Back when I was in college and started taking film classes I began to gain an appreciation for the classic movies of the past.  I started renting older movies and while many of my friends didn’t have much interest in watching them with me, I couldn’t get enough.  One of the first movies I rented during this period was The Hustler, which is now ranked way up toward the top of my all time favorite movies.  The Hustler of course starred Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson.  The movie mesmerized me.  In fact, it along with a couple of other movies are what really forced me to keep going and watch as many of these old movies as possible.  I had never seen anyone on the screen as cool as him.  The way that he effortlessly went from owning that pool table and the room to a completely broken shell of person in one scene was astonishing.  From there, I went to Hud and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, then to Cool Hand Luke.  Then the two classics he did with Redford; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting.  In 1966 he starred in one of my all time favorite private eye movies Harper, where the tagline was, “This is a different kind of cat named Harper… and excitement clings to him like a dame!”  These characters were cool, they were rebellious and most important they were all flawed and completely human.  Writers can only write a character so well, the actor needs to bring these elements with them to the set and Newman never mailed it in.  All in all, Newman has seven movies in my top 100.

Newman got his first major movie role in the laughable Silver Chalice.  The movie was so bad that he took out a full page ad in the newspaper apologizing to people who paid to go see it.  Then he got the role that would jump start his career as boxer Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me.  In his next film, The Long, Hot Summer he co-starred with his future wife Joanne Woodward.  They married in 1958 and did something that is completely out of character for a Hollywood couple; stayed married until his death on Friday night.

It’s easy to forget about all the movies that Newman did after his great run in the 1960’s, but the reality is his career was just as successful and roles were just as juicy in the 70’s, 80’s and even did great work in the 90’s and 2000’s.  Newman started out the 70’s directing, Sometimes a Great Notion, then playing con man Henry Gondorff in 1973’s Best Picture winner, The Sting.  The 70’s also saw Paul Newman star in two weird but effective westerns, The Life and Times of Judge Row Bean and Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson.  And who can forget Slap Shot, easily the silliest and most hilarious movie Newman ever starred in.  Hearing the line, “You better get re-married again, or he’s gonna have someone’s cock in his mouth before you can say Jack Robinson” come out of Newman’s mouth in that movie is absolutely priceless. 

Newman slowed down in the 80’s, but still managed to be nominated for best actor three times.  One for Absence of Malic, then The Verdict and finally winning for reprising Fast Eddie Felson in The Color of Money.  This was Newman’s first Oscar but he didn’t go to the ceremony because award shows were never his thing.  He would receive 2 more nominations in his career for 1994’s Nobody’s Fool and a supporting nod in 2002 for playing a gangster in Road to Perdition.

While Newman’s acting career is rivaled by few; what he did off the screen is rivaled by no actor.  His humanitarian efforts are legendary.  Newman created the Newman’s Own brand making salad dressing, lemonade and countless other foods and beverages.  After taxes 100% of the profits go to support various charities.  As of 2006 Newman’s Own has donated 200 million dollars.  In the late 80’s he founded the Hole in the Wall camp for seriously ill children which serves up to 13,000 sick kids all over the world per year.  Aside from these, Newman has donated millions of dollars and much of his time for causes such as freedom of speech, education and to help the starving and mistreated across the globe.  Newman’s tireless work on liberal and social causes allegedly put him number 19 on Richard Nixon’s enemy list.

Even with everything else that he did, Paul Newman was a movie star.  Not just any movie star, but one of the movie stars.  It’s a cliché, but true.  Guys wanted to be like him and girls wanted to be with him.  He refused to let his looks derail his career in to cheesy popcorn roles.  He took risks and played characters with real human issues and he played these characters with class and humility.  He is one of the reasons why I love the movies and while I was hoping for that one last great role; he has given so many timeless performances that we will be able to cherish for years.  Like he said as Fast Eddie in the Hustler, “I’m the best you ever seen, Fats. I’m the best there is. And even if you beat me, I’m still the best.”