In 2004, I went to Cleveland to canvass for John Kerry, and when we got to the campaign center, they told us (me and some college students) “Too bad you weren’t here five minutes ago, Matt Dillon and Paul Newman were just here”. One of the students asked me “I know the salad dressing but what else did Paul Newman do?” I said “The Hustler, H.U.D., Butch Cassidy, The Color of Money”, and the students all looked at me blankly, having never heard of any of these movies.
More recently, I was at a Starbucks, and a 60ish woman said to the 25ish guy behind the counter, “Has anyone ever told you you have Paul Newman eyes?” They guy said “Huh?” The woman said “You don’t know who Paul Newman is. Tell your mother a dirty old woman told you that you have Paul Newman eyes”.
Based on the above scientific research, I have concluded that the kidz don’t know who Paul Newman is. Explain to me why it is, then, that there are TWO songs on the radio right now that mention Michelle Pfeiffer — “Uptown Funk” and “Riptide”. Is it because the 80s were more recent than Paul Newman’s heyday (they’re not that much more recent and Newman had some hits in the 80s)? Is it the Scarface effect?
While we’re at it, what are your favorite movies with Michelle Pfeiffer? The only one I really like is Fabulous Baker Boys. How about Newman? For me, too many to mention, but I guess I’ll go with The Hustler.
Bobby Thomson
Dude, the Sting? Only one of the highest grossing pictures ever when adjusting for inflation.
Also, too, Nobody’s Fool.
MDC
I caught Tim Burton’s second Batman movie on TV recently. Pfeiffer’s take on Catwoman is crazy fun.
Laertes
In Ladyhawke she made a hell of an impression on my then-teenaged brain.
Barbara
The only movie I ever saw with Michelle Pfeiffer was “The Russia House,” with Sean Connery, and I liked it a lot.
Bobby Thomson
And GnR use the clip from Cool Hand Luke in Civil War, but those punk kids have probably never heard it.
And Michelle Pfeiffer was highly overrated.
J R in WV
“What we have heah is a failure to communicate!”
also the sting.
Good friend named his youngest son Luke, a star quarterback in small town rural HS which went to the playoffs, now he’s a surgeon in town.
JPL
As far as Paul Newman goes, I’d have to say all of them Charlie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
There was a quasi-novelty song called Bette Davis Eyes that weirdly became a hit about twenty years (early 80s?) after Bette Davis played a crazy old bat in Baby Jane.
I’d say my favorite Newman movie is The Verdict, but I also like “The Young Philadelphians”, in part because it always struck me as one of the last gasps of the old school MGM movies. And I haven’t seen it a long time, but I always liked The Sting. I’d like to see an edit of Butch Cassidy without that freakin’ musical interlude– Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head– that always throws me off.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
It might have something to do with the fact that Michelle Pfeiffer is 30 years younger than Newman and, ya know, still alive. Just a thought. :-p
I was never a huge Newman fan and preferred him in his later films, like “The Verdict.”
DougJ
@JPL:
That’s all of them, *Katie*.
TaMara (BHF)
I just rewatched The Long, Hot Summer, and I’m not sure there is a sexier scene than Paul Newman, stripped to the waist, standing in the doorway, teasing and flirting with Joanne Woodward (lying in her bed) all reflected in her dresser mirror.
Mike E
Cool Hand Luke, ya mullet head!
TaMara (BHF)
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): I’m not sure we can be friends any more. :-D
TaMara (BHF)
I’m struggling to decide if we will have a recipe exchange tonight. Lots of stress here. I’ve been cooking (girl’s gotta eat something that doesn’t resemble frozen french fries), but blogging seems like soooo much effort.
Bixby’s in the doghouse, tax time is a drag (work wise) and house hunting has been depressing (nothing for sale). But the snow and Colorado blue sky is stunning this morning.
SenyorDave
Favorite Newman movie is Cool Hand Luke. I love the scene with the blond girl washing the car and the convicts on the chain gang going out of their minds. The one guy start moving his shovel up and down faster and faster, all the guys are moaning. And then she starts wiping the soapy water on herself. And to top it off, George Kennedy says “she don’t know what she’s doing to us”, and Newman replies “she knows exactly what’s she doing”. Classic.
Trinity
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the first movies I ever remember watching with my father. (The other is Blazing Saddles). My Dad’s favorite song was “Raindrops keep falling on my head.”
I have loved Paul Newman ever since.
BGinCHI
Hud is terrific.
I rewatched The Verdict a couple weeks ago. It’s not a great film but Newman is terrific. I was surprised that I didn’t know that David Mamet wrote the screenplay.
Speaking of the 80s….I watched “Tootsie” the other night for the first time since it came out (I think). It holds up great and is well worth a watch. I love Sydney Pollack. Bill Murray is a gem in it as well.
Written by Larry Gelbart, so there.
Mike E
@TaMara (BHF): Just got some homemade vegetable stew for giving my coworker a ride in this morning… Oh, and I ordered the monster America’s Test Kitchen cookbook for $23 (couldn’t resist). I’ll give my review when it arrives sometime in March.
Botsplainer
Never cared for Newman.
gogol's wife
Dangerous Liaisons.
For Paul Newman, Nobody’s Fool is up there for me. I also am one of the few people who loves Torn Curtain, not so much because of Paul Newman but because of the unbelievable murder scene early on.
/Hitchcock freak
gogol's wife
@BGinCHI:
We stumbled upon The Verdict on TCM last night and I learned that my husband knows the dialogue verbatim by heart.
J R in WV
Some great films there, with Paul.
He was also a hugely succcessful sports car racer, drove very well in competition. Then founded his still well known food company when friends kept asking for recipes for his salad dressings, pasta sauces, etc, contributed hundreds of millions to charity.
Obviously Mr. Newman could have been successful at anything he wanted to succeed at; since he was actually successful at everything he turned his hand to in real life.
Catherine D.
Slap Shot
Joe Buck
The mentions of Michelle Pfeiffer aren’t because of her work in the 80s, but for her work through the 90s, the 00s, and the 10s that has kept us aware of her. I loved her in “Stardust” though that film got mixed reviews. And it’s cool that a woman my age looks that amazing.
Mike E
Slap Shot.
Belafon
After I explained to my 14 and 9 year old who Michelle Pfeiffer was, we had a debate over why she’s in two songs. We just settled on her being beautiful.
Cacti
Tell the youngs that Paul Newman was the voice of Doc Hudson in the Pixar movie “Cars”.
That will at least give them an identifiable reference.
EconWatcher
Newman’s closing argument in The Verdict can still give me goose bumps. “You know, so often we’re lost…”
Linnaeus
I’m not a huge Michelle Pfeiffer fan, so I can’t think of any movie of hers that stands out as my favorite.
On the other hand, I like many of Newman’s movies, so I can’t think of a favorite.
Sherparick
@Laertes: Ditto, and my brain was still in its late twenties stage. I thought the Witches of Eastwick was an immense amount of fun.
TCM also had “Cool Hand Luke” on last weekend. Young folks don’t know Paul Newman, but I think they all know this line:
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”
WaynersT
@gogol’s wife:
It was a double shot last night – Absence of Malice and The Verdict.
Nominated 10 times for an Oscar –
EconWatcher
@J R in WV:
We can never know what goes on in private, but from outward appearances, Newman gets an A+ for a life well lived. Great career? Check. Apparently rock solid marriage? Check. Helped others? Check. Exciting hobbies? Check.
On the other hand, he lost a child, so I would never, ever trade places with him.
MomSense
I met him when I was a teenager and he was really nice, funny, handsome–really all the good things in one person. I’ve loved him in all of his movies even the movies that were terrible (Message in a Bottle) but then I would pay to watch a movie of him sitting in a chair and smiling for two hours.
ETA He was the first guest on the show Inside the Actors Studio. Worth watching.
PurpleGirl
I don’t have a favorite Paul Newman movie but I was particularly taken by his Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. (I consider it an Elizabeth Taylor movie.) But pictures of his eyes have always bewitched me.
Comrade Mary
But were his eyes really blue? Was his hair ever really gold? And how black and blue will I become for trying to beat a dead meme in this thread?
Mustang Bobby
Favorite Newman film(s): The Sting and The Verdict.
As for the kidz with short-term memory, I don’t expect the average teenager to remember a star from forty years ago, but when I taught high school theatre in 2001 I had students who said they were totally into theatre since like forever and that they were totally dedicated to making it their life, like forever. Great, I said, so we’ll study the works of Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov, of Eugene O’Neill and of course Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and maybe throw in some Neil Simon just for fun. Blank stares. Who? Okay, maybe those kids don’t know Ibsen or Chekhov (not even the ensign on the Enterprise), but if you’re really dedicated to theatre, you’d know them as well as a kid wanting to be a major league baseball player would know who Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, or even Ty Cobb were.
Well, it was a rough year and I’m glad I’m out of it, especially after they all stated firmly that the greatest musical ever was Cats.
Betty Cracker
“Cool Hand Luke” — duh! As for Michelle Pfeiffer, “Witches of Eastwick,” I guess.
NotMax
@SenyorDave
There’s an anecdote which George Kennedy tells about that scene which occasionally runs as an interstitial segment on TCM Capsulized and paraphrased:
Her name was Joy Harmon, and the shooting of the scene with her washing the car was done without any of us there and was supposed to take an afternoon. Well, it stretched to three days of filming. Somewhere there are around 80,000 feet of film of her washing that car!
When it came time for the scene with the prisoners watching her, she was long gone. The director had some plain, skinny gal in a long coat standing by the car and told us to imagine it was Joy Harmon.
AliceBlue
@TaMara (BHF):
Amen, sister.
shortstop
@PurpleGirl: That will always be my favorite Newman movie.
Ryan
Dangerous Minds, wasn’t all kinds of risque or something In The Day?
I second Cool Hand Luke!
Mustang Bobby
@PurpleGirl: I did like his performance in that film, but I thought he was miscast; he just didn’t come across as closeted. But then, in the 1950’s, you couldn’t get away with that, even in a film of a Tennessee Williams play.
It would have been interesting to see what Montgomery Clift would have done with the role.
Glidwrith
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): OT, thanks for catching Ruemara in the wee hours of the morning. I’m still lurking around, hoping she’ll show up in the threads for exchange of contact info. Still at work, of course.
the Conster
Tequila Sunrise, hands down. I’ve watched that movie 100 times, and that look Mel Gibson gives her when she’s sitting at his kitchen table that conveys/betrays his feelings for her, well, let’s just say that if anyone ever looked at me like that, I’d die of happiness right there.
As for Paul Newman, he’s my #1(a) after Gregory Peck’s #1. Both GREAT liberals, btw.
ETA: The Verdict is my favorite, followed by Buffalo Bill.
NotMax
@MomSense
Worst? The Silver Chalice. No contest.
Ivan X
When I was 15 I saw Michelle Pfeiffer in Into Thr Night and I fell in love with her for about a decade. I still like the movie too, despite it being unarguably bad. So I guess that’s my favorite.
Mark
Pfeiffer 2007’s “Hairspray” as Velma Von Tussle
Newman 1982’s The Verdict…with Hud a close 2nd.
SiubhanDuinne
Paul Newman was a Cabinet Secretary?
I loved him in everything he was in, but The Sting and Butch Cassidy are just such great fun, and the pairing with Redford is so perfect, that I’d have to put them right up top.
But does no one have a kind word for Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?
Edit: Saw Purple Girl’s #34 after I posted this comment. Sorry, PG!
boatboy_srq
Torn between Fabulous Baker Boys, White Oleander and Dangerous Liaisons for Pfeiffer. Color of Money for Newman is a personal favorite.
@Joe Buck: Add to that the sudden fad for anything 80s.
alhutch
Newman – The Sting
Pfeiffer – What Lies Beneath
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
DougJ,
I think you’ll have less problem with this now that Netflix exists. A lot of the Newman movies were hard to find at video rental stores, but a bunch are available on Netflix.
At least, that’s how I’m familiar with the Newman movies other than “The Sting”.
NotMax
Not my favorite Paul Newman movies by a long shot, but probably my favorite performances by him on screen were in The Verdict and Exodus.
Sherparick
@JPL: Well, there was “The Chalice.” Boy, what a turd, and Paul Newman hated it for good reason. (When I was very young myself, the Atlantic Magazine did an interview of Paul Newman after he just turned 50 in 1975 (Newman was able to carry off playing a very young man into his early forties so him turning 50 was a shock to boomers, Silent Generation, and WWII generation (Newman was a combat veteran). Speaking of WWII, “Until They Sail” had a great cast (besides Newman, there was Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie, and Sandra Dee), but was otherwise just another 1950s steamy and rather sexist melodrama. (Good girls don’t, don’t you know.) Newman’s last big role was as a supporting actor in Tom Hanks period gangster drama “The Road to Perdition” in 2002, now 13 years in the past.
the Conster
@the Conster:
Also, Slapshot. Can’t forget Slapshot.
catclub
@J R in WV: Also a very successful, very long marriage. In Hollywood.
Hen
i can eat 50 eggs. …in an hour.
(cool) hands down, the greatest.
Kay Eye
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. They should have won Oscars.
BottyGuy
I think it’s a pop culture thing related to life style. Paul Newman never had a signature style, sure he was cool and raced cars but he lived privately and didn’t advertise his life style (lifestyle). People still know James Dean and Steve McQueen because they lived their life in public.
TaMara (BHF)
@PurpleGirl: Elizabeth Taylor was amazing in that film. She just crackled and you can feel her desperation and grief.
I always thought the play a hot mess, but the film, mostly because of her performance was very good.
kd bart
Slap Shot
“Lard ass Barclay Donaldson”
kc
TCM showed two Newman movies last night, “Absence of Malice” and “The Verdict.”
I loved FBB, and “Scarface.” And she was great as Catwoman, though I didn’t care for the movie much.
All of them, Katie.
NotMax
Was stumped on Pfeiffer films until read some of the titles above.
So have certainly seen at least some of her work, but what have seen left no lasting impression whatsoever.
ruemara
I’m here @Glidwrith: you start work early. First, thank you very much. Second, I can always be reached at my nym at gmail.com. Trying clear a work surface so I can do some of the work left over from work.
Villago Delenda Est
@Catherine D.: YES!
Bobby B.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST YOU USELESS PUNKS!!!
I shat my Depends I’m so pissed
Hawes
For Newman? The Verdict.
Pfeiffer? Fabulous Baker Boys.
burnspbesq
@WaynersT:
Absence of Malice is a criminally under-appreciated film.
Tenar Darell
Not like it’s the best film, but I truly truly loved him and McQueen in Towering Inferno. 70’s disaster movies are kinda amazing for the awesome actors you can watch in them.
Fred
Not knowing who Paul Newman is, is bad enough but a few years back I was talking to a not so un-hip teenage girl (plays serious guitar, dabbles in modeling and theater) who didn’t know who the Beatles are. Now I can understand being not too familiar with the music (but into music?) but not having any idea who they are is beyond my comprehension.
Then again maybe she was just pulling an old dude’s leg.
I saw Dark Shadows on a plane. The fist half was really funny and then it just kinda spun down. But Michelle Pfeiffer was still gorgeous. Something about her lips. And then her eyes. And then there’s the rest of her.
But in The Baker Boys her song on the piano was the sexiest song performance I can think of on film. And she has a voice. And there is definitely something about her lips. And….
Tokyokie
I’d have to go with with The Hustler as my favorite Newman movie, as it’s been in my top 10 movies for about 40 years. But I should make mention of Cool Hand Luke, if only because I used its signature line as a voicemail greeting for several years.
Amir Khalid
In a generation or so there will be people too young to remember the Harry Potter books or movies, Lady Gaga, Stephen King, One Direction, or Oprah Winfrey. And so it goes.
Jim C
Favorites? For me, that does not necessarily equal best or quality.
Favorite Newman: The Sting and Slap Shot
(I would say The Verdict is his best, but if you want to talk me down, Cool Hand Luke and The Hustler are great.)
Favorite Pfeiffer: Grease 2 and Married To The Mob
(I thought she was fabulous in Batman Returns and wish that they hadn’t felt the need to double up the villains)
VOR
@Ivan X: Seconded. Not a great movie, but she was just alluring. And Fabulous Baker Boys, OMG!
Villago Delenda Est
@Fred: “Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?”
piratedan
@NotMax: yeah, same feeling, nothing really sticks, which means either she’s just an actress or so good that you forget that she’s playing a part…. Always kind of considered her a “poor man’s” Faye Dunaway….
On the Newman side of the ledger, I always felt Hombre was rather underrated but his turn in Cool Hand Luke was the embodiment of being a rebel.
PurpleGirl
@TaMara (BHF): Yes, Taylor was amazing. Not all of her films were great, but she could turn in a performance that was scorching when she had a good script. And Tennessee Williams wrote great women’s role.
Suzanne
Pfeiffer: The Age of Innocence.
Newman: The Hudsucker Proxy
Punchy
The only Newman I’m familiar with is the one in Seinfeld.
wasabi gasp
Has anybody ever told you that you have Orville Redenbacher eyes?
Alan Partridge
@Villago Delenda Est: They’re only the band the Beatles COULD have been!
PJ
Pfeiffer was very good in The Age of Innocence.
techno
I have loved a lot of Newman movies but my favorite is still Slap Shot. BTW, Newman often said it was his favorite too. Because beneath the hi-jinks, this movie is quite profound when it explores how the loss of a major employer in a town is so brutalizing. The movie was written by a woman who seemed to understand athletics better than any sportscaster.
Amir Khalid
@wasabi gasp:
No, but …
Bobby Thomson
@Villago Delenda Est: like kids know Wings.
japa21
@Mike E: Well worth it. And, for those who have to be gluten-free, they have a cookbook dedicated to gluten-free cooking which is extremely good.
Mike E
@Bobby B.: Michelle Pfeiffer wasn’t in that one.
patrick II
The Fabulous Baker Boys is one of my favorite movies, period. Besides an incredibly beautiful Pfeiffer, it had Jeff Bridges as his pre-dude leading man best, the underrated Beau Bridges, and Michelle Pfeiffer on top of a piano softly singing Making Whoopee.
Downpuppy
@techno: Whenever there’s a list of Best Sports Movies, Slapshot seems out of place, because it belongs on a better list. The look at the town getting screwed over,the hideous 70s fashion, and mostly because it’s probably the funniest movie ever made.
They brought their freakin’ TOYS!
You call this hockey??!
Newman & Strother Martin should have made more than 2 movies together.
Keith G
I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it up thread since I haven’t looked at every entry, but Newman’s acting in a version of Our Town (2003 PBS) is awfully comfortable. And by that I mean he plays the Stage Manager with such a serene integrity. I am one of the 11 million plus folks who acted in a high school performance of Our Town. I felt Newman did everything right in his performance.
From Somebody Up There Likes Me to Road To Perdition, there is such an immense range of characters that he has been able to portray. Since younger kids today no longer sit on the living room floor while watching movies on television that their parents or grand parents have selected, I have no doubt that Paul Newman and others like him have slipped the surly bonds of our social memory to the extent that they have.
Amir Khalid
Anyone here remember Matt Dillon in The Saint of Fort Washington? I caught it on TV once. He and Danny Glover were wonderful in it.
DougJ
@Amir Khalid:
I have nothing against Oprah, but the others…we are talking about great movies here, not mediocre ephemera.
lawguy
On a similar note a friend and I were making a joke about the only things left after a nuclear holocaust would be the cockroaches and Keith Richards.
A receptionist who works at the same place my friend does asked “Who is Keith Richards?” I said “You know the Rolling Stones.” She said “Who are the Rolling Stones?”
My friend said “You do to know who they are.” I had to drag her away I thought that she was going to assault the girl.
jl
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
” It might have something to do with the fact that Michelle Pfeiffer is 30 years younger than Newman and, ya know, still alive. Just a thought. :-p ”
My first thought too. Wasn’t going to say anything because I am male boor and this is a very refined high class blog. But as long as you mentioned it. I’ll add, still looks very nice.
Pfeiffer can bring fun and charm and make otherwise problematic film fun to watch all by herself: Titania in Midsummer Night’s Dream. Show that in HS lit class and the kids will be talking about her for a long time.
Newman’s better actor overall, but not as much fun, IMHO. As for pure charm? I guess his work in TV commercials?
srv
I make all the kids watch Towering Inferno, so they know the true price of liberal fantasies.
SatanicPanic
I too noticed this recent boom in Michelle Pfeiffer references and wondered what it’s about. Next I want to see guys referencing Geena Davis and Melanie Griffith
Mike E
@Downpuppy: Breaking Away is on that “better sports movie” list I’m hoping, that wide shot of the last two laps with the cut to the close up just as he wins is arguably the greatest sports scene in cinema.
jl
@srv:
Oh for God’s sake. That is pure F-grade trolling and you know that.
You make people watch The Big Bus: dangers of advanced mass transit systems.
Amir Khalid
@DougJ:
At most, you could say that One Direction were mediocre ephemera. I would not say that of the best movies associated with King, for instance.
wasabi gasp
@Amir Khalid: When I was a little kid, my grandma and I would often hop on the bus and go catch the double feature (and my memory insists on telling me it was always a Barbara Streisand/Mel Brooks double feature.) That Young Frankenstein showing was indelible.
jl
@SatanicPanic:
Geena Davis!!! Yes, she is a great Earth Girl, I can live with more references to Geena Davis. But what is she doing now? Not as much as Pfeiffer.
srv
@jl: The Big Bus is one of the best movies ever. But I don’t remember Paul Newman in it.
You eat one lousy foot – they call you a cannibal!
MomSense
@lawguy:
Someone asked Richards about that in an interview IIRC and he that he would be the only thing left because he would eat the cockroaches!
D58826
Somewhat OT – AP is reporting Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) has died at age 83
sacrablue
RIP, Leonard Nimoy.
trollhattan
@Downpuppy:
Love, love, love “Slapshot.” As a random scene grab, first time the Hanson brothers hit the ice in a game.
Amir Khalid
@jl:
The most recent news I came across regarding Geena Davis had to do with her trying out for a place on the US Olympic archery team a few years ago. She missed the cut, but not by much.
jl
@srv: Oh. OK. Sorry, D+ trolling then. You get partial credit for fitting into the theme.
I was distracted thinking, “gee if only Newman found an opportunity to translate the wonderful pure sex appeal and charm of his Maxwell House work into Cinema, he would still give Pfeiffer a run for the money.”
jl
@Amir Khalid: Geena Davis, Olympian. That would have been cool.
And, what is the RIP Nemoy stuff from sacrablue? I haven’t seen anything.
trollhattan
@Jim C:
If I had to pick just one, Cool Hand Luke gets my vote.
Weirdest: “Quintet” by a mile. It’s his Zardoz.
Paul in KY
Cool Hand Luke
someofparts
Favorite Newman is Nobody’s Fool – so sweet, so charming – also last role Jessica Tandy played, and she was wonderful too- movie dedicated to her, in fact.
Also, again for Newman – Fat Man and Little Boy.
ruemara
Fuck. Leonard Nimoy died this morning. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of-star-trek-dies-at-83.html?smid=tw-bna&_r=0
Spock was my icon. I know this sounds wrong, but I needed an example for how not to feel yet still be. So I adored him as a little kid. Awful, even though you knew we wouldn’t have him for long.
Gus
@NotMax: I would watch all three days of that film.
Amir Khalid
@jl:
Leonard Nimoy lived long and prospered. But now — He’s dead, jl.
trollhattan
O/T ISIL aren’t the only assholes with guns.
In other words: Friday in America.
Betty Cracker
@ruemara: I am so saddened to hear that. Never lived in a world without Mr. Spock in it.
Phlip
@jl
Also, Avijit Roy was murdered today in Bangladesh
SiubhanDuinne
Leonard Nimoy has died. RIP.
Citizen_X
@Bobby B.:
*Ahem* Perhaps you’re thinking of Henry Fonda?
(Also stars Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, and Claudia Cardinale.)
TaMara (BHF)
Mr. Spock has left this world. RIP Leonard Nimoy.
K488
@Mike E: Love that movie – in the second to last shot of the film, the camera pans across the front of the IU opera house, and winds up pointing at my (relatively new) office window!
Citizen_X
@SiubhanDuinne: Crap!
Sorry, Spock. Illogical reaction, I know.
someofparts
Oh great – somebody else saw Pfeiffer play Titania. I thought the costumes and sets on that one were amazing, but with the exception of Stanley Tucci, it didn’t seem to me that any of the American actors could do Shakespeare as well as the Brits, e.g. Rupert Everett’s performance.
MomSense
@TaMara (BHF):
Was just going to post the same. RIP indeed.
Matt M
Thank you for writing this. Paul Newman is one of my favorite actors and not just because my uncle was his roommate when they were undergrads at Kenyon College. I actually work in a film school and I always say that, for most of our current students, the beginning of time for filmmaking was 1995, when Pulp Fiction was released. There are, thankfully, always a handful of students that dare to see films made during the “olden times,” but it doesn’t surprise me at all that a 20-something barrista wouldn’t really know who Paul Newman was.
wasabi gasp
I’d think the Tom Cruise connection in The Color of Money would be enough to get the youngs up to speed on Newman, but then again, I haven’t heard those two songs that mention Pfeiffer.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
I did a fair amount of Little League coaching back in the day. At one practice in the early 90s I was working with some of the less “naturally-inclined” 10-12 year-olds in the infield, trying to get them to both properly position themselves and then to move a bit (instead of squatting like stone statues) as they attempted to field grounders.
The part about moving wasn’t getting across, so I tried a movie analogy, saying something like, “Hey, remember in “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid” where they were trying to get work as armed guards for a mining outfit, but the Kid — Robert Redford — had trouble hitting a coin tossed on the street because he was just standing still shooting at it with his six-gun? He asked if he could move, and then by moving was able to show how good of a shot he was, hitting the coin several time? Same deal here — you can’t just stand stock-still trying to catch a ground ball, you gotta move”.
None of the kids had the slightest idea what movie I was talking about, nor anything about Paul Newman or Robert Redford.
Both (especially Paul Newman) were in some good, even iconic, movies (as mentioned in a number of comments above). Seems few people younger than the youngest Boomers would have a clue about these guys or their movies, though.
My personal favorite Newman scene is right near the end of “Cool Hand Luke” where he’s holed up in the little church, just before they take him out. He talks with a God he wishes existed and could provide justice and help, but he knows it’s just not real. It’s “pretty to think so” but, sadly, no. As an atheist who similarly wishes that at least one or two of the fairy tales we tell ourselves about Life, the Universe, and Everything were real (the nice ones, anyway) but realizes that’s highly, highly unlikely, that scene has always strongly resonated with me.
Culture of Truth
Absence of Malice, The Verdict, Nobody’s Fool.
Ladyhawke
Damn, Nimoy was an accomplished actor, director, photographer, writer.
trollhattan
@wasabi gasp:
Hate to say it, but Tom Cruise is an old man in bad SciFi flicks to The Youngs.
Paul in KY
@Fred: Had she not heard of the songs?! If she said so, then she was definitely pulling your leg (IMO).
catatonia
Hud is one of the greatest of all times.
“So I just naturally had to go bad, in the face of so much good.”
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@TaMara (BHF): Well if you need someone to play a hot mess, you could do a lot worse than Elizabeth Taylor.
Another Newman/Tennessee Williams film that’s very good is Sweet Bird of Youth. It’s depressing as hell but then, it’s Tennessee Williams so why wouldn’t it be?
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: One day it will be ‘Dave Grohl was in a band before Foo Fighters?!’ And so it goes…
Paul in KY
@DougJ: Lady Gaga is not ‘mediocre ephemera’. She’s a very talented performer.
Calouste
@Villago Delenda Est: Paul McCartney? Isn’t that the guy who sang in that band that Dave Grohl was in before the Foo Fighters?
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: I think Mr. King would hope you remembered his books. No matter how much he has made off the movie adaptations.
jl
Sad news about Nemoy.
And Roy, too.
Tree With Water
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: There’s a tabloid headline on display at your local supermarket this week that reads, ‘Elizabeth Taylor Died Broke’. Upon seeing it my first thought was, “then she did it right”.
ruemara
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Elizabeth Taylor lived being a the best hot mess one could find.
wasabi gasp
@trollhattan: Yeah, I felt a little creaky and dusty mentioning Cruise, but he’s still at it. This may not be a very popular opinion, but I think Cruise is a pretty good actor.
The Thin Black Duke
Hey, no love for Michelle for her performance in the woefully underrated Married To The Mob?
brantl
Paul Newman: Cool Hand Luke and Hombre. BOth excellent.
Villago Delenda Est
@TaMara (BHF): I’m fairly certain that the flood of illogic flowing from CPAC had something to do with it.
DougJ
@Paul in KY:
I figure that most people can find one person from the list whom they don’t think of as mediocre ephemera, but surely we can all agree that the majority of people on that list are.
Jeff R.
I made my kids watch “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting.” Although they only know Newman from “Cars” and salad dressing, it was really more for Redford. We’d seen the Captain America movie and I had to explain why Redford was such a big deal.
In one of the scenes in “The Winter Soldier”, you could see the Watergate through the window over Redford’s shoulder. I hope that was deliberate.
tsquared2001
For Michelle Pfeiffer, it is Scarface. Not many actresses could carry off the line – “My best friend is Nick The Pig!”
Also, my SIL can do a mean impression of Elvira Hancock.
Paul in KY
@Calouste: Yeah, I think he was in the Traveling Wilburys with Grohl…
Hawes
@DougJ: Expelliarmus!
Paul in KY
@DougJ: He’s not ‘high literature’, but I wish I was as good a writer as Mr. King. One Direction is definitely ephemera. Oprah is personally not, but her show is (IMO). Harry Potter series (fine reading from book 3 on, IMO) is also ephemera that made Ms. Rowling a giant pile of money.
brantl
@Villago Delenda Est: Amazingly enough, he was in one before Wings, that DIDN’T suck.
jackmac
I’m to the point where I have to make sure to explain any pre-2000 cultural references to my kids (ages 15 and 23). It helps avoid blank stares.
kc
@The Thin Black Duke:
Hey, I forgot about that one! She was great in that. Funny movie, Dean Stockwell and Mercedes Ruehl were just perfect.
Amir Khalid
@Paul in KY:
Before we make proclamations about whose work is ephemera and whose is not, let’s remember that scene from Star Trek IV where Spock lists, among the “greats” of 20th century literature, Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susann.
Glidwrith
@ruemara: Hurrah! I’m one of those nasty tech-illiterate people that still has an AOL account. I’ll shoot you an e-mail with the subject Glidwrith and Comic-con. Talk to you later!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@TaMara (BHF):
I’ve never been big on bad boys. I prefer nerd boys (though not Cumberbatch, for some reason). There aren’t a lot of 50s-era Method actors I like because there’s a lot of machismo that annoys me.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: You have a good point, Amir. Sorry I won’t be around in 100 years to sneer at who they think was great (if it disagreed with my opinions).
trollhattan
@DougJ:
I’ve compartmentalized Gaga as “The talented Madonna” and leave it at that. Since I don’t connect with her music I only judge her singing talent dispassionately, and there she’s mid-pack compared to others. Madonna OTOH has leveraged bargain-basement performing abilities to unfathomable levels. Gaga seems to be the far more genuine person, and genuinely interesting at that.
boatboy_srq
@SiubhanDuinne: WAAAAH!!11!1!
Lawrence
If the kids don’t know The Color Of Money, it was a Tom Cruise movie after all, then I suppose Absence Of Malice and The Verdict are a lost cause. Fat Man And Little Boy? The voice of Doc in Cars surely.
Michelle Pfiefer now, what was the one where she teaches ghetto high school in the ’90s?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Glidwrith:
If necessary, you can email me through my website (linked in my nym) and I can forward your email address to her.
TaMara (BHF)
@The Thin Black Duke: That is definitely one Pfiefer movie I really liked.
bemused
These younger adults who have no clue who some of the most famous celebrities, Paul Newman, Rolling Stones, are is just killing me.They are just totally uninterested and willfully ignorant of anything outside their very teeny tiny bubbles. I would bet serious money they are equally ignorant regarding famous presidents, domestic and world events and basically anything that happened before the later 1980’s or early 1990’s.
Pep
Newman – Sometimes a Great Notion never gets enough love. Starring and directed by Paul
Halcyon
Honestly, I suspect it’s more of the “Catwoman” effect than the “Scarface” effect. At least for the sorts of geeks likely to argue about it on the internet.
As one of those Kidz who is only vaguely aware that Paul Newman did things other than salad dressing, at least, that is certainly the first thing I go to when thinking about Pfeiffer’s memorable roles.
Chat Noir
Love Paul Newman. Absence of Malice, Hud, The Verdict. Great films all. Paul Newman was also most proud of the fact that he was on Nixon’s enemies list.
@Jim C: I love Grease 2. It’s so great it’s awful. That’s my favorite Michelle Pfeiffer film.
JGabriel
Pfeiffer – A third vote for Dangerous Liasons. Surprised more people haven’t mentioned it.
Newman – Probably Slapshot, maybe The Sting or The Hudsucker Proxy. I actually haven’t seen some of Newman’s most well-known or highly rated films yet, so my favorite Newman is still subject to change.
Patricia Kayden
Newman — The Sting
Pfeiffer – Love Field (with Stardust coming in a close #2).
delk
The kids may know Newman from The Road to Perdition.
We had to watch Cool Hand Luke in my freshman religion class in 1975. Luke as Jesus, especially in the final shot when he is on the chain gang and the camera pulls back to make the intersection look like a cross.
Just watched Butch Cassidy a couple weeks ago. Wasn’t as good as I remembered.
Jim C
@Chat Noir: Exactly!
I love this thread, if only because it reminds me of movies I still haven’t seen (Hombre) or in their entirety (Absence of Malice, where I always surf upon it part-way through and think, ‘Oh, I need to see this start to finish!’). Or Dangerous Liasions; saw Valmont a long time ago, and the Annie Lennox video “Walking on Broken Glass,” it was basically the same, right?
@trollhattan: I have never seen Quintet, but know it exists. But I’m not doubting you a bit on that one.
“And no matter what’s gone wrong in his life, Neil [Connery] can look in the mirror and say to himself, “Well, at least I didn’t do Zardoz.” — Crow T. Robot
dirk
Cool Hand Luke.
JustRuss
I read that George Clooney, as his fame was taking off, met Paul Newman, and he told Newman how he’d inspired Clooney to take up acting. “Well kid,” said Newman, “I hope you make it.” Clooney was never sure if Newman had no idea who he was or if he was just screwing with him.
Newman faves: Cool Hand Luke and Nobody’s Fool
Pfeiffer: Ladyhawk. May not be her best work, but it’s a fun script and Rutger Hauer is a badass.
Petorado
The irony of people in Cleveland not knowing who Paul Newman was is that he was born there. His parent’s outfitting/ outdoors business is still there on the east side of town and still run by family, I believe.
Jjohnnybuck
Harper is a fav of mine, but lord there are so many that are better films. I love Hud, and the Hustler as well as the Verdict and Nobody’s fool.
Bill
Newman – Fort Apache, the Bronx or Slapshot
Pfeiffer – Fabulous Baker Boys
Pfeiffer also made one of the word movies ever! Dangerous Minds.
ThresherK
@Chat Noir: Can’t let that go by without tipping my hat to Tab Hunter. If there’s one genuine jewel in that chromed plastic movie, it’s his turn as a science teacher trying to explain sex ed to a classroom of teenagers in the number “Reproduction”.
Dave
Cool Hand Luke and Absence of Malice
Justin
There’s actually a song called Paul Newman’s eyes by a band called Dogs Die in Hot Cars from about 10 years ago…
Librarian
@bemused: This kind of thing drives me crazy. When I was a kid, I made it my business to know about pop culture before my time. I certainly knew who the Marx Brothers were, for example. Some people have no desire to know about stuff that is not within their memory.
Bill
@JGabriel: Glenn Close so overshadowed everyone else in Dangerous Liasons that I actually forgot Pfeiffer was in it. I don’t think of that as a Pfeiffer film. (Although strangely I always remember that Keanu Reeves was in it, probably because he seems so out of place.)
DougJ
@Petorado:
This was on the east side of Cleveland even.
ul
loved Into The Night
burritoboy
Well yeah, nobody (or almost nobody) remembers the popular entertainments of, say, 1850 or 1800. But, of course, there were incredibly great entertainers of that era. But we cannot experience them because there was no recording technology.
And we should always remember how edited our versions of the past are (as the Star Trek IV quote above so amusingly relays). You would think that ancient history, for example, remains stable – but, of course, our histories are a function of our contemporary eyes. Julius Caesar is viewed entirely differently every few generations, for instance. Caravaggio was not heralded until the 1960s. F. Scott Fitzgerald was once regarded as a boozy failure, a writer whose primary virtue was to write up stories about high-class parties of the 1920s.
narya
His Richard Russo films (“Nobody’s Fool,” “Empire Falls,” and “Twilight”) are all wonderful in their own ways, though NF is a particular favorite because it’s one of my favorite novels ever
“Cool Hand Luke” and “Butch Cassidy” are iconic; while I like “The Sting” very much, it doesn’t do it for me as much.
“Slapshot” is awesome.
“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is also awesome, not least because he managed to make it work.
But “Long Hot Summer” wins.
Death Panel Truck
Did he have Festus with him?
mattH
Late to the party, but, I think part of it is that the 1980s are having a resurgence in style across a lot of fashion media. My wife has been watching Ellen’s Design Challenge and one of the finalists is soooo stuck in the 80s and one of the judges commented on how plugged in to the current fashion sense she is. My wife and I just laugh at the things she gets away with. Not to mention 2012s obsession with huge sunglasses.
@burritoboy: Julius Caesar was a very fortunate man in that his illegal forays were only recorded on one side of the conflict; archaeology has not been kind to him.
smintheus
My favorite Newman movies are Cool Hand Luke, The Verdict, and Slap Shot.
smintheus
@PurpleGirl: I once knew an Italian woman whose blue eyes were so dazzling they put Newman’s to shame. You’d have sworn they were brightly back lit. Just to see her it felt like you were being sucked into a Star Trek style tractor beam. She was always the center of attention the moment she showed up anywhere.
Bob Munck
The movie was Hud. You may be thinking of C.H.U.D., a different and somewhat dissimilar movie.
rikyrah
Pfeiffer – tie between Dangerous Liaisons and The Age of Innocence
Paul Newman-Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Sting
those eyes…those eyes
Full metal Wingnut
As a lawyer, I have to say The Verdict for Newman. But then Cool Hand Luke is Shawshank done right. But Color of Money was my first. The Sting kicks ass. Nobody’s Fool also great.
Not as familiar with Pfeiffer. Wasn’t she Catwoman in those Burton/Keaton Batman movies?
Mohagan
@JustRuss: I’m a fourth vote for Ladyhawke. Good humerous fantasy romance with Rutger Hauer, Matthew Broderick, Leo McKern , Alfred Molina and John Wood, except for musical interlude required of 1980s movies.
And as for forgotten movie stars: my name is Maureen O’Hagan and I used to introduce myself by saying, “like Maureen O’Hara” but had to stop (years ago now) when nobody knew who she was. Hadn’t anybody seen The Quiet Man? McClintock?
Maybe because I like history, I also like learning about older cultural things. When Frank Sinatra died, I wanted to find out what the big fuss was about (I am Beatles era), so I got some of his CDs, and most of the songs I liked were by Cole Porter, so I followed the thread and discovered Ella Fitzgerald’s Songbooks of Cole Porter and Rogers and Hart. Wow. The songs are fabulous and Ella could really sing.
pluky
@Barbara: I was torn between that film and Dangerous Liasons.
Paul in KY
@Bob Munck: Just a bit dissimilar ;-)