Paul Newman - R. I. P.

Paul Newman in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof".

From MSNBC News:

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut - Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as an activist, race car driver, popcorn impresario and the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money," has died, a spokeswoman said Saturday. He was 83.

Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.

In May, Newman said he had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.

Newman was an all-around classy man. Grandpère and I saw him on Broadway in "Our Town" in 2003, playing the Stage Manager, his last performance in a play. Joanne Woodward was the artistic director. What a privilege.

To the photographers following him and snapping away before the play opened, "You get 60 of these," Mr. Newman quips, "you can trade them in for a Redford."

Mr. Newman said he was drawn to the role because the play's themes resonate with his own thinking, particularly lately: how important it is to notice the ordinary and take pleasure in the everyday.

"The play questions what we do with our time, how we use it, the things that we ought to be looking at, that we forget to look at," he said. "How gloriously special getting through the day ought to be."

These are values that Ms. Woodward, 72, shares. "It's a bang-on-the-head play,'' she said. "You look at this play and you say, 'Yes, of course.'"

Yes, of course.

Nevertheless, Mr. Newman went on to suggest that this limited-run nine-week production indeed had meaning in his long career. "I decided I would not go to my grave without coming back to Broadway," he said. "There is no second reason."

I'm gushing like a starry-eyed adolescent over a smashingly good-looking movie star, but it's not simply that. I greatly admire the grace, dignity, and generosity with which Paul and Joanne lived their lives, despite the often intrusive glare of spotlights.

I extend my sympathy to Joanne and their children and grandchildren.

Ann informed me of the news of his death and has a good word for Paul at her blog.

UPDATE: Here's a nice piece in Slate, titled "He Used His Fame to Give Away His Fortune", about Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill children, written by a former camp counsellor.