We've lost a giant. Oscar winning actor, Paul Newman, 83, died yesterday at his home in Connecticut after a long bout with lung cancer. For all you pre-pubes out there whose cultural literacy doesn't extend beyond Britney's latest single, Paul Newman was one of Hollywood's greatest movie stars, and as a man, he was the epitome of "cool".
He was nominated for an Oscar ten times, winning one for 1986's "The Color of Money", but was also a philanthropic leader raising millions of dollars for charity through his "Newman's Own" line of food products.
But he'll always be remembered best as the very personification of male "cool". His strong but silent sexual swagger made generations of female hearts flutter, and every young man wanted to be the Paul Newman they saw in legendary films such as "Hud", "Cool Hand Luke", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Hustler".
In "Cool Hand Luke", one of the most famous movie lines of all time was uttered, first by Strother Martin, and then by Paul himself, "What we have here is failure to communicate." The irony is that Paul Newman never failed to communicate with American society, as an entertainer and as a man. He was a true American legend.
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