Wow, I was just shocked to see that Paul Newman passed away today at 83.
Paul Newman, the Hollywood icon turned food company philanthropist, died Friday of cancer, his spokesman said. He was 83 years old.
In June, after he was photographed looking gaunt and sickly at an Indianapolis 500 event, reports surfaced that Newman was suffering from cancer.
"It's a form of cancer and he's dealing with it," A.E. Hotchner, a writer who partnered with Newman to start Newman's Own salad dressing company in the 1980s, told The Associated Press.
Newman's last screen appearance was as a conflicted mob boss in 2002's "Road to Perdition" opposite Tom Hanks, although he continued to provide voice work for films. He also provided the voice of Doc Hudson, a retired race car in Disney/Pixar's "Cars."
In 2003, Newman appeared in a Broadway theater revival of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." He received his first Tony Award nomination for his performance. PBS and the cable network Showtime aired a taping of the production, and Newman was nominated for an Emmy Award, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie.
Newman's cool blue eyes could have made him a matinee idol, but he was never one to rely on his looks. Instead, he made his name in the late 1950s and 1960s playing troubled loners and rebels without a cause.
It's easy to forget that the face that smiles out from grocery store shelves on countless "Newman's Own" products, promising "All profits go to charity," was once that of the smoldering star of such films as "The Hustler," "Hud," "Hombre" and "Cool Hand Luke."
But he could do comedy, too, as he showed in "Butch Cassisdy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting," both with Robert Redford. And even after his hair went gray his acting chops still brought him leading roles, such as the down-and-out lawyer in "The Verdict" and his reprisal of pool shark "Fast Eddie" Felson in "The Color of Money," with Tom Cruise.
Born Jan. 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Newman began acting in elementary school, starred in high school plays and -- after a stint in the Navy -- at Kenyon College. He also spent a year at the Yale Drama School.
He honed his low-key acting style at The Actor's Studio, the New York group where Marlon Brando, James Dean and, later, Robert Deniro also studied.
Newman got his start on Broadway in the early 1950s and immediately caught Hollywood's eye, but his first film, "The Silver Chalice," was almost his last. It was so bad, Newman took out a full page ad in a trade paper apologizing for it.
He didn't need to apologize for his next film, in 1956, a biopic of boxing champ Rocky Graziano, "Somebody Up There Likes Me," which drew praise from the critics and was a box-office success.
Newman went on to become one of the most decorated actors in Hollywood history. He was nominated ten times for an Oscar, and in addition to his Academy Award win for Best Actor in "The Color of Money,"
During the filming of "The Long Hot Summer," Newman co-starred with Joanne Woodward, whom he knew from their work together in a Broadway production of "Picnic." The two fell in love, and after Newman's first wife agreed to give him a divorce, they married in 1958.
Unlike most Hollywood couples, Newman and Woodward never split. He once said when asked how it was that they were able to stay true to one another, "Why fool around with hamburger when you have steak at home?"
Newman also founded Newman's Own, a food company from which he donated all profits and royalties to charity. As of May 2007, these donations have exceeded $220 million, according to NewmansOwn.com.
This is a huge loss for the entertainment world. God speed "Doc".....
