I just heard that Paul Newman passed away, after a long and successful acting career.
Any performer as active as Newman will almost certainly have made a lot of contributions in our genre, and Newman certainly did.
One of his earliest stage performances was as gangster Glenn Griffin in the Broadway stage production of THE DESPERATE HOURS, a character played by Humphrey Bogart in the screen version.
Along the way, among many characters in our genre he'd eventually portray, he played mystery novelist Andrew Craig, caught up in a real-life murder case in THE PRIZE, scientist Michael Armsrong caught up in Cold War espionage in Hitchcock's TORN CURTAIN, British agent Joseph Reardon in THE MACKINTOSH MAN, con man Harry Gondorff in THE STING, NYPD beat cop Murphy in FORT APACHE - THE BRONX, trial lawyer Harry Galvin in THE VERDICT, private eye Harry Rose in TWILIGHT, mobster John Rooney in ROAD TO PERDITION, and of course Ross Macdonld's immortal detective Lew Archer (renamed "Harper" for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, though rumor has it that Newman wanted it to be part of his string of lucky "H" movies) in HARPER and THE DROWNING POOL.
He was one of only two actors to win two different Oscar nominations for playing the same character (Bing Crosby was the other), "Fast Eddie" Felson in THE HUSTLER and THE COLOR OF MONEY (he'd take home the trophy for the latter picture).
In a business notorious for the transitory nature of its romantic entanglements, he remained married to the same woman, Joanne Woodward, for more than 50 years.
He started a food sauce company, using recipes he'd developed himself over the years, called Newman's Own, and use the profits to fund many worthy charities.
He'll be missed.
JIM DOHERTY
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