|
|
Paul Newman 1925-2008
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman
Born January 26, 1925 in Shaker Heights, Ohio
Died September 26, 2008 Westport Connecticut
Paul Newman 1925 - 2008
Paul Newman was probably best know for two things; his five-decade long career in roles for Hollywood films (beginning with The Silver Chalice in 1954), and for his 'Newman's Own' food product line which donates all post-tax profits to charities (estimated at approximately $250 million USD by 2008 - the website for the company is here. On the site is the line: "Paul occasionally referred to Newman's Own as the "joke that got out of control" and would express astonishment at its success.")
Having smoked heavily for much of his life, Paul Newman was diagnosed with lung cancer at some point in 2006, and went through chemotherapy (See the John Christoffersen article at CBS online, Associated Press. report from June 11, 2008). Newman finally abandoned the effort and chose to die at his home in Westport, Connecticut. He passed away on September 26, 2008 and his body was cremated at a private ceremony in Connecticut on Monday, Sept 29, 2008. He was 83 years old.
Paul Newman Obituary Announcements
[Below: Screenshot of the New York Times online announcement of Paul Newman's Obituary.]
From the New York Times Obit notice from September 28, 2008:
"Paul Newman, one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars, died Friday at his home in Westport, Conn. He was 83.
The cause was cancer, said Jeff Sanderson of Chasen & Company, Mr. Newman’s publicists.
If Marlon Brando and James Dean defined the defiant American male as a sullen rebel, Paul Newman recreated him as a likable renegade, a strikingly handsome figure of animal high spirits and blue-eyed candor whose magnetism was almost impossible to resist, whether the character was Hud, Cool Hand Luke or Butch Cassidy.
He acted in more than 65 movies over more than 50 years, drawing on a physical grace, unassuming intelligence and good humor that made it all seem effortless.
Yet he was also an ambitious, intellectual actor and a passionate student of his craft, and he achieved what most of his peers find impossible: remaining a major star into a craggy, charismatic old age even as he redefined himself as more than Hollywood star. He raced cars, opened summer camps for ailing children and became a nonprofit entrepreneur with a line of foods that put his picture on supermarket shelves around the world."
From the October 2, 2008 Time Magazine appreciation on Paul Newman written by Robert Redford:
...We played lots of pranks on each other. I used to race cars, and after he took this rare Porsche I owned for a drive, he began to get into racing. He had incredible reflexes, and he got really good, but he talked so much about it that I got sick of it. So I had a beaten-up Porsche shell delivered to his porch for his 50th birthday. He never said anything, but not long after, I found a crate of molten metal delivered to the living room of my (rented) house. It dented the floor. I then had it turned into a really ugly sculpture and dropped into his garden. To this day, neither one of us has ever mentioned it.
[Below: Screenshot of the Robert Redford appreciation.]
Read the entire article at Time Magazine
A Famous Man and Respected Celebrity
- 
- 
- 
- 
See a gallery of Paul Newman Obit/News Announcements from across the mainstream media (BBC, ABC, Fox News, Washington Post, Reuters, CBS, LA Times, ABC, NBC and the New York Times.)
- 
- 
- 
-
MEDIA FILES
TRAILER FOR "CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF" 1958
Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor in the film version of the Tennessee Williams' play
Links
Wikipedia has a page on Paul Newman here.
Original Page Octiober 2008, updated June 2011
New Jean Harlow book
I've not seen a copy of the book yet, but simply put, the Vieira Hollywood picture-books are the best albums on Hollywood, bar none, for well over a decade now. No one puts as much attention to the production aspects, design, picture choices, and then ladles the whole affair with affection and admiration in the text. Classic Hollywood has not had a modern explainer and admirer like Vieira for decades now, and the taste and skill brought to bear on his books make them both readable-fun and collectible (some of his past books are out of print and instead of dropping down to the remainder pricing so many used Hollywood books seem to end up at, his instead get harder to find and buy).
Book is by Darrell Rooney and Mark Vieira, 240 pages, Angel City Press. Available from amazon.com
New Book: Broken Silence: Conversations with 23 Silent Film Stars
This is a collection of 23 original interviews with stars of the silent screen, with biographical information and a filmography included for each.
Interviewed are Lew Ayres, William Bakewell, Lina Basquette, Madge Bellamy, Eleanor Boardman, Ethlyne Clair, Junior Coghlan, Joyce Compton, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dorothy Gulliver, Maxine Elliott Hicks, Dorothy Janis, George Lewis, Marion Mack, Patsy Ruth Miller, Lois Moran, Baby Marie Osborne, Muriel Ostriche, Eddie Quillan, Esther Ralston, Dorothy Revier, David Rollins and Gladys Walton.
About the Author Michael G. Ankerich is a writer whose work focuses on the silent film era of Hollywood. A former newspaper reporter, he has written extensively for Classic Images, Films of the Golden Age, and Hollywood Studio Magazine, which featured his interview with Butterfly McQueen (Prissy) on the 50th anniversary of the release of Gone With The Wind.
Book is 319 pages, McFarland. Available from amazon.com
New Busby Berkeley book
Maybe the most revered of musical directors was the extreme-stylist of the golden era of Hollywood movies, Busby Berkeley, a man who changed what a stage-production meant on film by taking the camera and making it move like a winged-eye that could see the motion of actors from every angle. Whether they were underwater, behind glass, or below a skyward lense, Berkeley made synchronized motion more than a filmed reproduction of a Broadway play.
Book is by Jeffrey Spivak, 408 pages, University Press of Kentucky. Available from amazon.com