I always thought he was underestimated as an actor. It wasn’t just as measured by the number of Academy Awards, but rather by the opinions of all my friends that he wasn’t on par with Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Gregory Peck, Lawrence Olivier, etc. I argued then and will argue now.
I know it sounds terribly corny, but when I heard of the death of Paul Newman I felt that I had lost a friend. (I felt that way about George Carlin, although with Carlin, it left me wondering who would tell us all how stupid we are, do you hear that Lewis Black?) Is it that some of the first movies I saw with my family starred Newman, like Somebody Up There Likes Me? Is it that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was released during the period when I started to really connect to feature films?
There are just so many of his performances that I gravitate towards, and watch again and again:
The Verdict
Hud
Slap Shot
The Long Hot Summer (where he gives the great Orson Welles quite the run for his money)
Nobody’s Fool
Where the Money is
The Hudsucker Proxy
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
Fort Apache The Bronx
Buffalo Bill and The Indians
The Drowning Pool
Sweet Bird of Youth
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
The Sting (which introduced me and many others to Scott Joplin)
The Color of Money
Cool Hand Luke
The Hustler (my first time seeing The Great One playing in a non-comedic role)
and finally, a real sleeper, rarely mentioned, but a terrific comedic turn fairly early in his career:
What a Way to Go!
In an age of celebrity, Newman through his philanthropic work, as well as his ever charming self deprecation, always reminded us that he did not stoke nor covet his celebrity. What a mensch.
Even his small posse of stars and character actors, from Robert Redford to Strother Martin, whom appeared as a character actor along with Newman in so many of his great films, says a lot about this great man we lost last week.
In the 80’s, I used to see films in an old fashioned movie theater near Lincoln Center that was a revival house: The Regency. (It’s now a Victoria’s Secret.). One night at The Regency I was watching The Long Hot Summer for the very first time. There’s a scene early on in the film where Newman appears shirtless in glorious color, and I remember a woman letting go with a huge loud sigh of joy, at the sheer beauty of Paul Newman. The full house erupted with laughter and then with applause, for what was then an almost 30 year old film.
Here are two links, the first from an ABC new piece where a number of movie stars comment on the life of Paul Newman; the second is Maureen Dowd’s piece from yesterday’s New York Times.