Paul Newman

Paul Newman is another one of my favourite actors-even though he was a generation or two before my time. He is a difficult man to describe in many ways.Spanning decades of life at the top of the acting profession and having known all the great legends-Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor,James Dean,Robert Redford to name just a few.And to have lived through the experience of wars-he was born after all in 1925.

I suppose apart from the famous blue eyes,and the voice he has a charisma that is hard to put one's finger on. And,just as wonderful as have been his screen roles-The Sting,Cat on a hot Tin roof ,Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,The Hustler have been his work for childrens' charities like his own "The hole in the Wall Gang Camps" that have benefited from his philantropy for decades and hundreds of millions now.He has his own range of salad creams he sells in shops in many countries. I have often wondered about his religous beliefs.I think he is a Catholic-but I am not sure. But his example is of more than an actor.It is of how people should be.In the best traditions of America.

Like Jimmy Dean he also likes fast cars ,but to his credit has avoided fast women.I think he has been married to his 2nd wife Joanne Woodward now for almost 50 years.

If you look at his long film career :

His first movie was The Silver Chalice (1954), followed by Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), as boxer Rocky Graziano; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), with Elizabeth Taylor; The Young Philadelphians (1959), with Robert Vaughn.
On youtube you can see his appearance video in a screen test with James Dean for East of Eden (1955). He was testing for the role of Aron Trask, and Dean was testing for the role of Aron's older brother Cal Trask (even though Newman is older than Jimmy Dean). Dean won the part of Cal, and sadly the role Newman was trying for went to Richard Davalos.How wonderful it would have been for these two to have been caught together on film.And in the same year Newman starred with Eva Marie Saint and Frank Sinatra in a live television broadcast of a stage play Our Town. His Film roles are amazing -

He starred in Exodus (1960), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Hombre (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977) and The Verdict (1982). With actor Robert Redford inr Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).
He appeared with his wife, Joanne Woodward, in the feature films The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, (1958), From the Terrace (1960), Paris Blues (1961), A New Kind of Love (1963), Winning (1969), WUSA (1970), The Drowning Pool (1975), Harry & Son (1984) and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990).
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25 years after "The Hustler", Newman reprised his role of "Fast" Eddie Felson in the Martin Scorsese directed "The Color of Money" for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

He has said at his present age he will retire from films, but one suspects with the right script he might be tempted to reconsider-as acting is in his blood for sure.