Paul Newman, Mensch, RIP

By all available evidence, Paul Newman was a mensch—an all-round decent guy who never took himself too seriously, and deployed his celebrity to make salad dressing for the needy. He was in many respects also a pretty good actor yet I could never escape the conviction that he was almost invariably miscast. He played an uncountable procession of stumblebums, losers, outsiders and general all-round down-and-outs. Yet you could never forget that a mensch who gave away the profits from salad dressing. If you doubt it, take a look at this screen test, where he riffs opposite James Dean, a genuine loser, outsider and all-round down-and out. Dean is confused, diffident and rebellious. Paul Newman is steady, decent and kind: wonderful qualities in a human being, but not remotely related to the roles he played in Hud, Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, Butch and Sundance, Final Verdict or –gasp!--Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Okay, so maybe he wasn't that great an actor; maybe he was just playing himself. That would be a more telling charge were it not the case that most actors play themselves most of the time. Indeed, “playing oneself” may be mediocre acting, but it is almost essential if you want to put food on the table:who will get work unless he has a personal style that the audience will recognize and understand? As Jack Warner probably did not say--”Ronald Reagan for governor? No, no, Jimmy Stewart for governor, Ronald Reagan for best friend!” A counter-example which proves my point: Rip Torn, and who outside the biz can name five movies by Rip Torn (yes, I can see your hand, Joel, now sit down)--?

About Newman, I think the point first struck me with The Hustler—a movie I wanted to like, but couldn't begin to take seriously,. My first thought was: banker casting—they wouldn't fund the movie without a bankable star. But it happened too often to be just banker casting. Newman had plenty of money and success; he must have wanted to keep taking on these unsuitable roles or he wouldn't have bothered. He might have stayed home with the cookbooks., Or he might have chosen a career path like that of Bill Murray, who has used his success to free him up to play any damn thing he wants to play.

The flip side of all this is the one really good Paul Newman Movie: Mr. And Mrs. Bridge, the James Ivory film in which he co-stars with his wife, Joanne Woodward (also about the best James Ivory film, but that is another story). This time, I suppose you could say he is playing too much to type, but no matter: this time, he's doing something he knows how to do, and it works.

Paul Newman, mensch, dead at 83. Perhaps it is just as well he was not a more daring actor: as it is, acting gave him the wherewithal to be a thoroughly decent man.