Paul Newman has died

It is a sad day for Movie fans the world over as the AP news agency is reporting that Paul Newman passed away last night aged 83. He had been battling cancer for a number of years. Newman was most famously know for his roles in "The Hustler", "Hud", "Cool Hand Luke" & "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and after numerous nominations he finally landed an Oscar for his performance in "The Colour of Money" where he reprised his role of Fast Eddie, first played in "The Hustler"

Shying away from a pretty-boy image, Newman studied Method acting under Lee Strasbourg and became quite simply one of the finest actors of his, or any, generation. He was an iconoclast on screen and a devoted family man and racing car enthusiast off it, he was both a driver and Team owner.  He married his second wife, Joanne Woodward in 1958 and memorably stated"Why go out for a hamburger when you have steak at home?" or when asked about the difficulty's within his marriage stated bluntly that "Marriage is like a toaster or VCR, in my family if something is broke you fix it, you don't just throw it out and get a new one"

He is as famous for his charity work as he is for his movies, with "Newman's Own" dressing donating all profits after to tax to various charities, which to date has provided an estimated $200m to various organisations including the Hole in the wall gang, a summer camp for seriously ill children. He once quipped "The embarrassing thing is that the Salad dressing is out grossing my films!". 

It is hard at this stage to objectively quantify the impact Newman had in film but, for, example you can draw a direct line from the insouciant rebel of Butch Cassidy and notably, Cool Hand Luke right through to the likes of Johnny Depp's captain Jack Sparrow and Robert Downey Jr (pretty much everything)

Today the world has lost more than just another screen performer. Today the world has lost something far rarer, a substantial Icon, a common man who in his professional life had the touch of the divine, and a man who when asked about his extra curricular charity work seemed confused that it was made out to be anything unusual and just stated "Some people are lucky and some people are not so lucky and those that are have a responsibility to help other who are less fortunate.

Paul Newman once said his one fear was that his epitaph would be "Here lies Paul Newman, who failed because his blue eyes turned brown", he need not have worried his epitaph and his legacy will be far greater than a humble man like himself would want to admit.

Paul Newman

1925-2008