Paul Newman

I like many was very sad to hear that Paul Newman passed away this weekend. He is one of my all time favorite actors, right up there with Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Tom Hanks (actually I don't like Tom Hanks but he's really good), Vin Diesel, Paul Rubens. I know nothing personally about Paul Newman's charities or his other business ventures, but from everything I'm reading the man was very transcendent and great. His work wasn't only in movies, and films, but also in philanthropy and racing and salad dressing. He was just all over the place and I heard yesterday that his charitable donations were something in the range of $175 million dollars to children's efforts. Wow just wow, what an amazing life, I hope he passed peacefully. I wish I'd known him more personally but all I can speak to are his movies. I used to be, and still am to some extent a huge movie buff, could have gone into film school but never did. I also don't ever reveal my all time favorite movies unless someone asks really nicely.

Paul Newman had at least three films on my every changing top 25, surely between Slap Shot, The Sting, Cool Hand Luke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Color of Money, The Hustler, and several others. I like him in Cool Hand Luke so much that I can't see a minute of that movie without watching the rest of it. Slap Shot might be his most underrated role, he is that movie, it's all so silly and heartfelt and yet that was the kind of role he always played. Any time he was with Robert Redford you knew the movie was going to be out of this world. They had more on-screen chemistry than any other pair in the history of filmaking in my opinion, just phenomenally funny and charming they were fantastic to watch together. Newman always seemed so genuine and likeable, it's really nice to hear that he was a fantastic guy off the screen as well.

He was nominated for 9 individual acting Oscars, he only won the best actor in a leading roll Oscar on his 7th try. When I think of great actors, he is one of my top 5 easily, and maybe my favorite, I don't think organizations like the AFI give him all the credit he deserves. They don't make actors as good as Paul Newman anymore, not even close, his movies aren't just good, but they are fun to watch. He is fun to watch. He was apparently on Richard Nixon's enemies list, that's how good of an actor he was. I think his films really show how hard he worked, heck I think his everything shows how hard he worked in life. I am a little bit sad that someone so wonderful left us, but his legacy will live on for a long long time.