Since the sad news has begun to trickle out that silver-screen legend Paul Newman has died of lung cancer, it’s time for us to take a look back at the Oscar winner’s unparalleled American sporting influence.
From his star-making turn as Rocky Graziano in ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me’, to pop-culture icon Fast Eddie Felson in ‘The Hustler’, to Reggie Dunlop in the transcendent classic ‘Slap Shot’, Paul Newman is perhaps America’s single greatest sports-film performer.
Seeing Paul Newman on screen was more than just ‘going to a movie’…it was an event…an experience. You called up a group of friends to go with you and vehemently argued who got to sit on the aisle. You all went to a sleazy dive afterward and swilled JTS Brown (or Jack Daniel’s when that’s all the joint naturally had) until somebody stood and drunkenly bellowed, “YOU OWE ME MONEY!!”
Paul Newman was the rarest of dudes that even the most masculine among us could admit we didn’t mind spending a couple of hours lost in his deep, blue eyes. (OK, ok…that was admittedly more than a tad gay.)
Let’s not forget that Paul Newman also singlehandedly lifted the Indianapolis 500 from a cute little niche race, into our collective national consciousness, around which American men planned their Memorial Day Weekend’s for 40 freakin’ years. Newman not only made racecar driving cool…he made it essential. Guys wanted to ‘know cars’ solely because chicks dug seeing Paul Newman as Frank Capua in the 1969 film ‘Winning’.
Newman’s philanthropy cannot be overlooked, of course. His ‘Newmans’ Own’ line of products has generated over $100M for underprivileged kids.
To their credit, today’s biggest stars like Clooney & Pitt are trying their girly-man best to carry the gigantic Newman standard, but falling pitifully and shamefully short.
To be fair, it’s not really their faults, there simply cannot and will never be another Paul Newman.
