Paul Newman has died after a long bout with cancer. Nothing shocking here - it became obvious a few months ago that he was done for. He had long since ceased being a working actor and passed into the realm of the legend who had somehow outlived himself. The mind struggled to connect the frail old man with the incredibly virile, beautiful, talented blue-eyed cinema god. Now it doesn't have to try.
It's hard picking out a single greatest Newman performance but Cool Hand Luke is a good place to start. The most famous scene is probably this one - "I can eat 50 eggs."
Of course there was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - and The Hustler. And then he aged magnificently into roles like the washed-up lawyer in The Verdict and the washed-up pool shark in The Color of Money and the crusty old father in Nobody's Fool. He's mostly associated with these performances and that late-50s/60s Method era where he played Billy the Kid in The Left-Handed Gun and the sick-hot degenerate fucker in The Long Hot Summer (his first movie co-starring alongside Joanne Woodward) - but he was old enough to have starred in straight Hollywood schmaltz like The Silver Chalice too. And of course he was Butch Cassidy...and always will be, no matter who else plays him.
12 comments:
This makes me so sad. He was always one of my favorite actors. And his 50 year marriage to Joanne and all his charity work endeared him to me even more.
We lost a true legend today. :(
"He had long since ceased being a working actor and passed into the realm of the legend who had somehow outlived himself".
Amazing. Even in a post about the death of a man almost universally liked and admired, you manage to be a bitch. For your information you cranky old homo, he retired from acting LAST YEAR. Long since ceased being a working actor? How exactly do you measure the passing of time in cranky homoland? I guess if it's in the number of blowjobs you give to dirty old men in urine filled alleyways, that would be a long time. For the rest of us, he had a long and distinguished career that ended fairly recently. Christ.
Inspiring incredible human being
R.I.P
X C
Talk about insensitive-- that remark about "outliving himself" was just fabulous. I remember your Falwell death post quite a while back that was so hate-filled that even some readers who agreed that he wouldn't be missed were appalled by your insensitivity and lack of common decency. You would think you might have learned...
Ithought Paul was the most handsome man on the planet when he was a young guy..with those electric blue eyes..he was my favorite actor..he will be greatly missed..he was one of a kind..my heart goes out to his family..
Paul Newman was definately a bright light. The world is now a darker place.
"you cranky old homo"
lol
The champ #37. You were the best. A tip of the hat.
Here is a clip from "The Verdict". It is the summation piece. Brilliantly delivered. Maybe Crabbie will imbed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBD6FxrtJN0
Actually, wasn't he big into community theater in the town where he lived in CT?
I will miss him terribly. It seems we're losing the best of the cinematic talent left and right. I hope we don't lose Elizabeth Taylor anytime soon.
Ummm, brett? We lost Elizabeth Taylor about five husbands ago. She's not worthy to lick Newman's boots, anyway-- she was nothing but a husband stealing tramp who treated everyone around her like slaves and ended up with a whack-job pedo as her best friend, and living in LaLa land while feeding her face with drugs and booze all day. Yeah, a real class act, that one.
Come on Crabbie, no mention of Slap Shot??? One of the top 10 sports movies ever made??
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3499229465/
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