Newman passes away

Movie poster image of "Cool Hand Luke" from http://www.filmsite.org/posterpages

Last 26 September, “cool hand” Luke passed away at the age of 83. He died at his long-time home in Westport, Connecticut, of complications arising from cancer.

And just this morning, I was just watching the animated movie, “Car” at Fitness First. He was the voice behind “Doc Hudson.”

“Cool Hand Luke” was done in 1967 wherein Paul Newman plays the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp. The movie was directed by Stuart Rosenberg. “Luke” was nominated for an Academy Award

Born Paul Leonard Newman, “Luke Jackson” or “Eddie Falco” is probably one of the few stars who had made his presence felt outside of the cinema in various fields. He was an entrepreneur and an auto racing enthusiast. On the race track, he won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing and his race teams won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing.


Photo of Newman behind a Ferrari 599 taken in July 2006 from
http://www.italiancar.net/site/news/06/0706/PaulNewman/PaulNewman.html

On the supermarket shelf, one can taste his pasta sauces, lemonade, popcorn, and salsa branded as “Newman's Own.” Note that he donated all profits and royalties to charity. Reports say that as of May 2007, these donations had exceeded US$220 million. This company was co-founded with A.E. Hotchner in 1982.

And on screen, he won an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, an Emmy award, and many honorary awards.

Other movies I remember I watched are “Towering Inferno,” “The Sting” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” One of his last movies was “The Road to Perdition” which I have to watch one of these days.