Yesterday a Hollywood legend passed on. I kept thinking it was too bad that younger people probably don't know his films -- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict, Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, and on and on. They should go rent them sometime. But Paul Newman was much more than just an actor, he was one of the really good guys. And ain't that hard to find in Hollywood in these days of overblown egos and diva behavior?
Married to Joanne Woodward since 1958, they had a rare long-term celebrity marriage, with nary of hint of infidelity. He once famously said, when asked if he was tempted to cheat on his wife, that "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" He was a philanthropist who donated all the profits from his Newman's Own food products to charity, creating a camp for seriously ill children. And by all accounts, he was a genuinely wonderful father and friend.
Paul, we will miss you.
