Comments on: No Wonder Rachel Likes Him

By: Roberta Lipp

Roberta Lipp — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:46:10 +0000

Anne, HAH!!! I think Deborah has a little sister like yours!

And he was still beautiful in his 70s. It was really only the last few years that he began to look… elderly.

By: Anne B

Anne B — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:42:44 +0000

I was sorry to read the news about Paul Newman. From what I knew of him, I thought he was a good human being who had worked hard and led an honorable life. Not easy to do, either in modern or old Hollywood.

I liked "From the Terrace". It's not deathless art but it stars Newman and Woodward, and that's good enough for me.

Also, my baby sister grieves the loss of this great actor. She met him when she was a Disney corporate intern in college — Newman would have been in his 70's then. Even at that age, his magnetism made my pretty blond sister (all of 20) weak in the knees.

"Those EYES," she sighed. "I want to marry him."

"He's already married," I reminded her.

"Whatever," she sang. "He shook my hand. It's on."

hull, thanks for including a bit of dialogue between Don and Rachel. See, that's what I miss about those two: the old sizzle of real chemistry. Always, in every well-written script, it's all in the writing.

By: Cyndi B.

Cyndi B. — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:33:30 +0000

Great tribute. I know it's been said a few time here, but he was a class act and a wonderful human being.

By: Laura Leone

Laura Leone — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:31:22 +0000

Great post. He was the true epitome of a fine human being. I cried when I heard the news. As a kid, we had a rule in my house that was only a half-jest – if Paul Newman came to the house, my Mom was allowed to run away with him (no worries, the same rule applied for my Dad, with Candace Bergen). My Mom had a t-shirt with an iron-on of Paul's face that she wore constantly when I was 11-12 or so. I've loved him since I was little for those personal connections, but also because of his grace and dignity. I think no one can touch him in the looks dept (Brad who?), but that's just me…The world is now a lesser place without Newman in it. I think his legacy will be his philanthropic works – he gave and didn't make it about him, like so many celebs do today.

Oh, and Roberta, your comment: "And youâ€™d have to be a fucking android not to cry at Our Town." hear, hear!

By: Ms. Darkly

Ms. Darkly — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:30:48 +0000

Wonderful tribute.

By: Roberta Lipp

Roberta Lipp — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:21:25 +0000

I saw it on PBS. I have to say it was not my favorite of the Our Towns I’ve seen televised, but Paul was magnificent. How cool you met them!

And you’d have to be a fucking android not to cry at Our Town.

By: Deborah Lipp

Deborah Lipp — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:00:40 +0000

It is sad news. I'm glad we have this tribute here, and the dialogue tie-in is so elegant.

By: Melville

Melville — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:42:54 +0000

I have to disagree with Roger Ebert on one point, where he says that Newman's characters "aren't very likeable." I prefer what Pauline Kael said of them in her review of Slap Shot: "We like them but we don't look up to them…Newman is most comfortable in a role when it isn't scaled heroically; even when he plays a bastard, he's not a big bastard – only a callow, selfish one, like Hud. He can play what he's not – a dumb lout. But you don't believe it when he plays someone perverse or vicious, and the older he gets and the better you know him, the less you believe it. His likeableness is infectious; nobody should ever be asked not to like Paul Newman."

That, I think is what links the Newman persona to Don Draper. In so many of Newman's signature roles, starting with The Long Hot Summer, through Hud, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Slapshot, The Verdict, Nobody's Fool, etc. he played men that, by most measures, we should never like, selfish and self-involved men who often do things that hurt those who care the most about them. Yet we don't reject them. They represent every human weakness, but as Newman had the gift that great stars have of drawing us to him emotionally, we recognize all of our own weaknesses in them and end up liking, even loving them.

Just like Don.

By: miamimami

miamimami — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:08:57 +0000

ah, i just remembered his character in the Long, Hot Summer…..also an outsider from the wrong side of the tracks…the barnburner…..

By: hullaballoo

hullaballoo — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:01:47 +0000

"Don Draper might resemble some of Newmanâ€™s characters, but is no Paul Newman."

Oh, right, Donny Brook. I didn't mean to imply that Draper is in any way like Paul Newman the man. Newman was a great man. His humanitarian efforts alone make him legendary. But when you add that to his achievements in other fields, it's astounding what he accomplished.

But Don Draper does resemble so many of the characters that Newman brought to life. Characters that he enjoyed playing, and did so with great aplomb. In another thread we were discussing the idea of Marilyn vs. Jackie. Well, Newman the man vs. Newman the character might be the male version of that.