After our little picture tribute to Paul Newman, who sadly died on Friday, we couldn’t help noticing from the comments, as well as the many other tributes to him in the media this week (oh, alright then, we weren’t the only ones who commemorated his loss, we admit it!) that it wasn’t just his acting that everyone admired.
People also loved his generosity. Think of all those stars who cash in on their own celebrity by endorsing perfumes and designer clothing (and back in the good ole days even cigarettes), but not Newman. Instead he mixes up job lots of his personal recipe for salad dressing in the basement of his Connecticut home with his mate and next-door neighbour AE Hotchner (or so the story goes) slaps his face on the label and shamelessly flogs the products on TV and in the media so that he can set up the Newman’s Own Foundation and give all the profits to charity. So far the Foundation has given over $250million to charitable causes worldwide. Just check out some of the tributes to him and his legacy on the Newman’s Own website which have flooded in from people all over the globe connected with the charities the Foundation has funded. It’ll make you cry – and in a good way. What a guy!
And then there’s Newman’s famous lack of vanity. For a guy somewhat over-blessed by the good looks fairies he never let it go to his head. He himself used to joke about his blue eyes turning brown and ruining his career, but as Kevin Spacey once said he seemed to have had ‘his ego surgically removed’. Now let’s face it, there ain’t many movie stars you can say that about and I can think of quite a few who could do with going under the scalpel in that regard.
And last but not least there’s his mega-marriage to Joanne Woodward. Okay, it wasn’t his first marriage, but hey, the two of them stayed married for 50 years, had three daughters and helped to restore everyone’s faith in happy ever after. How did it last so long? Well, if you want a little hint try to get a hold of a copy of the southern-fried romantic drama The Long Hot Summer, made way back in 1958. Newman plays rough, ready and drop-dead delicious bad boy Ben Quick and Woodward plays old-maid-before-her-time Clara Vanya. The sparks positively fly off the two of them as they bicker, banter and blaze their way to true love. If you’ve never seen it before you’re in for a treat, because it’s a record of the two of them falling in love, both off screen as well as on. And it’ll give you an insight into what the term soulmates really means. And just in case you fancy getting a little dewy-eyed again, here’s a picture tribute to them both… because I think we ought to give Joanne a little pat on the back too here, after all it takes two people to make a great marriage.
Very nicely done!
As I said before “we should all be so lucky”
Turner