Somebody Down Here Likes Him
Posted: September 29th, 2008 | Filed under: Pop Culture | 87 Comments »
My father’s favorite actor, Paul Newman, died Friday. He was 83 years old. Of course, my father would insist that Paul Newman was not actually his favorite actor, even though as far as I know his two favorite movies rank like so:
1. The Hustler
2. Somebody Up There LIkes Me
You will note that they are both movies which star, um, yeah, Paul Newman. My father has watched both of these movies at least 100 times apiece, no other movie is even close (third might be, maybe, West Side Story or Giant or My Favorite Year, but any of those would be third the way that Jerry Lucas or Walt Bellamy or Nate Thurmond was the third-best center of the 1960s — sort of beside the point. His top two movies are like Chamberlain and Russell).
And yet he will still not that Paul Newman is his favorite actor. I’m not sure why. I think he’s just trying to be difficult.
When Dad tries to explain this bit of illogic, he usually will say that Paul Newman was fine, but he was not what made those movies great. This makes no sense at all when it comes to “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” in which Newman plays boxer Rocky Graziano. As far as I can tell, Newman is THE WHOLE MOVIE. I mean, hey, not to knock the fine supporting performances by Everett Sloane and Sal Mineo but, a movie about a boxer finding his soul might have something to do with, you know, the actor who plays the boxer who finds his soul.
The Hustler is a different story. You will remember The Hustler was about a young and cocky pool shark named Fast Eddie Felson, played of course by Newman, who longed for something more than money and something bigger than the next score. Eddie worked up the money to face off against the acknowledged greatest pool player in the world, Minnesota Fats, played brilliantly by Jackie Gleason. And after Eddie lost a devastating marathon match — complete with the the constant camera pans back to the clock on the wall — he tried to work his way back, eventually going through a handler named Bert who was the essence of pure evil. That’s one of the great performances ever by George C. Scott. Other actors were incredible too — Piper Laurie was hauntingly good as the hooker named Sarah*, Myron McCormick as Eddie’s original partner Charlie and so on.
*I saw the movie about 40 times when I was a kid because of my Dad. It wasn’t until I was much older than I realized Sarah was a prostitute, and there’s no doubt the movie took a much darker turn at at that point.
Still, it was Newman who held the movie together, Newman who made you hate him and love him, Newman who grew throughout the movie but in small and hard and often unfortunate ways. It was Newman who stole what I consider to be the most ruthless and heart-wrenching scene in the history of sports pictures.* That’s the scene where Eddie realizes that his old friend Charlie — who had raised him as a hustler — held back money when he was losing to Fats.
Eddie: Oh you crumb. With that I could have beat him. That’s all I needed Charlie. … Give me the money.
Charlie: To play Fats?
Eddie: Yeah, to play Fats.
Charlie: If you’re coming back on the road, OK. The money’s yours. If you’re giving it to Minnesota Fats, then nothing doing.
Eddie: You still don’t see it, do you Charlie? You could never see it. You’re nothing but a small-time Charlie. … You’d love to keep me hustling. A couple more years with me, you might make enough to get a poolroom, with a handbook on the side. Is that when you say good-bye to me?
Charlie: That what you think?
Eddie: Yeah!
Charlie: All right. That’s what I want. A pool room with a little handbook on the side. … I’m getting old.
Eddie: Lay down and die by yourself.
*Another heart-wrenching sports scene is the “What do you mean, ‘you?’” scene between DeNiro and Pesci in “Raging Bull.” Although maybe heart-wrenching isn’t the word for that. More like: Very disturbing.
Looking back now, I think Paul Newman might have been the best sports actor in the history of Hollywood. I base this on four movies, really: The two already named, Newman’s role as the aging Eddie Felson in “The Color of Money,” and, of course, his hilarious performance as Reg Dunlap in “Slap Shot.” I think with those four movies you touch pretty much every corner of sport — insanity, greed, hunger, joy, comedy, anger, the terror of being washed up, the euphoria of a hot streak, the pain of disappointment, the difference between winning and losing. And of course, the fun of beating people up on ice.
I thought The Color of Money was actually quite a dreadful movie, and not only because Tom Cruise was in it. I thought it was pretty shabbily written, and I thought that the master, Scorsese, actually overdirected it. Most of all, I thought that the anticlimax at the end was so ludicrous and unsatisfactory that I honestly could not believe it made it to the theaters. Maybe dreadful is not the right word. Disappointing might be better.
But even in that context, Newman was Newman. Sure, it’s absurd that in an acting career that included 20 better performances (not to mention his amazing turns in later movies like Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Hudsucker Proxy and, maybe my favorite little Newman movie, Nobody’s Fool) that Color of Money was the one that won Paul Newman his Oscar. Of course, that’s been said lots of times. And I think it does understate just how good Newman was even in that disappointing movie. He controlled each scene with his screen presence and his character’s confusion — Eddie Felson grew up to be rich but a loser, comfortable but lacking, cocky but entirely unsure of himself. Newman nailed all of it.
When Eddie was high, Newman overpowered Tom Cruise, who can’t act but surely has star power. When Eddie was low, Newman seemed to shrink before you very eyes — the scene where he gets hustled by a young Forest Whitaker is probably the takeaway scene from the movie, the one that you remember, and it’s because Whitaker is odd and brilliant and the great Paul Newman never saw it coming.
Most actors, I think, struggle in sports movies, and I don’t think it’s because they find it hard to make the sports scenes look real — take Ray Liotta swinging right-handed and weakly as Shoeless Joe Jackson or Glenn Ford trying to swing a golf club in Follow the Sun*. No, you can look unrealistic and still pull off the role — at no point did Warren Beatty throw a football like an NFL quarterback in Heaven Can Wait, but it still worked.
*No, I’m not getting into all the HORRIBLE sports movies where actors just looked ridiculous like John Goodman as Babe Ruth. We’ll save that for another time.
No, most actors fail in sports because playing athletes demands a certain demeanor and a certain range, and it’s not easy to explain. I’ll put it this way: Will Smith is an amazingly charismatic guy, and Muhammad Ali is an amazingly charismatic guy, and yet when Smith played Ali I thought it did not work at all. Many disagree with me — hell, Will Smith was nominated for Oscar. But for me, it was always Will Smith playing Muhammad Ali, and there was always a gap. Actors and athlees have a different kind of charisma.
For me, playing an athlete is hard, because BEING an athlete is something you can’t fake, you can’t spin, you can’t pretend.
I think that Bob Greene probably got closest to this when he wrote a piece about Frank Gifford, and it was built around the premise that for much of Gifford’s life, he was was always the coolest guy in the room. There’s something real about an athlete or an ex-athlete, something physical, something tangible, something insecure and something overconfident — because at the end of the day, an athlete has to hit the 95 mph fastball, throw the pass just as he’s about to get crushed, make the 23-foot jumper with a hand in his face. In some ways, it’s like opposite of acting.
I think Redford had some of the athlete in him in The Natural, but not all of it. I think Costner got close to it in Bull Durham because he has a bit of athlete in him (and switch hitting was a nice touch). I think DeNiro nailed it in Raging Bull but that had little to do with being an athlete; DeNiro knows how to play monsters. I think Robbie Benson might have fallen a touch short in One on One.
And I think Newman got closer to the core of sports than any of them. Maybe it was because he was so involved in racing. Maybe it was because he grew up in Cleveland, which adds to any and all credentials. Maybe it was because he exuded confidence — his fellow actors talked about it all the time. I don’t know what Newman had … maybe it was just that, at heart, he was an athlete. I do know that I cannot imagine anyone else pulling off his lines in the final scene of The Hustler, the one where he plays Minnesota Fats in pool one more time, with the evil Bert watching on.
Eddie: How should I play that one, Bert? … Play it safe? You always told me to play the percentage. … Well, here we go, fast and lose, one ball, corner pocket. … (Ball sinks). … Percentage players die broke too, don’t they Bert. … (Ball sinks). … How can I lose? … (Ball sinks) … I mean how can I lose? Cause you were right Bert. It’s not enough to have talent. You got to have character too. … (Ball sinks). … Yeah, I sure got character now. I got it in a hotel room in Louisville.
Fats: Shoot pool, Fast Eddie.
Eddie: I am shooting pool, Fats. When I miss, you can shoot.
It’s all there, I think. When I miss, you can shoot. Paul Newman was my father’s favorite actor. Don’t let my Dad fool you.
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As great as those two Newman films are, I always get a chuckle out of the ending of “Somebody Up There Likes Me”. Always. Movies that use the title as dialogue somewhere in the film do that to me.
As for actors that have the athelete in them, I do think Costner was on of the best in “Bull Durham”, but Charlie Sheen was pretty damn good in “Major League” as well. Sheen could bring it. Unlike Tim Robbins from “Durham”.
He may not have been playing an athlete, but Newman in The Verdict is about as good as it gets.
Eddie: Didn’t leave you much Fats.
Fats: You left enough.
Newman was my favorite and Gleason was no slouch. The scenes they share in The Hustler may be my favorite of all time.
That last exchange of yours:
Fats: Shoot pool, Fast Eddie.
Eddie: I am shooting pool, Fats. When I miss, you can shoot.
Is one of my favorite exchanges ever. It’s such a great “Shut the f— up” line.
I just watched The Hustler Sunday night in remembrance of Newman. A perfect movie. I hope to find time for The Sting and The Verdict sometime soon as well, and then I intend to get ahold of Butch Cassidy and Cool Hand Luke (sadly, I’ve never seen either).
I know that Newman also did a TV version of “Bang the Drum Slowly,” although I have not seen it.
Didn’t he also do a racing movie?
Costner, of course, has 3 baseball movies and a golf flick.
DeNiro was pretty good in the movie version of “Bang the Drum Slowly” as well.
Doesn’t it seem like there are more good baseball movies and boxing movies than all other sports combined? Part of this, I think, is because semi-normal sized people can be great in those sports. In football and basketball, you just won’t get that many 300 pound or 7 foot tall actors.
Nice piece Joe. Newman was wonderful, I think, because he combined the leading man presence and ability to be a character actor like few others have. I too think The Verdict is a defining performance, and he would have won the Oscar in many years, but ran into Kingsley and the Gandhi powerhouse that year.
On a separate note, I can see Bellamy because he played the entire decade, but how can you discuss the best of the rest of Centers from the 60’s and not have Willis Reed in the discussion with Thurmond and Lucas? No, he wasn’t Wilt or Russ, but Reed was the leader of two NBA Champions, which puts him in some fairly elite company…
Why couldn’t you have posted this yesterday? Sal Mineo was in the crossword today (as “Devil without a Cause” actor Sal I believe) and the M in Mineo crossed with something equally obscure (a scottish hat called a tam). That M was the one letter of the crossword I couldn’t get. There’s nothing more frustrating than doing an absurdly easy Monday crossword with ease until you get to one cross you have no way of knowing.
‘Empire Falls’, the tv miniseries, was his last non-voice only acting. Great stuff to the end.
Paul Newman was also Doc Hudson in Cars, but I don’t think that’s the racing movie you’re thinking of. He was a great actor and by all accounts a great human being, too. I’ll have to take another look at “The Hustler”, but I still pick “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting” as my two favorite Newman movies.
Re: why there seem to be more baseball and boxing movies…
Somewhere in my film education I picked up the fact that more movies have been made about boxing than any other sport. The reason is economic. All you need is two actors and darkness. A little sound design gives you the crowd. There are dozens of great B-movie film noirs that have a boxing angle.
If baseball is second (and I suspect it is) it’s probably because there’s been more written about baseball than any other sport.
I first saw Newman in Cool Hand Luke when I was maybe 13 years old. It just happened to be on one Saturday/Sunday afternoon and I watched it thinking I’ve got nothing better to do. Well needless to say I loved it and Newman is one of my favourite actors. They showed The Colour Of Money here on BBC1 last night, Newman is still very good in that film but I agree with Joe he has had so many better performances.
I think what sets Paul Newman apart in his sports movies (and really any actor in any good sports film) is that often the film isn’t really about the sport at all but the character. They could be anything really but a sports person serves the story best. Newman could have been any type of ‘hustler’ and that storyline is still great with what his character goes through.
In terms of bringing it, I think Mark Whalbergin Invincible and also Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in The Game Plan (although he did play football at college) are both good examples of recent films where the actors are convincing as athletes.
Joe,
Ditto on everything you say about Newman, one of the classiest guys who ever lived. I still break out in fits of completely context-inappropriate laughter (like in church … when receiving Communion) when I think of any of a dozen scenes in “Slap Shot.” Has any actor ever seemed more comfortable in a role?
***
*No, I’m not getting into all the HORRIBLE sports movies where actors just looked ridiculous like John Goodman as Babe Ruth. We’ll save that for another time.
***
After you’ve covered Gary Cooper, etc., Joe, please don’t forget Anthony Perkins as Jim Piersall in “Fear Strikes Out.” Good movie on the whole, fine acting by Karl Malden and even Perkins, but seeing Perkins pretend to be a baseball player is like watching a highway accident unfold in front of your eyes.
Fact check — I believe Mr. Newman died last Friday, not Saturday.
Trivial, I know.
“I know that Newman also did a TV version of “Bang the Drum Slowly,†although I have not seen it.”
It’s a play, really. I found it at the local library and was very impressed. It’s much better than De Niro’s movie of the same title. Newman, of course, was great.
Also, my dad and I really enjoy “The Secret War of Harry Frigg”, but I can’t find it these days.
I even watched “Message in a Bottle” just for Newman. His role was the only redeeming part of the movie.
…”how can you discuss the best of the rest of Centers from the 60’s and not have Willis Reed in the discussion with Thurmond and Lucas? No, he wasn’t Wilt or Russ, but Reed was the leader of two NBA Champions, which puts him in some fairly elite company…”
Three big reasons I can think of:
1. Reed didn’t play for half of the 60s. His career started in the ‘64-’65 season.
2. Neither of Reed’s championships happened in the 60’s.
3. Reed was a great player, a deserving Hall of Famer, but was also one of the more wildly overrated players of that era (as all players from New York are). Both Thurmond and Lucas were better than him.
I believe “Winning” was the racing movie that begat his racing career. I may be wrong.
You had me until Will Smith.
Ali is easily my favorite sports movie and I absolutely forget it is Will Smith on screen when I watch it.
But, hey, matter of taste I suppose.
The Verdict is his best movie. Not just him, it’s a great movie and still holds up.
Butch & Sundance – is a great movie, except there is a bothersome musical montage in the movie that really sets it back a notch. Taking it back up a notch is the fact that Katherine Ross is hotter than Zoey Deschannel.
Slap Shot is genius. You can buy a Charlestown Chiefs jersey. If your movie spawns a jersey from a fictional team, then you are in your own category.
The Sting is a great movie, but it does not hold up as well when I see it now. Of course, it has Robert “Quint” Shaw in it, so big plus there.
When is the poll for best Newman movie? My father loved Newman as well. I remember watching Cool Hand Luke with him on the late movie. Great stuff.
Rick mentioned Gary Cooper’s Lou Gehrig as one of the worst performances as an athlete.
One reason the action scenes look strange is that Cooper batted right handed and ran to third and the studio flipped the negative to make him look left handed. Anyone who’s seen the film knows it didn’t work.
And yes, they made the names on the uniforms backward so they’d look right when the negative was flipped.
Tom Selleck and Roger Mosley demonstrate their athletic prowess in various episodes of “Magnum, p.i.”
Great take, Joe, great take. Write on.
Man, is Paul Newman like *the* coolest guy, or what?
Although not his line (since he was Butch), this is one of my all time favourites, if perhaps because it has been directed at me more than a few times:
“You just keep thinking, Butch. That’s what you’re good at.”
~
Great Newman line from an interview about how good a pool player he really was:
“I was pretty good – not great – but pretty good”.
Better than Jackie Gleason?
“When we were filming The Hustler, I played Jackie Gleason 4 times and beat him 3 times. The three games I won we played for $1 a game. He beat me the game we played for $200.”
Not exactly a sports movie, but a movie about an athlete: On the Waterfront.
And you’d have to put the Brando-Steiger dialogue in the taxi up against anything ever filmed, not just any sports movie:
Terry Malloy: It wasn’t him, Charley, it was you. Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, “Kid, this ain’t your night. We’re going for the price on Wilson.” You remember that? “This ain’t your night”! My night! I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palookaville! You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn’t have to take them dives for the short-end money.
Charley Malloy: Oh I had some bets down for you. You saw some money.
Terry Malloy: You don’t understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it. It was you, Charley.
Newman was the most versatile and compelling film actor of his generation. He was also as near to perfect a human being as procreation provides us. A world class philanthropist and (properly) quiet, dignified activist. He was the epitome of class.
His most underated and unwatched film was “the secret war of Harry Frigg” …..if you can find it, watch it and be ready to laugh yourself silly … I agree that color of money was less than mediocre and that Hustler was pure genius ….a tour de force for the entire ensemble…. I thought Hud was his most complex and compelling role.
The racing movie is from the 1970s and Joanne Woodward plays his estranged wife (really not a stretch for her, I guess), John-Boy (whatever that actor’s name is) plays his teenage son and Robert Wagner plays the rival driver. I just looked it up. Actually it is 1969 and the name of it is “Winning”
I love both Slapshot and the Sting. I have to watch them both a couple time a year.
Slapshot pretty much caputered what minor league hockey was like the in the 70’s.
Thinking of sports movies made me think of one the WORST acting jobs of all time. Bucky Bleeping Dent (Yes I am a Red Sox Fan) in “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079024/
By the way, if you haven’t seen The Hustler in widescreen format, you haven’t seen it. I’d seen it cut down to 4×3 a few times on television over the years and thought it was pretty good, but then I got the DVD, which is in widescreen, and it went from pretty good to an all-time great.
I read in an obit that Newman, through his Newman’s Own spaghetti sauce and other products, gave $250 million dollars to charity. A quarter of a billion.
When I was a kid, my dad had me watch Butch Cassidy and Cool Hand Luke and Slapshot. Ever since then, I’ve been of the opinion that Paul Newman was the coolest actor alive. He was able to tread the difficult water between good looks, great acting and social awareness.
I think he was the favorite actor of a lot of our dads.
I agree with your assessment about actors and sports movies, Joe. You have to have the right “athletic” mentality to play an athlete. If you don’t have that, you can’t make it realistic. “Eight Men Out” is my favorite baseball movie, because for the most part the actors can play baseball and look like they can play baseball and they all “got” their character and played him correctly. John Cusack, D.B. Sweeney (whose Shoeless Joe blows Ray Liotta’s out of the water) and Charlie Sheen all look like baseball players, as do all the guys who have the smaller parts (I don’t know the actor’s name, but I think whoever plays Ray Schalk is just outstanding, his frustration/anger with Ed Cicotte when Cicotte is throwing games is brilliant)
It is funny that baseball movies are so popular, because it is really hard to make a baseball movie, because you need so many parts. In “Major League”, for instance, it bothers me that we don’t ever even know the keystone combination for the Indians, and only know one of their starting pitchers. (In “Eight Men Out”, everyone but the RF on the Black Sox plays a role, including all 3 starting pitchers)
Was there ever a worse “athlete” than Anthony Perkins in “Fear Strikes Out” as Jimmy Piersall?
Three of my favorites movies are Cool Hand Luke, The Verdict and Absence of Malice.
‘Everybody in the room is smart, and everybody is just doing their job…and Theresa Peron is dead. How do I see about that?’
Couple of things:
“Nobody’s Fool” is by far my favorite Newman role. A shame that it got burried by coming out in the same year as Forrest Gump and Pulp Fuction. “Peter’s my son…you’re my best friend.” Gets me every time.
I always thought Costner looked better than any other actor playing an athelete on the screen. The one handed swing in the batting cage in Bull Durham…awesome. I even heard that he hit close to 85 on the gun during the taping of “For Love of the Game.”
and…
Will Smith is the worst actor ever.
Bellweather:
Hmm, Costner as a baseball player or Burt Reynolds as a football player (or is that unfair?) ??
“Slap Shot is genius. You can buy a Charlestown Chiefs jersey. If your movie spawns a jersey from a fictional team, then you are in your own category.”
I dunno if this holds, because if it does then “if your movie spawns a real team based on a fictional team, then you are in your own category” naturally follows.
And that, in turn, implies that Mighty Ducks was awesome…
With the proviso that I’ve never seen Hud, here are my Top 10 Newman films.
1. The Sting
2. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
3. The Hustler
4. Nobody’s Fool
5. Hombre
6. Slapshot
7. Cool Hand Luke
8. The Verdict
9. The Young Philadelphians
10. Harper
Newman!
…
‘Was there ever a worse “athlete†than Anthony Perkins in “Fear Strikes Out†as Jimmy Piersall?’
…
Tim Robbins’ Nuke LaLoosh wasn’t a very convincing pitcher.
Well I’ve got to get to Blockbuster this weekend apparantly.
I’ve seen bits and pieces of Cool Hand Luke, I’ve seen Slap Shot.
Sadly, I’ve never seen The Sting, Butch Cassidy, or The Hustler.
“I don’t know the actor’s name, but I think whoever plays Ray Schalk is just outstanding”
Gordon Clapp, who was on NYPD Blue for the entire run of that show.
Brent:
Ooh…good point. The fact that Burt Reynolds was Lee Corso’s backup at RB at FSU is one of my all-time favorite trivia questions.
Bill C:
Whaddaya mean you haven’t seen HUD?? No list is complete without it…and what a list it is…
and…
Will Smith is the worst actor ever.
The ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had to be changed so their deaths were not shown. No one wanted to see them die. You choke up anyway, just imagining it.
Newman simply epitomized cool in movies in every single decade that he worked. Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Long, Hot Summer, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Winning, Butch Cassidy, The Sting, The Towering Inferno, Absence of Malice, The Verdict, Nobody’s Fool, Twilight, Road to Perdition. Smooth, start to finish.
Your Dad chose well.
While other actors of his generation became parodies and overly self important, Paul Newman continued working on projects he believed in, both on film and in life. He inspired in both regards. Made award winning films, saved a theater, raced cars, bought a racing team and donated 250 million dollars to charity on an idea that he thought was a lark?
That’s beyond cool.
Kevin Costner is really good in sports movies, which is odd because he’s usually pretty terrible in anything else he does save No Way Out.
I’m siding with Butch Cassidy as Paul Newman’s best movie, but there’s so much to choose from it’s hard to make a bad choice. Though Slap Shot is my favorite Paul Newman sports movie for obvious reasons.
And no conversation on great sports movies is complete without North Dallas Forty. Nick Nolte really nails the broken down recevier at the end of his career.
Was there ever a worse “athlete†than Anthony Perkins in “Fear Strikes Out†as Jimmy Piersall?
William Bendix, in The Babe Ruth Story.
And no conversation on great sports movies is complete without North Dallas Forty. Nick Nolte really nails the broken down recevier at the end of his career.
“Joe Bob’s Fine Food. Eat here, or I’ll kill ya!”
Small, sports-related performance by Newman that can’t be missed is in Mel Brooks’ “Silent Movie.” This is a silent movie about a director in the 70’s wanting to make a silent movie and recruiting stars of the time. At one point, Brooks and his cronies run into Newman recuperating from a racing injury at a hospital. Newman tries to escape in his motorized scooter, Brooks and crew follow, and hilarity ensues.
Alex has never seen Cool Hand Luke or Butch Cassidy? My goodness, are you in for a treat!
Also have to agree with Brent – 8 Men Out was about as convincing as anybody could hope to be showing baseball from the early 20th century. Every actor looked like an athlete to me.
I would also throw in Maris Valainis’ role as Jimmy Chitwood in Hoosiers. Totally convincing as an athlete. He just exuded the quiet confidence of a deadly shooter, IMHO.
Newman was easily my favorite actor, and when you consider everything else he did, he would be close to what an American Hero would be because he took his fame and money and did the right thing with them.
Harvey: “Guns or knives Butch?”
Butch: “I don’t want to shoot with ya Harvey.”
Harvey: “Whatever you say Butch.” Pulls humongus knife.
Butch (to Sundance): “There’s a way to make some money on this. Bet on Harvey.”
Sundance: “I would, but who’d bet on you?”
Butch: “Oh no, net yet. We don’t start ’till we get the rules straight.”
Harvey: “Rules? In a knife fight? NO RULES!”
Butch: Delivers the most beautiful kick to the nuts every filmed. “Whatever you say. Somebody say 1-2-3 Go!”
When I think of the characters Newman created in The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof*, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Slap Shot, I think of something William Carlos Williams wrote in his introduction to Howl, “Everyone in this life is defeated but a man, if he be a man, is not defeated.”
*No one has mentioned his turn as Brick Pollitt in the Tennessee Williams adaptation as one of Newman’s “sports roles”. He was a Heisman trophy winner (or something similar) dealing with life after the glory days of football. And was Elizabeth Taylor something to see…
Paul Newman on himself: “I can see the headlines now: Actor’s Blue Eyes Turn Brown, Career Ends.”
Alec Baldwin on Paul Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: “You can think about him hobbling on a crutch, feigning indifference, while Elizabeth Taylor urged him on in her lingerie. The two most beautiful actors in all of film, and they just argued. You knew how alcoholic and sick Brick was if he wasn’t dying for Elizabeth Taylor.”
Newman said that his favorite movie, of all the movies he made, was Slapshot.
And, in observance of Rosh Hoshanah, let me just say that Paul Newman was a great actor, a great move star, a great humanitarian, a great husband and father, etc., etc.
But most of all, he was a mensch.
We have so few of them left.
I readily admit that I love Paul Newman as an actor and a human. His death was the first from a star to really hit me since Jimmy Stewart. I don’t often make reaching attempts in writing columns, especially on deadline, because unlike Poz I can’t pull it off often. But I took a chance on a late Georgia / Alabama game and paid my own tribute to Newman with repeated references to his works throughout the story the day he died. If anyone is interested in trying to catch them all, check it out here. RIP Paul.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/092808/mic_477469.shtml
Was there ever a worse “athlete†than Anthony Perkins in “Fear Strikes Out†as Jimmy Piersall?
Michael J Fox in Teen Wolf was pretty bad. Not sure if that counts. Hoops maybe the hardest to nail in film. Hoosiers certainly did a very good job though.
Joe- when you type the last period of a piece (like this one) do you ever push back your chair and talk smack to your keyboard? You are a machine, and I really enjoy reading your stuff. Lastly, any ETA on the Big Red Machine book?
StepBaker, Phil, you said it. And Mac Davis does a heckuva job in that movie too.
Paul White says, regarding Willis Reed:
“Three big reasons I can think of:
1. Reed didn’t play for half of the 60s. His career started in the ‘64-’65 season.
2. Neither of Reed’s championships happened in the 60’s.
3. Reed was a great player, a deserving Hall of Famer, but was also one of the more wildly overrated players of that era (as all players from New York are). Both Thurmond and Lucas were better than him”
Regarding 1, that was my initial reaction. Only problem is that Thurmond and Lucas each sarted in ‘63-64, Reed in ‘64-65. One year takes Reed out of the discussion? Particularly when Thurmond averaged 7 PPG as a rookie?
2 is true, barely, although the first title season started in ‘69.
3 is, I think, debatable in many ways. I can think of many NY players that are not overrated in many sports, but in any case, I think you could argue the three of them in any order. I’m not syaing Reed is necessarily the answer, just that he certainly deserves to be part of the discussion.
The other issue, of course, is how much in basketball, do we count titles toward indicidual excellence. The argument for Russell over Wilt, a common debate, is entirely based on his titles, this despite the fact the Celts were so loaded they had hall of famers coming off the bench. Thurmond and Lucas (and Bellamy) might well be better than Reed, but I think Reed certainly deserves to be in the conversation.
RIP Paul Newman. I actually remarked to my wife that a ton of my favorite actors I remember from the 70s are now dead. This depresses me.
I’m going to go look at some puppies.
I know we’re focused on how well Paul Newman played athletes, but who is everyone’s favorite athlete-actor? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Airplane? He didn’t do much acting, but HIM in THAT movie is still pretty funny. Ray Allen in He Got Game? He wasn’t great in the beginning, but he got better as the movie went on.
oh, I voted for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I only ever saw this movie once, which is insane, because I’ve watched pretty much every other movie I ever saw at least five times.
But I still vividly remember it. It was great.
I am ashamed to admit I have never seen the Hustler. I saw Color of Money and thought it sucked pretty badly, and so I figured the Hustler would be just as bad.
Cool Hand Luke, hands down.
When he got sent out to dig his hole with a square shovel, that was pretty much one of the toughest scenes in a movie for me.
Still, every time when I’m in the woods and pee.. “Shakin’ it over here, boss.”
Steve B:
As a Chiefs fan, I know I liked Fred Williamson a lot better as an actor than as a defensive back.
But Ray Allen is a decent actor for an athlete. Rick Fox isn’t bad either.
Newman was my dad’s favorite actor too, and his movies are one of those things from his generation that we both love and can bond over (along with stuff like the Beatles, Clapton, and Muhammed Ali fights). We’ve always disagreed about what his best movie is though. He firmly believes that Cool Hand Luke is not just the best Newman movie, but the best movie ever made, but I’ve always been partial to The Hustler.
My favorite was “Cool Hand Luke,” though that might be a cliche. Or his turn as The Hudson Hornet, but that may be because my toddler forced me to watch it 55 times.
In terms of Oscars, Russell Crowe won for “Gladiator,” not “A Beautiful Mind” or “The Insider.” The end.
Yes, Pokepeaker, you are correct. Crowe was nominated three years in a row, winning for his weakest role, sandwiched between losses to Roberto Benigni (of all people) and Denzel Washington.
Gladiator sucks
It is the Will Smith of movies.
It’s a great body of work but Cool Hand Luke is the standout. It also contains the most cynical, and cynically delivered, line in film history: “What we have here is failure to communicate.” And if you’re a fan of this movie, check out Paul Muni’s I Was A Fugitive From A Chain Gang . . . one of the top five movies of the pre-war period.
Creston, you are not alone. I never got around to seeing The Hustler but caught Color Of Money a year or so back. Worst, dumbest, most insulting, most clueless, most ridiculous ending to a movie ever. I can’t decide whether it’s poisoned The Hustler for me or if I’ll have to see TH just to remove the bad taste.
The Sting was a huge movie in its day and had a promotional stunt of audiences being urged not to give away the ending. Maybe I’d read too much about conmen and hustlers but the thing — especially given the movie’s title — was entirely predictable. And all those Runyonesque characters coming together to help out their old pals had a corny “let’s put on a musical” feel to it.
Hud has 1% of the vote?!! 1%?!! I’m guessing that means that nobody has seen it. I hope that means nobody has seen it. Please see it. Performance-wise, it’s probably his best.
My PLN Top 10:
1. Hud
2. The Hustler
3. Nobody’s Fool
4. Cool Hand Luke
5. Slap Shot
6. Somebody Up There Likes Me
7. The Hudsucker Proxy
8. The Long Hot Summer
9. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
10. The Verdict.
‘Newman was the most versatile and compelling film actor of his generation.’
Umm. Marlon Brando. Rod Steiger. Richard Burton. Robert Duvall. Robert Mitchum. Gene Hackman.
I’m not dissing Newman; I loved the guy to pieces. But absolute statements like that just leave you wide open.
“…Thurmond and Lucas (and Bellamy) might well be better than Reed, but I think Reed certainly deserves to be in the conversation.”
I hear ya, JeffSol, I just happen to think that makes it a really broad conversation. First off, I personally think Bellamy is a clear #3 to the Big Two, so we’re really talking about who is #4, which makes the whole conversation sort of pointless. And if we’re going to talk about 6′9″ guys who are listed as “center-forward”, then you’ve got to throw Bob Petit into the conversation and that means we’re really talking about who was #5.
All that said, I can see throwing Reed into the next group up for discussion, but then you’re opening the door to some others. Seriously, go look up Zelmo Beatty’s numbers and compare them to Reed. Uncomfortably close if you’re a Knicks fan.
Last point on the New York thing, you’re right, plenty of New York guys don’t get their due (see Rodriguez, Alex). What I should have said was any player who is EMBRACED in New York is overrated (see Jeter, Derek, et al). And Willis Reed was most definitely embraced in New York. He probably hasn’t paid for a meal in that town since he retired.
Dammit, I hate spelling names wrong. It’s Bob Pettit, double t, of course. Mea culpa.
Speaking about actors playing athletes, I’ll be surprised if anyone has seen Keir Dullea, the star of 2001, A Space Odyssey, playing a minor league hockey player in the 1973 Canadian movie Paperback Hero. He certainly wasn’t better than Newman in Slapshot, but I’ve never forgotten the scene of Dullea and Elizabeth Ashley in the dressing room of a rink in a small town in Saskatchewan. It’s my favorite hockey movie and it’s very tough to find. Just check e-Bay.
The way I see it, Newman’s appeal is that he was someone in whom we could see a bit of ourselves. Although a major movie star and, in his younger years, the quintessential leading man, as he matured he became more of the everyman, the process starting with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There he was the sidekick who tagged along as his good-looking pal got the girl. Who can’t identify with that? Being less than classically handsome in the Clark Gable, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant mould helped also and allowed him to become more accessible to and acceptable by the common Joe.
Combine his private life with his philanthropic work and he becomes what we want to be, what we believe we may have turned out as given his advantages of talent and opportunities. He enabled ordinary men everywhere to nod to themselves and say, “That’s what I would have done; that’s how I’d have handled it.”
“Why go out for hamburger when you’ve got steak at home?”
Great actor. Better man. Thanks, Paul.
So, I know this is primarily a baseball blog, not a lot of football talk, and this may be the inappropriate post to run with this in so forgive me….
I have long been of a mind that Al Davis is evil incarnate, but when you’re from around here (or SD or Denver or the Rozelle household) it’s kind of bred into you. He’s crazy and he’s getting creepier by the second, but you know what. That batsh*t presser today wasn’t quite as crazy as it came off. He made some valid points and got all of his legal formalities out into the press (and if there’s one thing Al knows, it’s the legal system and contract law). I’ve heard Kiffin’s side time and time again and it was starting to get old and he was getting a little whiny about it. After this today, it just makes him look even worse. Again, I don’t want to believe all of what Davis says, but he’s essentially yet to lose in court and he made sure to send his letter to Kiffin FedEx, which means Lane signed for it, so there goes that excuse for him. Do I think they will still end up having to pay him, yeah, probably, but I think Al made a very strong case for himself. I am just praying tonight that this case makes it to court PLEASE!!
as an actor, mr. newman was my absolute hero (i really do think he was as talented as alec guinness or peter sellers). i saw him a couple of years ago onstage as the stage manager in OUR TOWN and was properly blown away.
paul: i was always a character actor, i just looked like little red riding hood.
My Paul Newman Top Ten:
1. The Hustler
2. Cool Hand Luke
3. The Verdict
4. Slap Shot
5. The Sting
6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
7. Road to Perdition
8. Somebody Up There Likes Me
9. The Color of Money (Apparently an unpopular pick here, but I really liked it)
10. The Hudsucker Proxy
@ Steve B – my favorite athlete cameo may be Charles Barkley in Space Jam. Goofy as hell flick, but he is really funny. “I swear, I won’t get any more technicals… I won’t date Madonna….” Helps that he’s playing himself, of course, but then why was Jordan so stilted? And of course the Hanson boys, who were all actual hockey players.
This is a great conversation about good/bad performances for athletes, and actors as athletes. It’s hard to do. In fact, the makers of “Miracle” intentionally used mostly hockey players they then taught to act, rather than the reverse, to make the action recreations as convincing as possible.
In the other categories:
I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned Michael Ontkean from Slap Shot in the “convincing athletic protrayal” conversation. I believe he did play competitively at one time. He does very well as Braden. (Another reason it’s one of the greatest sports movies ever.) And Wesley Snipes is good, both in Major League AND White Men Can’t Jump. (Woody ain’t that bad either.) But perhaps the best could be Denzel hissownself in He’s Got Game. According to rumor, Spike didn’t script the final one-on-one, he just let them play, and Denzel was actually able to net points against Ray Allen – thus ticking him off, hence the “lucky five” crack he makes, unscripted. Denzel actually made him play hard.
Honorable mention – Kurt Russell as Hubie Brooks. He was uncannily good. I didn’t even realize it was him when I first saw the trailers, he’s THAT good.
I also have one vote for Corbin Bernson in Major League as an utterly unconvincing athlete. His fielding was as bad as Jim Dorn’s acting in the fake American Express Commercial.
NB – we actually know TWO starters for the fictional Indians in Major League. Ol’ Wild Thing pulled a reverse-Joba in the film, in the rotation for much of the year but coming on to relieve in the playoff. (The manager mentions that he’s skipping his scheduled start in favor of the veteran against the Yankees.)
NB 2 – was it Costner who hit 85 for Love of the Game, or Sheen who did it for Major League? I have a hard time picturing Costner breaking even 70 on the gun.
Joe –
It would be great if you would post just a few sentences on each Division Series just so the posters here have a place to yammer about each one.
I always heard it was Costner who hit 85. From what I can recall he was s SS in college at Cal State Fullerton in the 70’s.
Kurt Russell was actually a hell of a ball player in his day, playing in the minors in the early 70’s before injuries halted his career.
Nightfly: True enough on the two SP for the Indians in ML.
I would guess the kids in Hoosiers were picked for their ability to hoop than for their acting skills, just like Miracle. I was actually thinking about it yesterday and realized that most of the acting in the movie is done by the professional actors and the kids just have to play ball. Pretty nice directing.
As a hockey player Slap Shot was the greatest hockey movie ever not stiff competetion I know). It really captured the need for the sport to ingratiate itself to a country that really doesn’t care. At every level I played there was always that impulse to start a fight just so people might show up or talk about the game the way they did football or basketball. I don’t know one hockey player who doesn’t love the movie, and Newman was a genius in that flick.
As for actors who play good atheletes, Tom Selleck was completely convincing as a washed up ballplayer in Mr. Baseball. Pretty crappy movie, but he had that arrogance and vulnerability down pat. Very underrated role for him.
Nightfly,
I’ve always heard that it was Sheen that legit hit 85 on the gun. Costner might have done something like that too though, both guys looked like they knew what they were doing.
I am shocked that Costner could hit 85 in For the Love of the Game. He was 44 when filmed. I did hear that rumor about Sheen, though. I wouldn’t dismiss Costner hitting 85, but it wasn’t his arm that’s impressive in his movies (Didn’t look that good having a catch with his dad in Field of Dreams). That swing is gorgeous, though.
Costner got his athletic start in American Flyers as a road bike racer and looked the part. Didn’t he also play a retired ballplayer in the Upside of Anger?
By the way, the kid who played Jimmy Chitwood was not an actor, but had that sweet sweet J. Seperating the acting from ball playing is an outstanding insight….
Wesley Snipes talked a good game in White Men, but was clearly being outplayed by Woody throughout the movie. His shot when playing horse and talking about the wind/beast was Ebby Calvin LaLoosh-esque ugly.
Hey, Steve B….Paul Newman was the FAVORITE ACTOR for most of our moms too!!!
HUD! HUD HUD HUD!!! Best movie, best performance. Paul Newman didn’t SOUND like he was from small town Texas but he sure did ACT like he was.
I saw The Hustler for the first time on Sunday after his death. Good movie, but Cool Hand Luke is still my favorite.
Joe Posnanski wrote:
Actors and athlees have a different kind of charisma. . . .In some ways, it’s like opposite of acting
When great actors are inspired, they say, “Look at me!”
Great athletes inspire someone else to say, “Look at HIM/HER!”
i know this is way too late, but favorite acting athlete is OJ Simpson in Naked Gun
[...] Somebody Up There Likes HimThis makes no sense at all when it comes to “Somebody Up There Likes Me,†in which Newman plays boxer Rocky Graziano. As far as I can tell, Newman is THE WHOLE MOVIE. I mean, hey, not to knock the fine supporting performances by Everett … – [...]