I always wanted to meet Paul Newman. Of all the actors of my generation, he was my favorite. But it wasn't until just now, when I sat down to write this, that I realized I owe him one.
He's indirectly responsible for my love of reading, and writing, crime fiction.
Newman was the essence of cool. I first noticed him in Harper(1966), the cinematic take on Ross Macdonald's PI Lew Archer from Macdonald's book, The Moving Target. It was the beginning of that film, when he wakes up, finds no fresh coffee in his apartment and digs in the trash for some old grounds, that made Lew Harper human for many viewers. That opening, and Harper's affability, carried the movie for me.
Watching Harper led me to read The Moving Target. I was 13. It was the first adult novel I'd come across and much of the psychological meanderings didn't make sense but I liked the character. Lew Archer was dark, wisecracking and cynical. A noir-ish good guy who took as many lumps as he dealt out. I stuck with the Archer series, moving on to others when Macdonald died, and a lifelong love of hardboiled private eye mysteries was born.
I never read an Archer novel, however, without seeing Newman's face and hearing his voice delivering Archer's best lines.
What made Newman unique to me was his approach to character. I disagree with critics who claim Newman was always Newman in movies. That's how I regard Kevin Spacey or Tom Cruise or even George Clooney. They are always actors, portraying a role. Sometimes they carry it off. Sometimes not.
Newman always nailed the part, but never as an actor in front of a camera. He became Harper for me (both in Harper and when he reprised the role in 1975's The Drowning Pool). He became Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and John Rooney (the mob boss in Road to Perdition, 2002). He was Judge Roy Bean and Henry Gondorff and John Russell (with his arm crossed behind him as Hombre, 1967). And they were all fascinating because he was at their essence.
Some critics point to The Hustler's Eddie Felson or Butch Cassidy as his most memorable roles.
Others loved Cool Hand Luke ("What we have here . . .is a failure . . . to communicate!).
My favorite was Twilight where Newman is an aging private eye who takes on a case that twists in some of the same fashion as Harper but with far more likeable characters, including Gene Hackman as a dying friend and the incredibly lovely Susan Sarandon. As with the opening scene of Harper, Twilight introduces us to Harry Ross in most memorable fashion. It is a film about people and their base motivations, probably why I liked it.
So, I'm in mourning today. I always liked the world more with Paul Newman in it. I would have liked to buy him a beer. Or, at the very least, a salad.
Go with God's Hand on your shoulder, Paul. You gave us a remarkable life.
