FeedRemembering Paul Newman
Written by NetBear on September 28, 2008 – 6:18 am -The world has lost one of the last great 20th century movie stars and leading men. Paul Newman died at his Westport, Connecticut home yesterday. He was 83.
Whether it was this image from the 2005 HBO movie Empire Falls, or his Butch Cassidy or his immortal Cool Hand Luke character, Paul Newman embodied the handsome, blue-eyed rebel we all remember.
Can you remember the first time you saw Paul Newman in a movie? I can. My older brother was watching what I thought was a dull prison movie. My brother was into that kind of stuff. He later became a prison guard, would you believe it? Anyways, I thought it was curious that there was this half-naked prisoner lying in his underwear, eating boiled eggs by the dozen.
In no time I became engrossed in watching Cool Hand Luke
Here’s that egg eating scene. After all these years it still pushes my buttons. 
I can eat 50 eggs…
Luke was Newman’s first character that I came to love. But it certainly wasn’t my last. In the years that followed one particular movie had all the women on our block swooning and all the men chuckling. With a character named Butch Cassidy how could I not be interested in this next Newman role?
This time Newman costarred with the mustachioed Robert Redford, becoming the ultimate male sex symbols of their time in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch and Sundance contemplate jumping off a cliff in this scene.
Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill ya!
In 1973 Newman was again paired with Redford in The Sting
Hollywood wanted to again cash-in on the success of the Newman-Redford buddy-buddy movies. And we were happy to oblige. The combination never ceased to tantalize and sizzle viewers.
After more than 50 years in the movie making industry and 65 movies under his belt, Paul Newman created quite a Hollywood legacy. Next time you watch one of these classic movies pay special attention to that laid-back blue-eyed hunk and take some time to enjoy Paul Newman creating movie magic.
By lump516 on Sep 28, 2008 3:45:44 PM | Reply
Very simply, Newman was one of the best actors of the past 50 years or so. He was great in COOL HAND LUKE (even though the film itself was little more than an exercise in adolescent snottiness–I suspect that even a kinder-hearted warden would have locked him in The Box more than once). He was a superb light comedian (see him sparring with his wife Joanne Woodward in the undervalued A NEW KIND OF LOVE or as Sophia Loren’s boyfriend in LADY L, as the anarchist who just isn’t into, well, anarchy), and few people could play smart so beautifully and convincingly (one of the great charms of THE STING, along with his great comic chemistry with Robert Redford, is the pleasure of watching the wheels in his head turn–and in HARPER, you get the feeling he’s actually solved the mystery at the heart of the story, even if the script is hopelessly muddled plot-wise). And although I’ve always thought THE HUSTLER was a bit too self-serious and overrated, the last scene of the film, when he tells off George C. Scott and says that if he sends thugs after him they’d better kill him, he’s absolutely gripping. And he’s heart-breaking in the otherwise sleazy and overwrought film version of SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH–the ending is a cop-out, but he so strongly conveys his love for the girl he betrayed (Shirley Knight) and his sorrow for that betrayal that the ending feels earned and right. No other American actor at the time could probably have carried that off.
By Ed on Sep 29, 2008 11:37:38 AM | Reply
This news was so sad….he was handsome even in his older years. I also love the products he came out with.