Paul Newman

I've been expecting to hear of Paul Newman's passing since news of his terminal cancer was reported earlier this year but I'm no less sorry that the day has now arrived.
He was every bit a truly great cinema actor who's work has given us immense pleasure and happiness to watch.
Only after reading many books on Hollywood and the movies, particularly William Goldman's 'Adventures in the Screen Trade', I begun to be aware of what incredibly high regard his profession and peers hold him in. He became, during the course of my reading, a recurring motif in these books for a universally admired and loved person.
And it's easy to see why. Not only modest, ego-less, humorous and liberal, he led an exemplary life for a Human Being.
Married and faithful to the same woman for over 50 years, he put his family before all things. He enjoyed but never took his work too seriously. Passionate and politically active, he was a campaigning Democrat and a vocal supporter of gay rights and marriage.
He understood that the disproportionate fame and wealth, that came with his work, could be turned to benevolent, philanthropic goodness. His 'Newman's Own' products donate 100% of all profit to charity and have generated more than 100 million dollars to charitable causes.

What finer life can one have than to have lived it so selflessly and to leave behind such great films like 'The Hustler', 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', 'The Verdict' and 'The Hudsucker Proxy'.

Furthermore, like so many great men, Paul Newman was Hungarian. Well, one-quarter Polish and three-quarters Hungarian. His mother was born in Hungary and his father was the son of a of a Hungarian father and a Polish mother.