Great remembrance of Paul Newman by Manohla Dargis in the NY Times. (I’d like to beg forgiveness for the annoying login required by the Times, but I won’t. It’s just plain wrong for the Times to retain that friction after it’s bothered to open its content anyway.)
My own favorite Newman moves are later ones: The Verdict, Nobody’s Fool, Empire Falls. As a journalist, I have a special appreciation for Absence of Malice, where the best performance actually belonged to Wilford Brimley, playing himself, essentially. In it Newman is by turns both passionate and, as Dargis puts it, cooler than dry ice.
He was, finally and enduringly, a good man. You knew that. It came across in his acting and his life. He’s a guy I wish I had known. Sad to see him go.
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Cool Hand Luke — and the many classic lines
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Absence of Malice is my favorite as well. I’m not a great movie fan nor much for Hollywood idols, but he was (such as sad tense) my one and only.
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I always thought he should have done more films with Steve McQueen. A buddy flick or ‘brothers’ movie would have been neat to see.
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Paul and Steve (McQueen) both racers, both rather good for the time they could devote (and Paul started late)
Steve often raced as Harvey Mushman – to avoid studio insurance concerns
I believe that Paul always raced as himself
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D. Log-In on the Times is NOT required! Here’s what to do: When you want to link to an NYT article simply hit “Share” and then “permalink.” That will provide you with a URL that will stay active, copy that URL for insertion into your blog. As I mentioned today on my blog, I wish the WSJ Online, whose exorbitant subscription fee I shell out each year, would have such an excellent permalink feature as that offered by the Times for free. But … I guess that (i.e. sharing vs. not) is the difference between liberals and conservatives, both online and out in the world. SL
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it’s hard not to admire Paul Newman for putting his money to work in such productive ways, such as his Newman’s Own line–high quality stuff and the proceeds go to good causes… very smart.
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