Blue Eyes

Paul Leonard Newman was a bombshell kind of man. He stood 177cm tall, was an actor, director, entrepreneur, humanitarian and auto-racing enthusiast. He also served the United States Navy in World War II. His older brother was a producer and a production manager. Paul prefered New York to Hollywood and was hesitant to move there after studying drama at Yale University and with Lee Strasberg in the Actors' Studio.

Paul Newman is one of my absolute favourite men so pardon me if I rave on a bit about him.

In 1958 he married the lovely Joanne Woodward with whom he had 3 daughters. They lived away from Hollywood, prefering Westport, Connecticut. Paul often travelled to Hollywood for work, whilst Joanne rarely liked to be in Hollywood. He was devoted to his wife and family. When asked about infidelity, he said "Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?"

He died of lung cancer, which isn't surprising as he was a former chain-smoker. He was Jake Gyllenhaal's godfather and the visual inspiration for the Green Lantern, the superhero. During the Watergate scandal, he was found to be on Richard Nixon's "enemy list" to which he said "It was the highest single honor I've ever received. Who knows who's listening to me now and what goevernment list I'm on?".

Like most of my favourite men on Earth, Paul was a prankster. Robert Redford had a beaten-up Porsche shell delivered to Paul's front porch on his 50th birthday. Paul never mentioned it, but soon after that, Redford found a crate of the now-molten metal delivered to the living room of the house Redford rented. It dented the floor. Redford returned the gesture by having the metal turned into an incredibly ugly sculpture and delivered into Paul's garden!

On his marriage to Joanne, he said "I've repeatedly said that for people as little in common as Joanne and myself, we have an uncommonly good marriage. We are actors. We make pictures and that's about all we have in common. Maybe that's enough. Wives shouldn't feel obligated to accompany their husbands to a ball game, husbands do look a bit silly attending morning coffee breaks with the neighborhood wives when most men are out at work. Husbands and wives should have separate interests, cultivate different sets of friends and not impose on the other... You can't spend a lifetime beathing down each other's necks. We are very, very different people and yet comehow we fed off those varied differences and instead of separating us, it has made the whole bond a lot stronger."

I also like this quote : "If anyone told me 20 years ago I'd be sitting in a room with peach walls, I would have told them to take a nap in a urinal."

Paul and Joanne were always extremelhy protective of their persoanl lives together. Whilst commenting on her acting, Joanne said "Acting is like sex. You should do it, not talk about it." and "Being married to Paul is being married to the most considerate, romantic man." When asked about what it felt like to be married to the sexiest man alive, Joanne replied that if farting and burping was the scale of sexy, then it was fabulous!

Paul seemed to be resentfull of his good looks and stunning blue eyes. He studied with Marlon Brando and his acting teacher said that he'd be an even better actor if he weren't so handsome.