PAUL NEWMAN IS GONE

The sad news isn’t new.  Paul Newman died over the weekend, of lung cancer.

He was one of the angry young men of the ‘50s who projected the sullen rebelliousness that characterized a whole class of actors (and actor/singers if you include Elvis Presley).

James Dean was another one of them, his career cut short at the intersection of two isolated highways between Fresno and the California coast.  A monument stands in his memory near Cholame, CA.

Marlon Brando was another, a mumbler, they said, whose mumbling fit perfectly with his portrayal of The Godfather.  

Paul Newman began his career in that same rebel mold.  But it was because of his talent, intelligence and pleasant demeanor that stood him so well in a career that spanned more than 6 decades.  From the rebel, he morphed into a “good guy”, still intense when he needed to be, but very able to carry off the scamp or the scoundrel.

And what belied the rebel label more than anything else is the fact that among celebrities, he ranks 4^th overall in charitable giving, behind Oprah who is #1 on the list of Top 10 celebrity givers, and ahead of the combo of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

He was 83.  Someone said, “yeah, but he was a smoker”.  Well, OK.  Back when he came up, everybody smoked.  You were kind of strange if you didn’t.

A couple of weeks ago, I did the grandfather thing and took my granddaughter to a large California University and helped her get settled in.  Seeing all the activity of the first day of school and the freebies being offered to the incoming freshman, reminded me of those opening school days at the University of Illinois when I went there.  I told my granddaughter how girls went around handing out free samples of cigarettes.  She couldn’t believe it.

Yeah, everybody smoked, even, and it might be said, especially, Paul Newman.  All the rebels smoked, for sure.  And he was 83.  He lived a long and good life, in the best sense of the word.

60 may be the new 40, and 70 the new 50.  But hey, 80 is still 80.