I was surprised to find how much Paul Newman's passing affected me on Saturday. He was a favorite actor of mine since I was a kid and I grew to appreciate him as a person the more I heard -- myths and truths -- while at Kenyon College. There are very few people who have led such a successful life on such a big stage.
There are a ton of great obit pieces out there. I especially appreciate the impressive remembrance from an obviously grateful Kenyon College.
Here's a highlight from the New York Times, commenting on his limits as an actor and strengths as a person:
When a role is right for him, he’s peerless,” the film critic Pauline Kael wrote in 1977. “Newman is most comfortable in a role when it isn’t scaled heroically; even when he plays a bastard, he’s not a big bastard — only a callow, selfish one, like Hud. He can play what he’s not — a dumb lout. But you don’t believe it when he plays someone perverse or vicious, and the older he gets and the better you know him, the less you believe it. His likableness is infectious; nobody should ever be asked not to like Paul Newman.
Thanks, Mr. Newman.
