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Ligier_AL
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Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 1911
Location: Mid-West
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 Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:36 am Post subject: PAUL NEWMAN 1925-2008 |
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| AP wrote: |
Legendary actor Paul Newman dies at age 83
WESTPORT, Conn. - Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" — and as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario — has died. He was 83.
Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.
In May, Newman had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.
He got his start in theater and on television during the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers. He was nominated for Oscars 10 times, winning one regular award and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including "Exodus," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Verdict," "The Sting" and "Absence of Malice."
Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting."
He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray. They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in "The Long Hot Summer," and Newman directed her in several films, including "Rachel, Rachel" and "The Glass Menagerie."
With his strong, classically handsome face and piercing blue eyes, Newman was a heartthrob just as likely to play against his looks, becoming a favorite with critics for his convincing portrayals of rebels, tough guys and losers. "I was always a character actor," he once said. "I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood."
Newman had a soft spot for underdogs in real life, giving tens of millions to charities through his food company and setting up camps for severely ill children. Passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights, he was so famously liberal that he ended up on President Nixon's "enemies list," one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.
A screen legend by his mid-40s, he waited a long time for his first competitive Oscar, winning in 1987 for "The Color of Money," a reprise of the role of pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson, whom Newman portrayed in the 1961 film "The Hustler."
Newman delivered a magnetic performance in "The Hustler," playing a smooth-talking, whiskey-chugging pool shark who takes on Minnesota Fats — played by Jackie Gleason — and becomes entangled with a gambler played by George C. Scott. In the sequel — directed by Scorsese — "Fast Eddie" is no longer the high-stakes hustler he once was, but rather an aging liquor salesman who takes a young pool player (Cruise) under his wing before making a comeback.
He won an honorary Oscar in 1986 "in recognition of his many and memorable compelling screen performances and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft." In 1994, he won a third Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his charitable work.
His most recent academy nod was a supporting actor nomination for the 2002 film "Road to Perdition." One of Newman's nominations was as a producer; the other nine were in acting categories. (Jack Nicholson holds the record among actors for Oscar nominations, with 12; actress Meryl Streep has had 14.)
As he passed his 80th birthday, he remained in demand, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the 2005 HBO drama "Empire Falls" and providing the voice of a crusty 1951 car in the 2006 Disney-Pixar hit, "Cars."
But in May 2007, he told ABC's "Good Morning America" he had given up acting, though he intended to remain active in charity projects. "I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to," he said. "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."
He received his first Oscar nomination for playing a bitter, alcoholic former star athlete in the 1958 film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Elizabeth Taylor played his unhappy wife and Burl Ives his wealthy, domineering father in Tennessee Williams' harrowing drama, which was given an upbeat ending for the screen.
In "Cool Hand Luke," he was nominated for his gritty role as a rebellious inmate in a brutal Southern prison. The movie was one of the biggest hits of 1967 and included a tagline, delivered one time by Newman and one time by prison warden Strother Martin, that helped define the generation gap, "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate."
Newman's hair was graying, but he was as gourgeous as ever and on the verge of his greatest popular success. In 1969, Newman teamed with Redford for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," a comic Western about two outlaws running out of time. Newman paired with Redford again in 1973 in "The Sting," a comedy about two Depression-era con men. Both were multiple Oscar winners and huge hits, irreverent, unforgettable pairings of two of the best-looking actors of their time.
Newman also turned to producing and directing. In 1968, he directed "Rachel, Rachel," a film about a lonely spinster's rebirth. The movie received four Oscar nominations, including Newman, for producer of a best motion picture, and Woodward, for best actress. The film earned Newman the best director award from the New York Film Critics.
In the 1970s, Newman, admittedly bored with acting, became fascinated with auto racing, a sport he studied when he starred in the 1972 film, "Winning." After turning professional in 1977, Newman and his driving team made strong showings in several major races, including fifth place in Daytona in 1977 and second place in the Le Mans in 1979.
"Racing is the best way I know to get away from all the rubbish of Hollywood," he told People magazine in 1979.
Despite his love of race cars, Newman continued to make movies and continued to pile up Oscar nominations, his looks remarkably intact, his acting becoming more subtle, nothing like the mannered method performances of his early years, when he was sometimes dismissed as a Brando imitator. "It takes a long time for an actor to develop the assurance that the trim, silver-haired Paul Newman has acquired," Pauline Kael wrote of him in the early 1980s.
In 1982, he got his Oscar fifth nomination for his portrayal of an honest businessman persecuted by an irresponsible reporter in "Absence of Malice." The following year, he got his sixth for playing a down-and-out alcoholic attorney in "The Verdict."
In 1995, he was nominated for his slyest, most understated work yet, the town curmudgeon and deadbeat in "Nobody's Fool." New York Times critic Caryn James found his acting "without cheap sentiment and self-pity," and observed, "It says everything about Mr. Newman's performance, the single best of this year and among the finest he has ever given, that you never stop to wonder how a guy as good-looking as Paul Newman ended up this way."
Newman, who shunned Hollywood life, was reluctant to give interviews and usually refused to sign autographs because he found the majesty of the act offensive, according to one friend.
He also claimed that he never read reviews of his movies.
"If they're good you get a fat head and if they're bad you're depressed for three weeks," he said.
Off the screen, Newman had a taste for beer and was known for his practical jokes. He once had a Porsche installed in Redford's hallway — crushed and covered with ribbons.
"I think that my sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me sane," he told Newsweek magazine in a 1994 interview.
In 1982, Newman and his Westport neighbor, writer A.E. Hotchner, started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $175 million, according to its Web site.
Hotchner said Newman should have "everybody's admiration."
"For me it's the loss of an adventurous freindship over the past 50 years and it's the loss of a great American citizen," Hotchner told The Associated Press.
In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He went on to establish similar camps in several other states and in Europe.
He and Woodward bought an 18th century farmhouse in Westport, where they raised their three daughters, Elinor "Nell," Melissa and Clea.
Newman had two daughters, Susan and Stephanie, and a son, Scott, from a previous marriage to Jacqueline Witte.
Scott died in 1978 of an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium. After his only son's death, Newman established the Scott Newman Foundation to finance the production of anti-drug films for children.
Newman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the second of two boys of Arthur S. Newman, a partner in a sporting goods store, and Theresa Fetzer Newman.
He was raised in the affluent suburb of Shaker Heights, where he was encouraged him to pursue his interest in the arts by his mother and his uncle Joseph Newman, a well-known Ohio poet and journalist.
Following World War II service in the Navy, he enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he got a degree in English and was active in student productions.
He later studied at Yale University's School of Drama, then headed to New York to work in theater and television, his classmates at the famed Actor's Studio including Brando, James Dean and Karl Malden. His breakthrough was enabled by tragedy: Dean, scheduled to star as the disfigured boxer in a television adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Battler," died in a car crash in 1955. His role was taken by Newman, then a little-known performer.
Newman started in movies the year before, in "The Silver Chalice," a costume film he so despised that he took out an ad in Variety to apologize. By 1958, he had won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for the shiftless Ben Quick in "The Long Hot Summer."
In December 1994, about a month before his 70th birthday, he told Newsweek magazine he had changed little with age.
"I'm not mellower, I'm not less angry, I'm not less self-critical, I'm not less tenacious," he said. "Maybe the best part is that your liver can't handle those beers at noon anymore," he said.
Newman is survived by his wife, five children, two grandsons and his older brother Arthur. |
He is going to be missed! R.I.P. Paul  |
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thunderroad
champcarmanic
Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 918
Location: snowboarding in Manitoba
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| Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 11:24 am Post subject: |
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RIP.
He will always be a legend and we'll especially remember his passion for motorsports. |
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Stools
champcaracer
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 429
Location: Fargo, North Dakota... God's country! And a long fricken drive to any track worth going to!
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| Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 12:48 pm Post subject: |
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One of the greatest ever. Unmatched! One of two of my heros. Mario Andretti and Paul Newman.
Paul's acting is of least importance to me. As he would say so himself. He's unmatched to me because of his philanthropy and of course his passion for racing. The same as myself.
They are in the EARL and I don't wtch them. But Newman-Haas was always my favorite team for all time. Even though I couldn't stomach Froggy I was still happy for Paul Newman.
But the Mario-Michael years while at Newman-Haas cannot and will never be matched with anything to do with racing for the rest of my life. In terms of favorite drivers on a favorite team in a favorite series.
Now Paul is gone, Mario retired, Michael is a whore and Champ Car is dead. They can't take the memories though.
Love you Paul!!! So blessed to have met him and watch him and/or seen him in person once a year for the past 23 years. What a remarkable man!
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 DIE EARL, DIE !!!  |
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KlüstérFøk
champcarguru
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 1024
Location: out there... in a frozen tundra... pissing against the wind...
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| Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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Never to be forgotten !!!!  
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KlüstérFøk
champcarguru
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 1024
Location: out there... in a frozen tundra... pissing against the wind...
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| Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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Never to be forgotten !!!!
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SeventhGear
champcarguru
Joined: 22 Oct 2005
Posts: 1500
Location: Bermuda Triangle
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| Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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Race world mourns Paul Newman => http://www.crash.net/news_view~cid~4~id~169587.htm
I've lived for over 50 years... Paul Newman being my favorite actor and racing persona... and CART + Champ Car were my favorite racing series... now they are all gone !!!
So the few years I have left I shall remember them all fondly. Especially Paul Newman (ie: "Color Of Money" and his Can-Am days) !!!
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Anybody who listens to Gentilozzi about anything needs to get their heads examined !! - Robin Miller
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Fuzzy15
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Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Posts: 1622
Location: Baker, CA - entrance to Death Valley = aka BONNEVILLE
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Ruhiat.Ari
champcarguru
Joined: 27 Oct 2005
Posts: 1604
Location: Virginia Beach
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| Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 12:00 am Post subject: |
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| RACER/Autosport/SPEEDtv wrote: |
Paul Newman Passes Away at Age 83
Legendary actor, racer and team owner Paul Newman has died last night at the age of 83, after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Newman, who was co-owner of the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing IndyCar team and raced himself throughout the 1970s and 1980s, died peacefully at his home in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife Joanne Woodward and his five daughters at his side.
In a statement issued today by the Newman Foundation, the charity organization mourned its founder saying he will be missed by all who surrounded him.
"Paul Newman's craft was acting. His passion was racing. His love was his family and friends. And his heart and soul were dedicated to helping make the world a better place for all.
"Paul had an abiding belief in the role that luck plays in one's life, and its randomness. He was quick to acknowledge the good fortune he had in his own life, beginning with being born in America, and was acutely aware of how unlucky so many others were. True to his character, he quietly devoted himself to helping offset this imbalance.
"An exceptional example is the legacy of Newman's Own. What started as something of a joke in the basement of his home, turned into a highly-respected, multi-million dollar a year food company. And true to form, he shared this good fortune by donating all the profits and royalties he earned to thousands of charities around the world, a total which now exceeds $250 million.
"While his philanthropic interests and donations were wide-ranging, he was especially committed to the thousands of children with life-threatening conditions served by the Hole in the Wall Camps, which he helped start over 20 years ago.
"He saw the Camps as places where kids could escape the fear, pain and isolation of their conditions, kick back, and raise a little hell. Today, there are 11 Camps around the world, with additional programs in Africa and Vietnam. Through the Camps, well over 135,000 children have had the chance to experience what childhood was meant to be.
"In Paul's words: 'I wanted to acknowledge luck; the chance and benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others, who might not be allowed the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it.'
"Paul took advantage of what life offered him, and while personally reluctant to acknowledge that he was doing anything special, he forever changed the lives of many with his generosity, humor, and humanness.
"His legacy lives on in the charities he supported and the Hole in the Wall Camps, for which he cared so much.
"We will miss our friend Paul Newman, but are lucky ourselves to have known such a remarkable person."
Donations in memory of Paul Newman can be made to the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps => http://www.HoleInTheWallCamps.org |
Will miss ya !
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Ruhiat.Ari
champcarguru
Joined: 27 Oct 2005
Posts: 1604
Location: Virginia Beach
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| Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 12:29 am Post subject: |
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| Robin Miller of SPEEDtv wrote: |
MILLER: Paul Newman, an American Original
by Robin Miller
He was a reluctant movie star, a philanthropist of magnanimous proportions, a late-blooming race driver, a happily married father, a passionate car owner and a guy's guy who enjoyed his beer, telling stories and hanging out at the track.
But the main reason Paul Newman had such a love affair with auto racing for the past 40 years was the essence of this very special man.
"He enjoyed everything about our world and he definitely felt embraced," said Mario Andretti.
"But everyone respected his privacy and gave him space.
"And he really cherished just being one of the boys."
While it may be hard to imagine this Hollywood icon blending in with the scenery, that's exactly what he did from the time he started sports car racing in the '70s with PLN scribbled on the side of his car to his last appearance at Milwaukee this past June.
Whether he was perched in the corner of his garage watching the crew change engines, standing on the podium with Carl Haas, competing at the 24 Hours of Daytona, riding his scooter through the paddock, testing a sprint car or chatting up one of his legendary drivers, Newman never acted like a person of privilege, he just felt privileged to be part of the action.
Acting was how he made his living, but it ran a distant second to racing.
Hollywood was make believe, but racing was reality and it gave him a satisfaction like nothing he ever experienced in front of a camera. Newman said many times that driving fast was the one thing he felt like he had an aptitude for and it challenged him like nothing else.
"When Paul started driving for my dad, he was just so enthusiastic and full of questions and he could not get anough of racing," said Scott Sharp, who teamed with Newman in his dad's (Bob) Datsun 240Zs in Trans-Am.
"I mean, you've got to remember he was in his mid-40s when he started and he really had natural ability. You can only imagine where he might have gone if he'd started in his 20s."
Winning SCCA National titles and Trans-Am races confirmed his talent yet his appetite for faster cars never went away. He tested super-modifieds, stock cars, midgets, dirt modifieds and sprint cars.
Three years ago, dirt-track ace Corey Kruseman took some of his 850-horsepower sprinters out to Perris Speedway near Riverside, Calif. so Sebastien Bourdais, Bruno Junqueira, Paul Tracy and Newman could hot lap them on the half-mile dirt track. Bourdais could not believe his eyes.
"Here's this 80-year-old guy who weighs about 125 pounds guy thowing this sprint car into the corner," recalled the four-time Champ Car king. "I mean, these things are powerful and then he gets in too hot and rides up on the wall. Thankfully, it came back down on all four wheels instead of flipping.
"Paul came in with a big grin on his face and said: 'Can you imagine how you guys would have explained that to Joanne (Woodward, his wife)?"
About that same time, the great writer Brock Yates was toying with the idea of bringing back the original Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy dash (of which I'd had the pleasure of running in 1972). Eddie Wirth, a helluva racer on two or four wheels, was PLN's best bud so I approached them about teaming up.
Newman's response was classic:
"There's no way Joanne would ever let me do that," he said. I screamed back: 'First of all, your Paul F...... Newman, you can do whatever you want and, besides, you almost killed yourself in a sprint car a couple months ago and this will be tame compared to that."
He grinned and put his index finger up to his mouth and indicated he had not shared that latest adventure with his wife. But by the end of the summer he'd started asking questions about who might be in the Cannonball, how long it might take and what kind of car we would use. I responded by saying whatever car he could promote. "Oh, so that's why you want me on the team?," he said.
No, not really, was my response. We want you because every time we get stopped for speeding by the state troopers, they'll recognize you and let us skate.
"Don't bet on that," he chuckled. "I'm not that big anymore. Hell, I don't even recognize me."
Of course it was that self-depreciating sense of humor that endeared Newman to everyone lucky enough to become his friend.
At Long Beach a few years ago, three rather, um, older plus-sized women were almost apoplectic upon spotting Cool Hand Luke sitting in his hospitality area. They wanted a picture, so I informed PLN his participation would be an extension of his overall goodwill towards humanity.
He waved the girls in, put his arm around them and smiled. Their life was complete. After they left, Newman turned and said: "I use to get that a lot from pretty young women, but it's been a different audience since I turned 78."
During the past decade, he always wore the same nondescript outfit of all white—shirt, pants and tennis shoes. That wardrobe brings us to my favorite personal story and illustrates why PLN felt so anonymous at a race track. We were at Sebring, Fla. and Newman had flown down to watch Junqueira's first test since being seriously injured at Indianapolis.
It was lunchtime, so we drove into downtown Sebring to grab a burger. As we were leaving the cashier pointed to Paul and asked me: "Is that who I think it is? Paul Newman?"
I laughed and said no, he was just a painter at the track. When informed of his new identity, Newman laughed for five minutes and he talked about that every time I saw him for the next six months. He truly loved not being Paul Newman sometimes.
About the only thing he used his celebrity for was his benevolence to those not as fortunate. His salad dressing became a million-dollar business and 20 years ago he launched a camp for teminally ill children called The Hole in the Wall Gang. He'd contributed nearly $200 million before he passed away Friday night.
Andretti, who put Newman and Haas together back in 1983, spoke to his old friend for the last time a few days ago. Naturally, they talked about racing and how well Bourdais had been running at Spa.
Although Nigel Mansell, Michael Andretti, Cristiano da Matta, Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal, Oriol Servia, Junqueira, Tracy and Bourdais all brought success to to this team, it was Mario who got Newman excited about and into Indy cars.
And it's Mario who can put Newman's life and death into perspective,
"Here's this guy who was bigger than life in another life and he truly, truly loved motor racing," said Mario, who won the first CART title for Newman/Haas in 1984. "A couple years ago he and I started talking seriously about what we could do in the future to try and put open wheel back together.
"The first meeting at my house there was Kevin Kalkhoven, Paul Gentilozzi, Tony George, Brian Barnhart and Paul. I think when Tony saw Paul putting out that olive branch, it was huge and that was a big factor in bringing this thing together."
Of all their victories, Newman/Haas never won Indianapolis but PLN returned last May on pole day and clearly enjoyed the sight of everyone back together in Gasoline Alley.
"Paul was a character and an icon and he contributed so much to our sport and so much to life itself," continued Andretti. "Losing an individual like him is irreplaceable and I know I'll miss him greatly.
"He touched my life in a very positive way."
As he did for so many people, for so many years from so many angles. |
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Cowboy
champcarmanic
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 908
Location: Alberta, Canada
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| Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 12:41 am Post subject: |
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Mr. Newman was someone who I have always held in very high regard, to me he will always be remembered as Butch Cassidy, a memory that makes me smile everytime I think of the movie.
Rest in peace Paul, you left your mark in life in a very positive way.
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