Chronicling trends in entertainment, pop culture, politics, the arts, and the uncategorized et cetera.

Shallow Nation

September 27th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

Screen Legend Paul Newman (1925-2008) Photo & Video Tribute

Paul Newman, early 1960s

Screen legend Paul Newman has died at age 83.

Paul Newman, the legendary movie star and irreverent cultural icon who created a model philanthropy fueled by profits from a salad dressing that became nearly as famous as he was, has died. He was 83.

Newman died Friday at his home near Westport, Conn., after a long battle with cancer, publicist Jeff Sanderson said.

Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961)

The Hustler (1961)

Stunningly handsome, Newman maintained his superstar status while protecting himself from its corrupting influences through nearly 100 Broadway, television and movie roles. As an actor and director, he evolved into Hollywood’s elder statesman, admired as much offscreen for his quiet generosity, unconventional business sense, race car daring, political activism and enduring marriage to actress Joanne Woodward.

Paul Newman with Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Paul Newman with Elizabeth Taylor in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958)

Annoyed by the public’s fascination with his resemblance to a Roman statue, particularly his Windex-blue eyes, Newman often chose offbeat character roles. In the 1950s and ’60s, he helped define the American anti-hero and became identified with the charming misfits, cads and con men in film classics such as “The Hustler,” “Hud,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

Paul Newman in The Sting (1973)

Paul Newman in The Sting (1973)

Newman’s poker-game look in “The Sting” — cunning, watchful, removed, amused, confident, alert — summed up his power as a person and actor, said Stewart Stern, a screenwriter and longtime friend.

“You never see the whole deck, there’s always some card somewhere he may or may not play,” Stern said. “Maybe he doesn’t even have it.”

Newman claimed his success came less from natural talent than from hard work, luck and the tenacity of a terrier.

“Acting,” he once said, “is really nothing but exploring certain facets of your own personality trying to become someone else.” In early films, he said he tried to make himself fit the character but later aimed “to make the character come to me.”

Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The actor was most proud, friends say, of his later, Oscar-nominated roles in “Absence of Malice,” “The Verdict” and “Nobody’s Fool,” in which he dug deep into the complex emotions of ordinary men struggling for dignity, justice or a sense of connection. In 2003, he was nominated for an Oscar for his last feature film appearance, as a conflicted mob boss in “Road to Perdition.” Two years later, at 80, he won an Emmy for playing a meddlesome father in “Empire Falls.”

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in Mr and Mrs Bridge (1990)

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in “Mr and Mrs Bridge” (1990)

“He’s a majestic figure in the world of acting,” said director Arthur Penn, who worked with him in his early career. “He did everything and did it well.”

Part of a generation of edgy, naturalistic New York actors who changed Hollywood in the ’50s and ’60s, Newman was often compared with fellow Method actors Marlon Brando and James Dean. Film critic David Ansen once observed that if the trim actor lacked the others’ physical or psychic presence, he was more approachable, even when he played a heel.

“Newman,” Ansen wrote, “is our great middleweight movie star.”

Paul Newman and Tom Cruise in The Color of Money (1986)

Paul Newman and Tom Cruise in “The Color of Money” (1986)

Nominated eight times for Academy Awards in the best-actor category, Newman won only once, for “The Color of Money” (1986), in which he reprised the role of “Fast” Eddie Felson that he originated in 1961’s “The Hustler.” He also took home honorary Oscars in 1985 for career achievement and in 1993 for his humanitarian efforts. In later years, however, he boycotted awards shows despite continuing Oscar, Emmy and Tony nominations. He claimed he no longer owned a tuxedo.

In real life, Newman was “the quintessence of class, courtly without being old-fashioned,” said Victor Navasky, former editor of the Nation, a liberal magazine in which Newman invested and wrote occasional columns. Private and complex, Newman was also a beer-loving, mischievous prankster and an idealist who took to the streets to protest the war in Vietnam.

He was thrilled, friends said, when he heard that he had made President Nixon’s enemies list.

Married since 1958 to Woodward, his second wife, Newman cultivated a distinctly un-Hollywood lifestyle, shuttling between a homey New York apartment and a renovated farmhouse in woodsy Westport, Conn., from which he pursued passions including cooking and auto racing.

Paul Newman with John Lasseter, director of Cars (2006)

Paul Newman with John Lasseter, director of “Cars” (2006)

Highly competitive, Newman was drawn to the track, he told reporters, because in racing, unlike acting, the definition of “good” is not a murky matter of opinion. Although he began to race at 47, he was ranked among the sport’s top 25% of drivers, his team placing second in the prestigious Le Mans endurance contest in 1979. At 70, he became the oldest driver to place in a professionally sanctioned auto race when his team took third in the 24-hour race at Daytona, Fla.

Still racing into his 80s, Newman escaped uninjured from a car fire in 2005 and entered another race a month later.

Source: Actor Paul Newman dies at 83