Paul Newman - Dead At 83

[UNTflyer]

EOM

[CMJ]

Very sad to hear when I read that an hour ago. A real giant in many ways.

[SilverEagle]

I guess it's silly to look up to actors as role models, but I did with Paul Newman. The man was a great actor and some of his roles were very memorable. One of my favorite roles of his was "Brick Pollitt" in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Much of the dialogue in that movie is somewhat dated, but this exchange has always stayed with me.

Brick and "Big Daddy" are down in the basement after Big Daddy learns that he is dying.

Brick Pollitt: Why'd you let Mama buy all this stuff?

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: The human animal is a beast that must die. If he's got money, he buys and buys and buys everything he can, in the crazy hope one of those things will be life-everlasting, which it can never be. I've suddenly noticed you don't call me Big Daddy anymore. If you needed a big daddy, why didn't you come to me? If you needed someone to lean on, why Skipper? Why not me? I'm your father! Why didn't you come to your kinfolk, the people that love you?

Brick Pollitt: You don't know what love means! To you, it's just another four-letter word.

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: You've got a mighty short memory! What was there you ever wanted that I didn't buy?

Brick Pollitt: You can't buy love!

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: Who do you think I bought it for? It's yours! The place, the money, everything's yours!

Brick Pollitt: I don't want things!

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: This was what my father left me, this lousy old suitcase! And on the inside was nothing, nothing but his uniform from the Spanish-American war. That was his legacy to me! Nothing at all! And I built this place from nothing.

Brick Pollitt: That was all he left you?

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: He was a hobo, the best-known tramp on the boxcar circuit. He'd worked once in awhile as a field hand, and I'd tag along. Sat on my bare bottom in the dirt, waiting for him. Outside of hunger, the first thing I remember is shame. I was ashamed of that miserable old tramp. I was riding boxcars with him when I was nine, something you never had to do. You'll never have to bury me the way I buried him. I buried him in a meadow alongside a railroad track. He was running to catch a freight and his heart give out. You know something? That old tramp died laughing.

Brick Pollitt: Laughing at what?

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: Himself, I guess. Old hobo tramp, not a nickel to his name, no future, no past.

Brick Pollitt: Maybe he was laughing because he was happy. Happy at having you with him. He took you everywhere. He kept you with him.

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: I don't want to talk about that.

[pause]

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: Yeah, I loved him. I reckon I never loved anything as much as that lousy old tramp.

Brick Pollitt: And you say he left you nothing but a suitcase with a uniform in it?

Harvey 'Big Daddy' Pollitt: And some memories.

Brick Pollitt: And love.

It's a great lesson about the parent-child relationship and what kids really want.

Sadly, people are still not listening.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---Paul Newman is one of very few in Hollywood that should be considered a good role model.. he was married to the same woman Jo-ann Woodward) about 50 years, was modest about his accomplishments (did not want to be promoted for an Oscar) , and donated millions to charity.... All of the income from his salad dressing and some other things went to charitible things. There are/were others like him in Hollywood but not so many. Jimmy Stewart was also one of the good guys as was Bob Hope.

Oddly many consider John Wayne one.... but... he avoided service in WWII unlike Jimmy Stewart (pilot) who was about the same age, and he was married several times and ran around on every one of them and was known to drink very heavily. Fortunately for him "Inside Edition" etc. did not exist then.

Edited September 29, 2008 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66