Paul Newman passed away on Friday after a long battle with cancer, and he will be sorely missed. As early as May he had been planning to direct a stage version of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, but he had to cancel due to his health. He’s a winner of every major award an actor can pull down, from Oscar to Emmy, and he appeared in over 50 feature films. Besides his work in film, television and on the stage, he also served in World War II, and has been a longtime humanitarian.
Paul Newman retired from acting in May of 2007, but he left behind a large body of work that should be in your Netflix queue or on your shelf at home. Here’s a look at some of his best films, and why you should be watching them in tribute.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Arguably the film Newman is the most famous for, this was the first pairing of Redford and Newman. Although originally it was to be Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, and then a handful of other stars, including Jack Lemmon, until Redford finally got the part. However, Newman was originally supposed to play Sundance, and Redford to play Butch. What a different movie that would have been. A great followup to this pairing is The Sting, but avoid the sequel that doesn’t have Newman or Redford in it.
The Hustler
The Hustler stands to this day as a cinematic masterpiece, and Newman’s performance in it stands among his very best. Singer/actor Bobby Darrin was supposed to star in this film, but Newman made the role his own and made “Fast Eddie” Felton into a film legend. The far inferior 1986 sequel The Color of Money with Tom Cruise doesn’t hold a candle to the original, but Newman won his Best Actor Oscar for his reprisal of the Felton role, but most critics agree this was a nod to his role in The Hustler.
Hud
This movie is an adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s early novella Horseman, Pass By, and saw Newman nominated for Best Actor in his portrayal of the “man with the barbed-wire soul.” It actually won for Best Supporting Actor, Actress, and Cinematography, but it is Newman’s selfishly hard-hearted modern day cowboy that holds this movie together and makes it worth watching more than once.
Cool Hand Luke
Newman’s portrayal of a prisoner who just won’t submit to the system and the will of the warden will be remembered forever, and it’ll come to mind every time you eat a hard-boiled egg. It’s famous for the line “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate,” and some of the best scenes ever of Newman grinning from ear to ear. If you’re a nonconformist, like Newman often was in his acting choice, you’ll love this movie.
The Hudsucker Proxy
This is a dark horse among the Coen Brothers films, but it’s my favorite of theirs right after Miller’s Crossing. Newman’s portrayal of a cigar-chomping business executive who growls out all of his lines is classic, although this film only grossed $3 million dollars at the box office, and was the Coens biggest flop. Still, it is well worth watching, if just for Newman. He literally chews up the scenery.
Road to Perdition
This was Paul Newman’s final feature film, although he did go on to star in HBO’s Empire Falls and to lend his voice to the Disney/Pixar hit Cars. Newman plays Irish mob boss John Rooney to Tom Hanks’ Michael Sullivan, and reportedly had author Frank McCourt send him tapes of himself speaking so he could get the voice right. It’s a tragic role for Newman, and a fitting swan song to his entire career. They definitely don’t make ‘em like him anymore.
Originally posted on:
SpoutBlog