This morning the very sad news came that Paul Newman lost his battle with cancer. A few weeks ago the story was going around that he was on his deathbed and the news quickly spread at work; everyone was walking around asking, “Have you heard about Paul Newman? This is so sad, I can’t believe it”. Today he died and I miss that I can’t share this sadness with my co-workers. That’s one of the difficulties of living alone – you only have yourself to talk to. Ok, so that’s another whole blog entry for another day.
Paul Newman has always been one of my favorite actors; not only for his talent, but also for the social, political and philanthropic stance he took both in his personal life and in his movies. Something that he said that mirrors my own beliefs: “A man can only be judged by his actions, and not by his good intentions or his beliefs.” The list of my favorite movies that he starred in and directed is too long to list, but when I hear his name the movies that immediately come to mind are of course Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict, The Sting, Cool Hand Luke, Absence of Malice, The Hustler. The list goes on and on. Even Message in a Bottle, that cheesy film that I couldn’t believe I watched even after reading the book – you had to love his character Dodge, what a sweet old guy.
I remember going to the theater with my friends to see Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. We swooned through every minute of watching these two beautiful men on screen. I’ll never forget the last scene of the movie when they ran out shooting and the frame froze and you knew both characters died in the gun battle. Every female in the theater let out a collective cry of “noooooo!” I think I shed a tear.
Something else that I loved about Paul Newman is his long and loving marriage to Joanne Woodward. They were married nearly 51 years. Fifty-one years! And even after all those years together they were still in love, still romantic, still unable to hide their physical and sexual attraction to each other. We could all take a lesson from those two. I love this quote from Joanne Woodward: "Being married to Paul is being married to the most considerate, romantic man." My heart goes out to her today.
Paul Leonard Newman…may you rest in peace.
January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008
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