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Y! MyWebThat's Life
A man for all seasons
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Each of us, I suspect, has a list of people we fantasize about meeting, celebrities with whom we would love to have a cup of coffee, or maybe a beer. George Clooney is on my list. So is Julia Roberts. Tina Fey was on my list long before she became Sarah Palin.
And Paul Newman. He definitely was on my list.
But even though we both were born in the Cleveland area and attended the same college, the closest I ever came was in a fraternity house at Ohio University.
It was my first visit to the Phi Kappa Tau house, the fraternity to which my middle son had pledged in his pursuit of cultural enrichment and academic achievement. As we toured the house, I saw a huge blow-up photo of Newman in the pool table room. Or, as it's officially known, the study/compter room.
"What's with the Paul Newman picture?" I asked.
"He was a Phi Tau," my son said. "Didn't you know that?"
"I didn't even know he was an OU grad," I admitted.
Which, as it turns out, he wasn't, because his stay there was brief. Something to do with a beer barrel being rolled down the steep Jefferson Street hill, possibly into the car of the school's president. So he wound up graduating from Kenyon College, where he played football until he was thrown off the team. Something to do with an incident at a bar and a night in jail.
His first starring role was in "Somebody Up There Likes Me," and Paul Newman did, indeed, have his share of good luck. As a Naval radioman/gunner during World War II he was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill during the battle of Okinawa, but he was held back because his pilot had an ear infection; the rest of his detail died in the attack. His role in the "Left Handed Gun" originally was supposed to be played by James Dean. Telly Savalas was the first choice for his role in "Cool Hand Luke." And he had his share of bad luck. His only son, Scott, died of a drug overdose.
Women gushed about his baby blue eyes, which were color blind. Men admired him for his rebellious persona. His movie career lasted 54 years. I'm not enough of a cinemaphile to say if he was a great actor or merely a very durable one, but he was honored in countless ways. He won an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award and an Emmy. He was 19th on Richard Nixon's enemies list.
He was much more than an actor, though.
He was a race car driver, competing in the 24 Hours of Daytona at the age of 70. A philanthropist whose popcorn and salad dressings netted $250 million for charities. He and Joanne Woodward were married for 50 years, an achievement not likely to be matched by any of today's movie star couples. "Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?" he said about his reputation as a faithful husband.
So when he died last Friday at the age of 83, I was saddened because one of Hollywood's most respected legends was gone. And that I never would have the chance to sit down with him for a cup of coffee, or maybe a beer.
C
ontact this writer at (937) 225-2439 or at
dlstewart@DaytonDaily News.com.
