisey, halfway up a tree or cannon-balling into the deep end of the pool. Their wigs or prosthetic arms?props of years spent trying to fit in?were forgotten in the duffel under the bed. Shame, stigma, fear, worry, all vaporized by a few days of being ordinary. In an era in which nearly everyone feels entitled to celebrity and fortune, Newman was always suspicious of both. He used his fame to give away his fortune, and he did that from some unspoken Zen-like conviction that neither had ever really belonged to him in the first place.

 

My wife used to see him once in a while coming in and out of the state building where she worked, and she said he was always very polite and cheerful, and above all, completely ordinary. He looked and acted like a friendly old geezer and nothing more.

 

He was one of the good ones.

[Angry the Clown]

Damn. He was a man of great integrity. Gonna watch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in his honor.

 

I was torn between watching that or The Hustler and will likely end up watching both. I still need to pick up the Blu-ray release of Cool Hand Luke come to think of it.

 

Sad to see him go since he did so much outside of film work. It's a truly awesome body of work to his name though, one that (along with his lifestyle) could teach a great many in modern Hollywood a lesson or two.

[jhfagan]

He had alot of great films out.

The Hustler, Slap Shot, The Sting, and even though it was total 80's classic cheese, The Color Of Money.

 

And the man made a mean salad dressing!

 

RIP Paul....

[Angry the Clown]

...even though it was total 80's classic cheese, The Color Of Money.

 

I actually rather like that movie. I watched it last night and, as cliche ridden as it is, tend to find myself liking it more with each viewing - primarily because, as ever, Newman is just always a joy and captivating screen presence to watch.

[secretvampire]

Newman was the shit. Hands down. The Sting, Butch Cassidy, Cool Hand Luke, Hudsucker Proxy among many others...and he was even a car nut like me. All of the charitable work he did...honestly one of the greatest HUMAN BEINGS out of Hollywood and not because of his characters....

[Jordan_E]

Entertainment Weekly has a cover story on Newman this week, including a breakdown on how much his various Newman's Own products has given to charity. An amazing human being, that's for sure.