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“I was blessed to have known him. The world is better because of him. Sometimes God makes perfect people and Paul Newman was one of them.” — Sally Field

He was a hustler, an outlaw, a cowboy, a grifter, a hockey star, a bigwig, a gangster, a racer, a friend, a humanitarian, a husband, a father.  He is a legend.

Paul Leonard Newman was born January 26, 1925 in Cleveland Ohio and died September 26, 2008 after battling cancer.  Most will remember him as one of the greats of the silver screen.  His break into stardom came in the late 50s with Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), and he continued working into the twenty-first century, notably playing John Rooney in the mob feature, Road to Perdition, which hit cinemas in 2004.

He was devilishly handsome, but capable of bringing a scintillating A-game to the screen which earned him 7 Academy Award nominations over his career.  He finally won an Oscar for a reprisal of his role as Fast Eddie Felson (The Hustler) in 1986’s The Color of Money.   He had the ability to inhabit a role completely, making fellow actors look stale and flat.  He made the audience believe that he really was Butch Cassidy robbing banks with his partner, the Sundance Kid.  In Cool Hand Luke (1967), he made us hope and pray that he could escape from prison and out run Johnny Law, and that it was humanly possible to eat 50 eggs without throwing up.  We laughed as we watched him pop wise cracks and bodycheck his fellow players in the ice-hockey flick, Slap Shots (1977). Our hearts broke as we watched him stare down a Tommy gun with the line “I’m glad it’s you in the rain” inRoad to Perdition (2002), And he was still capable of bringing joy to a younger generation, as an old race car passing wisdom on to the younger generation in Pixar’s animated feature Cars (2006).

Newman was almost too natural onscreen, such a brilliant presence that he sometimes made everyone around him look flat.  He could take a difficult and complex role, and make it look elementary and utterly real.  He even made heartthrob Robert Redford look like just another actor on screen.  But his performances were also generous, elevating the acting and performance of his fellows with their cleverness and their flawless beauty.

But Newman was also a humanitarian.  He founded his own line of products in 1982, starting with salad dressing and branching out into a whole line of foodstuffs.  All profits were donated to charity, amounting to a staggering $200 million over Newman’s lifetime.  In the 1980s, he began founding summer camps for seriously ill children, naming the first “The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp”, after his character’s fictional gang in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 13,000 children a year now attend.  As his fellow actor, Eva Marie Saint, commented, ” … His legacy as a humanitarian for children around the world is unmatchable”.

Newman was also a devoted family man.  He was married twice, but remained with his second wife for upwards of 50 years, surely some kind of record for Hollywood.  They had three daughters together, and the family lived away from Californian limelight in Westport, Connecticut.  When asked about infidelity, he shot back: “Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?”

A talented racing car driver, Newman spent his spare time blazing around the track.  At the young age of 70 he became the oldest driver to be part of the winning team in a major sanctioned race, taking the chequered flat at the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona.  Even here he brought a grace and dignity to his pastime that few could match.  His racing team partner Carl Hass commented: “Paul and I have been partners for 26 years and I have come to know his passion, humor and, above all, his generosity. Not just economic generosity, but generosity of spirit. His support of the team’s drivers, crew and the racing industry is legendary. His pure joy at winning a pole position or winning a race exemplified the spirit he brought to his life and to all those that knew him.”