Paul Newman: A legacy of great performances and philanthropy

We lost a true icon over the weekend, as 83 year old Paul Newman succumbed to cancer. In addition to his stunning philanthropic successes (mostly notably with the Newman's Own line of food), he will be remembered as one of the greatest stars of the silver screen.

From his first appearance in the film The Silver Chalice in 1954 (a performance he would later publicly apologize for) he was able to grip the screen with a combination of masculinity and sweetness that has never been duplicated. Nominated for ten Academy Awards over his lifetime, he finally won for the 1986 drama The Color of Money, in which he reprised his role of "Fast Eddie" Felson from The Hustler.

Though he never played a gay character, he came close a couple of times. He starred, of course, as Brick opposite Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which garnered him his first nomination. Brick was one of the first "de-gayed" major film characters, with all references to Brick and his "best friend" scrubbed clean for the masses.

In the mid-70's, Newman optioned the film rights to Patricia Nell Warren's classic novel The Front Runner, about a track coach who falls in love with one of his runners. According to Warren, the deal fell through when the finished script was not what she had in mind:

"Towards the end of 1975, this script was ready. When I read it, my heart sank. It backed away from portraying a love relationship between two gay men. The poignant romance of my book was now reduced to a one-night stand before the Olympic Games. All the names, the locales had been changed. So little remained of the original story that, when I met with Newman's business partner George Englund to discuss my reaction to the script, I told him: “Why are you paying me money to call this The Front Runner? You can title it something else, and not pay me a nickel. Because this is not what I wrote."

Newman expressed regret about not making that film for years afterwards, and as disappointing as it was, he did make his beliefs about gay rights well known in his private life, and he made it clear where he stood:

“I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.

After the break, you can see a very intriguing clip of Newman screen testing with James Dean for the movie East of Eden. Pay close attention to Newman right after Dean jokingly says "kiss me", and you'll see a man completely at ease in his own sexuality. It's part of the reason why Paul Newman's film career lasted over fifty years, and why he'll be remembered as one of the screen's greatest legends.