No one else could eat 50 eggs

We knew this day would come. Everyone dies, even legendary actors responsible for many of the movies in my top 10 list. When I saw the tweet that Paul Newman had died at age 83, however, my entire life jumped to the next generation.

Twitter told me first: Paul Newman is dead.

Like many, my first exposure to Paul Newman’s talent was as the wise-cracking dreamer in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a landmark film that forever paired the actor with Robert Redford. He was also the father figure in Nobody’s Fool, which also happens to be one of the few Melanie Griffith movies I can stand. The pinnacle of movies for me, however, was a movie Newman made a year before I was born.

“Nobody can eat 50 eggs.”

Cool Hand Luke is the epitome of movie making, taking a cast of character actors who would be seen in bit roles for a couple decades of television and film and putting them around one of the greatest actors who ever lived. Although in the end, Luke meets an inevitable fate, the way in which he lived is inspirational. I attribute that not to the great script filled with religious allegory or the magic of the big screen, but to the effortlessness by which Newman shared the full spectrum of humanity. His disarming smile. His anger in isolation. The way he dragged himself back to his feet. The sense of the impossible becoming tangible, no better illustrated than in the miracle consumption of fifty eggs.

Newman always held a special place for me among celebrities. Not only was he a role model for his long-time relationship with Joanne Woodward and the philanthropic enterprise he conducted with their daughter. He also has roots in my hometown of Woodstock, Illinois. Newman spent summers acting with Tom Bosley, Geraldine Page and the rest of a troupe known as the Woodstock Players, performing 16 plays at the historic Opera House in 1949-50. He enjoyed a full life beyond the stage and screen, as evidenced by the trail of great quotes he leave in his wake.

As long as Paul Newman was alive, I was securely in the early and midpoint of my life. Now that he has departed, it feels like losing a parent, a buffer against death. I aged 20 years today.

The sad news dominated Twitscoop’s tag cloud

I suspect that someone somewhere is going to wake up Monday morning, put on their suit, and start typing up copyright infringement letters to YouTube. In the meantime, enjoy these bits of Newman’s portfolio (or watch all of Nobody’s Fool on YouKu). He will be missed.

“The Jump” (from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)

We’ll miss you, Paul Newman