I think the guy was a genius. I mean, after carefully reviewing Somebody Up There Likes Me and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, I have a real thing about his acting… he plays the sore-loser-turned-winner-stroke-woman-hater to perfection.
Plus, I think if there’s any man I’d like to look like, it’d be him. The man REEKS of sex appeal. Personally, I don’t see what the hell people saw in Marlon Brando.
I used to know someone who worked down the hall from Newman. She said that he was a really nice person, someone genuinely worthy of admiration. The day I visited her office, he had just left a jar of his brand-new spagetti sauce on everyone’s desk. Guess what we had for dinner that night?
Very good actor, pretty versatile. But I have never found him the slightest bit attractive or sexy, even when he was younger. All a matter of individual taste, I suppose . . .
I have enjoyed almost everything I’ve seen him in. As for whether or not he is sexy, I don’t think I found him terribly attractive until he was about 40. From then until about 55 he had my vote for Best Looking Man in Show Biz. He makes a mighty fine Caesar salad dressing, too.
I’ve liked Newman a lot, but usually in films that weren’t particularly popular or highly praised. I’ve often found him unbearable in the films he’s most lauded for.
Examples? I thought he was brilliant in “Nobody’s Fool” and surprisingly good in the mediocre “Fort Apache, the Bronx.”
But he alternately bored me and annoyed me in “The Hustler” and in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
I don’t know about genius. But he has had some excellent and memorable performances. Plus that whole food line with the profits to charity is kind of cool too.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was the first Paul Newman movie I saw at a theater (I’d seen him in movies on TV). I still remember walking out of the movie knowing that I had just discovered the sexiest man alive, and finding out, to my utmost shock, that most of my friends thought Newman was “an old guy” and that Redford was the really sexy one. Redford was a pretty boy, Newman was sexy–even if he was old enough to be my father (actually, he’s the same age as my father, perhaps it was an Electra complex!). Anyway, I have never found a reason to change my opinion of Newman (although I may have been a bit harsh about Redford, he had a brief period of sexiness, before the sun got to his skin). Not only is he an actor that I find attractive, I can respect his acting skill and his real life activities.
You don’t have to go that far back, hell, he was delectable in Road to Perdition! (or maybe I’m just getting old).
I have never seen a Paul Newman movie in which Mr. Newman wasn’t excellent. Also, he’s one of the best-looking men ever to walk the planet. Thumbs WAY up.
Very good at playing the likeable loser (Slapshot, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Nobody’s Fool) or even the unlikeable one (The Verdict). And has shown great depth in character roles as he has aged. He’s a smart, humane person who knows how to play characters who may not be that smart like in Pocket Money or who are emotionally isolated like in Hombre.
When The Sting came out in 1973, and I saw Newman in a tux, with just a leetle gray at the temples, well!!! I thought he was waaaaaaaaay better looking than Redford. The man was my father’s age, but my feelings for him weren’t at all fatherly.
Back in the late 80’s the state of Michigan celebrated it’s 150th anniversary of statehood. I was living in East Lansing at the time, and there were a series of commercials on TV, with the relatives of Michigander celebraties saying how they would invite their better-known relative back for the party. Paul Newman’s brother was in one, and you know, he was pretty darn good looking himself. Blue eyes, strong face, I wanted to ask “any more like you at home?”