A tribute to Paul Newman, dead at the age of 83.
Hollywood is shedding a few tears today. Many people say Steve McQueen was the ultimate man’s man in the movies. Others cast votes for John Wayne, or Clint Eastwood. But not me. As far as I’m concerned, the greatest man’s man in movie history passed away yesterday, September 26th, at the age of 83. I must confess, although I have been a Newman fanatic for years, I didn’t expect this news to hit me so hard. He had been battling cancer for years, and we all knew it was coming. But even outside the movies, he still seemed like some kind of masculine, indestructible superman. Even at the age of 80 he was still racing cars and living a very vital lifestyle. Paul Newman can’t die! He’s Cool Hand Luke, he’s a race car driver, he’s immortal!
And, in a very real way, the classy, genuine Paul Newman, like so many other great actors, is immortal. John Wanye, Steve McQueen, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney - they will never be forgotten. And neither will Newman. Here are ten ways never to forget this incredible man, one of the greatest actors ever to appear on the silver screen:
10. The Hudsucker Proxy: The Coen Brothers’ first real attempt at screwball comedy. A huge budget (for the Coens, at the time) and a terrific cast. Tim Robbins is on his way upstairs to show Paul Newman, the corporate executive, his idea for a new children’s toy. At the same time, Charles Durning, the company’s president, is flying out the boardroom window. Newman sees an opportunity to install the dimwitted Robbins in Durning’s place, so he can take over the company. Newman is delightful as the scheming, manipulative villain - the type Frank Capra could easily have created in the 40s. Sidney J. Mussberger is one of Newman’s best roles.
9. Road To Perdition: Once again, Newman is a fairly bad guy in this one, playing an aging Irish crime boss. His main hitman, Tom Hanks, has been his sort of surrogate son for many years. But when Newman’s biological son, (Daniel Craig) decides to wipe out Hanks’ family, Hanks comes after them hard. Jude Law also stars as a rival hitman sent to take out Hanks, and Newman is once again magnificent in a supporting role as the kindly yet dangerous John Rooney.
8. The Color of Money: The only Oscar Newman ever won. Of course, he was really winning more for his entire body of work, and not specifically for this movie. He is still tremendous, reprising his role as Fast Eddie Felson from the classic film The Hustler. Taking young Tom Cruise under his wing, Newman manages to take the George C. Scott character from the original film, combine him with his own Felson character, and create an entirely new character. He is going down the road toward becoming exactly the type of man who ruined him so many years earlier. Newman conveys the seething turmoil within his character in a top-notch performance.
7. The Towering Inferno: Not the greatest movie of Newman’s career, but an excellent chance to see three of the greatest manly actors in history go toe-to-toe. To toe. Newman is the architect of a gigantic skyscraper, William Holden is the man who built that skyscraper, and Steve McQueen is the fire chief who gets called in when that skyscraper burns to the ground. Fred Astaire and Faye Dunaway also star, but it’s the heroic men who make this movie resonate to this day. McQueen, Holden, and of course Newman. Doug Roberts belongs on a list of Newman’s great roles.
6. Slap Shot: Certainly one of Newman’s most beloved movies, and one of his most memorable roles. The greatest sports movie of all time, Slap Shot is so much more than just the Hanson Brothers and Denis Lemieux and the play-by-play guys. It is Newman, through and through. Newman just oozes effortless charm as he sleeps with women, inspires his team, and does what he can to hold a failing hockey club together. But there is something deeper going on within his character, a sort of resignation, sadness and pain that he balances perfectly with the humour of the hockey fighting. Reggie Dunlop is the most memorable fictional character in the history of sports movies, thanks to Paul Newman.
5. The Verdict: An alcoholic loser of a lawyer (Newman) finds a case that could mean either his redemption or his destruction. Frankly, there isn’t much difference between The Verdict and other, similar lawyer-and-courtroom dramas. Erin Brockovich, or A Civil Action. The biggest difference is Newman himself. As the drunken bum lawyer, he is simply stunning. A familiar story is elevated to greatness by not only one of the greatest performances of Newman’s career, but one of the greatest performances in movies. Ever. Paul Newman makes Frank Galvin an iconic figure.
4. The Sting: A far more lighthearted entry than The Verdict or even Slap Shot, The Sting is the ultimate, well, sting movie. Newman’s second brilliant pairing with Robert Redford, he manages to infuse his character with more than just light comedic silliness as he and Redford set up the ultimate sting to nail the local racketeer, Doyle Donnegan (played by Robert Shaw). Newman once again plays a drunk, dragging himself out of his stupor to get Donnegan. Henry Gondorff is one of Paul Newman’s greatest characters.
3. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid: Newman’s first magnificent collaboration with Redford and director George Roy Hill (who later directed The Sting as well). One of the greatest western movies ever made, Redford and Newman once again inject humanity and pathos into some pretty light fare. And is there a greater final image than the two of them bursting out of that doorway, guns raised? Paul Newman, for ever more, will be Butch Cassidy.
2. The Hustler: Again, Newman puts in one of the greatest performances in movie history. A young pool hustler taken under the wing of the malicious and sadistic George C. Scott (also one of the great performances in history), Newman creates memorable moment after memorable moment. There may be no greater scene in his entire career than the one where he takes on Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), in a marathon pool game. There is no one else on earth who could have done what Newman did in this movie with the character of Fast Eddie Felson.
1. Cool Hand Luke: The ultimate guy movie. The ultimate prison movie. The ultimate fight-the-system movie. And the ultimate Paul Newman movie. This is one of my all-time favourites, I watch it at least once every six months. There has never been a better tough-guy movie made, and I include all of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood’s oeuvre in that sentence. This is Newman’s best film, his best performance, and Luke Jackson is one of the top five characters ever created by anyone, in any movie, ever. If you want to remember Paul Newman, watch this movie today. And then once every six months for the rest of your life.
Hollywood has lost one of it’s great icons, one of it’s genuinely good people, and one of the greatest method actors who ever lived. RIP, Paul Newman.