Say farewell to one of the screen's true gents… a man with a rare charm, a pure style and a delicious aspect. Gentry take a brief look back at Paul Newman's stunning contribution to life…

This wasn't just the death of any old Hollywood straggler. Often unfairly pitched in the cultural consciousness between Brando and James Dean, make no mistake Paul Newman had a sincere style and appeal, all is own. Some would argue that he possessed a far truer genius for screen acting.

His impeccable elegance and effortless charm always carried with it a narcissistic bite. But then, how could someone so beautiful not know it, not revel in his own narrow winks and grins? With his passing a rare style, a true sense of celebrity and vintage modesty and composure is gone.

Newman would ease through his roles, making the failure of so many of his on screen incarnations that much more uncomfortable to witness. Think of the way it never dawned on Fast Eddie that while he could play all day and night without losing, nor could he ever win. There's no other film in which eyes sparkle more tragically than Newman's in The Hustler, never dulled, even in abject acceptance of the shitty way things are.

Then there's Luke, one of the great fallen heroes of American culture. Right up there with Gatsby and Ahab, Marlowe and Kane — Luke may trump them all with his almost absent departure from comfort, his dynamic, heaving spirit.

Should Cool Hand Luke be made today it would be almost unbelievable, that a character be so originally embodied, so comfortably defeated by a professional player.

But then, Newman had been there before with another of his irascible creations, Hud. More than just his Stanley Kowalski, the anger was mature, even stale, more pathetic, more real.

There are too many good films to recall with fairness. It's enough to say he made better movies than most. Acted better. Was better.

With Newman's passing there aren't many true stars left to admire, not really, not properly or sincerely. None so beautiful or so talented. None so covered in notoriety or glory as Paul Newman, the man you always wanted to be, whoever the hell he was.

Remember him well…

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