And Jimmy Dean did something else before he made sausages.
The other say I heard a teen ask, “Dwayne Johnson was a WRESTLER?”
His performance in Diamonds Are Forever convinced him that sausage making was his future.
Just to make this a fair question for the older crowd I used the year before I was born as a checkpoint to see IMDb’s list (sorted by their “Starmeter”) of their population who died that year.
The results are at http://www.imdb.com/search/name?death_date=1940-01-01,1940-12-31&sort=starmeter
Modify the dates in the URL to suit your own time and see how many you recognize. In my case it’s not all that many. But I personally believe Paul Newman’s “star power” ought to make him an exception for anybody who calls himself/herself a “movie fan.”
But I could be wrong! 
About ten years ago, I had a conversation with a friend of my mother’s who only knew about Paul Newman from the products his name was on. She didn’t knew nothing about his movies or his 50 years as a highly recognizable public figure. This woman was about 67 at the time (and no, she was not Amish).
As for how long Newman will be remembered as an actor, I’ll give it at least as long as the generation of kids who’ve seen Cars at least ten times is around. Movies you see as a kid (especially ones you’ve seen many times) have a tendency to stick in your memory more than the ones you see when you’re older. That’s why I think 50 years from now, people will know Newman far more for voicing Doc Hudson than for playing Fast Eddie Felson, Hud Bannon, or Butch Cassidy.
George Harrison died in 2001, and a day or two later, I was at a friend’s house. The 16 y/o girl who babysat her kids wanted to know, “Okay, so him and Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr…who was the other Beatle?”
After I thought about it a minute, it made sense. If she was 16 in 2001, she was born in 1985. So in her lifetime, Paul, George and Ringo were still playing music and appearing on TV. They had a presence, and were always billed as ex-Beatles. Meanwhile, John Lennon was not around to be an ex-anything, so she didn’t make the connection. And as far as his death, she had it a bit conflated with Ronald Reagan’s near-miss, which happened only a few weeks later. “Right – he was trying to impress Jodie Foster?”
And E-DUB, if you were serious with that, the young lady in my anecdote didn’t know from Wings. She knew some of the songs, like “Maybe I’m Amazed,” but she associated them just with McCartney, not his band. If that was a joke, well, the joke itself is old; maybe it’s time to give it a rest.
Is Rudolph Valentino forgotten? Francis X. Bushman? Charlie Chaplin? Charles Laughton? Dick Powell? Alan Ladd? Robert Mitchum? Cary Grant?
There seems to be an equating of “not prominent in pop culture right this moment” with “forgotten.” This ignores the legions of movie buffs out there. Their ranks are replenished, as they age and die, by young people who are sophisticated enough to look beyond what the ad machine tells they should be watching.
I was serious, and it was some time ago.
I think a key factor is that the reason Paul Newman is able to be used as a corporate icon is because of his fame from movies. If his films get forgotten, the market for his food will mostly disappear.
The movies will still exist however. And with modern technology, old movies are always available in a way they weren’t when I was a kid. I figure Newman will be remembered the same way that Henry Fonda or Jimmy Stewart are remembered.
Damn straight!
Well, I did say forgotten by majority of people. Of your list, I know who Charlie Chaplin, Robert Mitchum, and Cary Grant are. The others? I may have heard their names before, but I don’t know what they look like, or what they were in. And while I’m no film scholar, I’m still a film fan, if only a casual one.
There’s a number of movies on the AFI list I’m watching that Ive never heard of. “Swing Time”? “Sullivan’s Travels”? I’d mentioned seeing “Midnight Cowboy” to a friend of mine in her mid-30s. “Never heard of it,” she told me, even when I described it and mentioned that it won best picture.
Pop culture disappears quicker than most people think, especially for the masses.
AH, but his food products are actually pretty damn good! My fussy poodles will ONLY accept Newman’s Own dog treats. I frequently use his bottled salad dressing as a quick marinade for grilled chicken or flank steak. It’s possible we’ll still be popping Newman’s Own Microwave Popcorn long after everyone’s forgotten Hud and The Verdict.
Pretty durned savvy of him. If only Humphrey Bogart had thought to put his picture on a line of commercial baby foods, people would still be watching Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon.
(wink and double wink)
If the standard of “forgotten” is at least one living person knows the name, then no, he won’t be. However, that’s a really stupid standard. Doubly so since the OP says “majority.”
I mean I’m sure there are some 13th century throat singers that aren’t forgotten except to everyone that uses a reasonable definition of the word.
I think he worked with the Muppets. 
Take a 1-2 scoops of peanut butter (preferably crunchy). Add Newman’s Own Sesame Ginger salad dressing to preference (I use about 1/5 the bottle, about 100 calories worth). Stir until completely mixed. Eat with raw veggies of preference (I like broccoli, carrots, and red bell pepper). Makes for a wonderful lunch at 400 or so calories.
I give Paul Newman some credit for my weight loss. His products are awesome. No way they’re going away.
The thing I find fascinating about this isn’t that Paul Newman will be forgotten, it’s that I don’t think he will be forgotten. He’s just going to be remember for something entirely unrelated to movies.
Wow, good thing nobody suggested that standard then, don’t you agree? Paul Newman et. al. are still known to millions of people. It’d be stupid to suggest that because they aren’t as familiar as living, working actors to 20 and 30-somethings that they are forgotten. Even if, and that is a big if, they are known only to older people, there are are a lot of us.
How many people remember that before he began selling canned pasta, Heck Boyardee appeared in a number of western movies in his native Italy?
(triple wink with sprinkles on top)
Charlie Chaplin remains known, but he is regarded as a true giant, “arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon”. Cary Grant’s bevy of Hitchcock films help to keep him in front of modern eyes. The rest of those guys? Forgotten, every one of them.
Go to the grocery store. Look around you. Not a single one of those people have ever heard of Francis X. Bushman, Charles Laughton, or Dick Powell (unless you happen to live in Hollywood).
Not to keep picking, but I think you’ve just got some blinders on about this.
Yes, in the modern age, no one is forgotten. Scholars/fans of an art form will always know the big players. I don’t think anyone is suggesting that Newman would be erased from the history books, but rather that the history books will be his sole domain. And the ‘legions’ of movie buffs you mention are truly a small subset of the population. And, as the glut of movies increases, you will eventually have even within that subset people who don’t have the time or interest in getting the entire picture; movie buffs who just focus on the first 100 years of sci-fi movies, for example, or who study action films of the first half of the 21st century. Those folks might miss Paul Newman completely, even being film buffs.
In the spirit of the OP, which asks how long before a majority of people forget that Paul Newman was an actor, I say that when my parents’ generation dies (b. 1954), it will truly be that a minority of the people living will be able to identify Paul Newman.
I agree that one of us has blinders. Clearly, if they ain’t on “Dancing with the Stars” they are non-entities.
Laughton is likely remembered by horror film fans.