Paul Newman remembered

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

If ever a movie title summed up the life of its star actor, it would have to be “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” the 1956 film in which Paul Newman portrayed boxer Rocky Graziano. Newman, indeed, would go on to lead a charmed life, one that sadly came to an end Friday when he died of cancer at age 83.

Newman had it all. Start with those dazzling blue eyes and those handsome looks that would last a lifetime. And then there were those stunning film roles — Brick Pollitt, “Fast Eddie” Felson, Hud Bannon, Luke Jackson, Butch Cassidy and Henry Gondorff, to name a few — that made the Oscar-winning actor one of those rare on-screen celebrities whose popularity spread across multiple generations of movie fans. Equally adept at drama and comedy, Newman made his characters real without mailing in performances, as many other stars regrettably do today.

But there was far more to Newman. His marriage to fellow Academy Award winner Joanne Woodward was one of the longest in Hollywood, prompting his famous quip: “I have steak at home. Why go out for hamburger?”

He was a world-class auto racer. At age 70, he became the oldest man ever to win a major professional motor sports race as part of a team that conquered the Daytona 24-Hour endurance race. As a team owner, he had open-wheel cars that won 107 races and eight championships in the IndyCar Series.

He was also a world-class philanthropist. He parlayed his Newman’s Own salad dressing into a food empire that by last year had donated more than $175 million to charity, with an emphasis on camps for sick children.

Though he led a fiercely private life, Newman was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and a champion of civil rights who wound up on President Nixon’s “enemies list.”

But Newman, the actor, devoted husband, racer and philanthropist, was loved by just about everyone else and will be sorely missed.