Paul Newman



















(1925-2008)
"There is a kind of empathy he has shown throughout his career for this kind of underdog. ... Go back and look at Hud. Look at Cool Hand Luke. He just feels what they're going through from the inside, just feels them. He loves the way people just barely get by. He loves that kind of margin. Those people interest him the most."
Director Robert Benton, 1994.

"This was Newman’s early specialty: playing loners who disguised themselves as reprobates in order to hide both their loneliness and that they might give a damn about anything. By the time the audience was introduced to these characters, a harsh world had already forced them into a protective shell of selfish indifference and insolence. The pleasure, of course, was in the watching and waiting for redemption."
John Nolte, 2008.

3 comments:

ArtSparker said...

Somebody who made his time count. A film from a few years ago in which he played a down on his luck charactr; Nobody's Fool.

Good Book, too. Kind of Damon Runyonesque.

Jen Bradford said...

Hi artsparker! I'm guessing most people heard this news and thought, "What a great life." I feel a little silly posting a cheesecake photo, but he was devastatingly handsome, so why not...

Several years ago he was filming in Maine, and my Mom told me he went to a local ice cream shop. People were buzzy and excited but trying not to bother him. The woman ahead of him in line scurried away very fast and then returned, breathless, to say she had forgotten her cone. Apparently Newman leaned in and said "Um, I'm afraid you put it in your purse." Love that story.

sMacThoughts said...

Ugh. A wonderful man, missed. Bless his family.