Paul Newman will leave us a legacy of greatness

It’s no secret that actor Paul Newman has been on the ropes for a few months, but with reports surfacing that the screen legend has left the hospital to return home and “die in peace” settle the issue in with a painful clarity.

To me this is devastating news because Newman is truly one of the greats of cinema, a brilliantly gifted actor who grew into that role before our very eyes, and a movie star able to walk that precarious walk. I had the immense pleasure of meeting and interviewing him in 2000 during a junket trip to Los Angeles.

There was a nightmare of some sort I had been asked not to write about, which gave me time with Newman quite by accident, and we were ablse to discuss his career and performances. What a thrill, talking to the man who gave us so many fine characters, summoning the courage to portray out and out bastards, somehow making them all too human.

Like Brando before him, Newman made acting look effortless, and though he did not necessarily explode into the industry like so many others, he grew consistently as an actor through the 1950s and became an icon in the 1960s.

“The Silver Chalice,” a period piece, sent Newman running back to New York and the Actors’ Studio to hone his gifts, returning to give strong, always improving performances in “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” “The Left Handed Gun” and best of all as Brick in Tennessee Williams’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

It was in the 1960s, however, that he launched into another stratosphere of acting genius with an array of performances that deserved to win at least three Academy Awards for Best Actor, and even a nod for Best Director.

He was nothing short of astonishing in “The Hustler,” portraying a deeply flawed, selfish man who reailizes too late the error of his ways. In a cast including legends such as George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason and Piper Laurie, it was Newman who dominated the film with a daring performance.

The next year he was back in “Sweet Bird of Youth” and then blew us away as “Hud,” which should have been Oscar number two. This time his character was a soulless bastard, never seeing the error of his ways. Rarely had leading men been so courageous as to tackle a role like this.  Newman gave it his all.

“Cool Hand Luke” might be his finest work.  It was the perfect merging of a star with a role that brings out everything he does well.  In a film that spoke metaphorically to the the youth of the 1960s, challenging them not to trust authority, never to give in, Newman soars in the role of Luke, a criminal who simply will not give in to any authority.

“What we have here is a failure to communicate,” the botter, savage warden screams at him when he cannot beat him into submission. Again, an Oscar nomination, and with expectations high, it seemed he would finally win.  But yet again the award went to another: Rod Steiger for his powerhouise work in “In the Heat of the Night.”

One year later Newman’s wife would threaten to boycott the ceremonies when he husband was snubbed for a Best Director nomination for the film “Rachel, Rachel,” which won the actor the very same award from the New York Film Critics Circle.  It also garnered an Oscar nod for Best Picture.  Woodward would be nominated as Best Actress, giving her director full credit for the work, and remained furious with the Academy for the snub, which hurt Newman deeply.

“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” launched a period of star power for the actor, consistently among the top box office draws for his performances in such films as “The Sting” and “The Towering Inferno.”  There was a surpirse Oscar nod in store for his fine performance in “Absence of Malice” and then a barrage of superb reviews for his stunning work with director Sidney Lumet in “The Verdict.”

Newman starred as a down and out lawyer, a drunk struggling with a big case. This was it…the Oscar seemed certain. Here, finally, was the Academy’s chance to honor Newman…until Ben Kingsley came along with his work in “Gandhi.”

Newman did finally win that award, the year after receiving an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.  The victory came for his reprisal of Eddie Felson in the sequel (sort of) to “The Hustler” entitled “The Color of Money,” from director Martin Scorsese. No one argued about the fact that Bob Hoskins had won all the critics prizes (the National Board of Review being the one exception) because I think we all wanted him to win…at long last.

Through the years Newman has given audiences so much joy and for we who think of film as art and something deeper, everything we could possibly ask. I think fondly of him debunking a western legend in “Buffalo Bill and the Indians” and remember the chilling performance he gave in “Road to Perdition.”

Even in his later years Newman was a marvelous actor, commanding the screen with his wife in “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge” and giving one last great leading performance in “Nobody’s Fool,” for which he won the New York Film Critics award for Best Actor and yet another Oscar nod.

As bizarre as it sounds, I miss him already, because I know there will not be another Paul Newman performance. This isn’t the end, of course, but it feels that way.  I have felt really, really bad about Newman’s condition since reading about it. However, I take solace in the fact he lives on forever on film and lived his life exactly as he wanted to, and in the process, became one of the screen’s greatest performers.