Paul Newman Leaves a Legacy
September 29, 2008 by Tracey Thompson
Filed under Recipes
Paul Newman was not only a great actor and an icon, he was a great family man and person. I was watching The Today Show with Hoda and Kathy Lee and was amazed when they mentioned that there were young people they spoke to who had no idea who he was. I was thrown partly because I am someone who does know names of movie stars that existed before my day, but I am a movie buff, so I suppose I should give them a break. Kathy Lee said that she gave them homework to Google his name and then go out and see some of his movies. They said, “Oh, that is the salad dressing guy.”
Paul Newman has been a part of the Hollywood landscape for decades. He considered himself not gifted, just lucky.
“I had no natural gift to be anything, not an athlete, not an actor, not a writer, not a director, a painter of garden porches, not anything,” the actor said in 1991. “So I’ve worked really hard, because nothing ever came easily to me.”
Newman received 10 Oscar nominations, 2 honorary Oscar awards and a win for his reprised role as pool shark, Eddie Felson in the Color of Money.
Newman had an incredible marriage lasting 50 years with fellow actor Joanne Woodward. Many asked how they were able to do it. They seemed to be able to strike a great balance between Hollywood and family and family always came first. He was once asked by Playboy what kept him monogamous. He said, “I have steak at home. Why go out for hamburger?”
Paul Newman may be mostly remembered at the “salad dressing guy”, but I think that he wouldn’t mind that. Newman’s Own started out as merely a joke among him and a friend. It has turned into a profitable company that’s proceeds go to various charities. To date that would be $250 million dollars to charities world wide. The one that was probably closest to his heart was the Hole in the Wall camps he started 20 years ago. The camp is for children with life-threatening illnesses.
Paul Newman passed away this weekend at his home in Connecticut after a battle with lung cancer. He was 83. Read more about Newman in USA Today.
