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Saturday, September 27, 2008

The Death of a Hero

September 27, 2008

Paul Newman was iconic in the world of a teenage girl growing up in the 1950s. Handsome and playful, he was everything a movie star should be. Later he would prove himself to be a serious man with an extraordinary life in more ways. Interestingly, he attributed much of his success to luck, the luck of being born an American gifted with looks, talent and money. We who followed his life know that he also had the inherent gifts of intelligence and a strong social conscience.

I received one of those round-robin emails several months ago, one of those sent to dozens of lists of women-friends, this one with the charming story--perhaps apocryphal--of Newman and the lady in the ice cream parlor. I ran it with more thoughts of mine on the man and his career, on his birthday of this year.

I recommend you click on this and spend a little time thinking about the life of the wonderful man. Let us add our own wishes of hope and sympathy for his widow, his children, and his legions of friends.

1 comment:

Steve said...

I had to look it up, but remembered your January 26th post.

I was thinking this morning about the elegy in "Cool Hand Luke."

Dragline (George Kennedy) describes the death of Newmans character Luke.
"He was smiling... That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker. "