Whats with Paul Newman these days?
 

Years ago when I was in SCCA and did some corner work at Road Atlanta Paul was racing then on the circuit. As a rule with all the track folks it was okay to talk and joke around, but no autographs and keep the conversation on "racing". Paul was very approachable and a great guy to be around. He loved his racing.

I understand he is looking at getting back into racing! The press also reported he may have lung cancer. Sort of hush hush these days. Gotta wonder if indeed he may have something terminal, which would be sad, and he's going back to what he loves the most................racing.

Any scuttlebutt on his present condition?

Bob

Not to be flip but his condition is he's old. He's like 80 something I think.

I believe he is well past 80!

Gotta wonder if he is fit enough to drive anything.

yeah, i heard rumours about that... some people say, that old age kinda kills the fun in life...dunno if it's true or not, don't take my word for it, i'm just saying that's just what i heard...

My buddy Joe's granpa, Poppy we called him, lived well into his 90's, 99 IIRC.

Had tons of great stories, WW1, WW2, was a cop, was a fireman. We used to get a couple of 6's of beer and hang with him on Friday nights just listening to it all.

Man needed a cane to get around, (once beat up a pickpocket with it when he was like 95)

Joe had a few hotrods, one was a 65 Cuda.

The town had just finshed doing the blacktop on their street.

Joe comes home and his old man lays into him big time about doing a burnout and tearing up the blacktop in front of the house.

Joe was adamant that it was not him.

Poppy just sat in the corner and smiled.

Poppy admitted later that he needed to get to OTB to bet on a Pony and he missed the bus.

Think that was the year before he passed.

I think Pauls kinda like that.

If race officials think he's physically and mentally able, more power to him. I bet he's still pretty fast, even for his age. It's all pretty relative.

Sherwood

I thought I just saw pictures of him and an article saying he has cancer, No?

Yep and he looks real thin and gaunt in that pic.

Newman is 83. I suspect it's a rare person that can maintain that level of activity into their 70's and beyond. Paul Frere was another.

I hope I'm doing as well as either of those guys at their age.

For all his fame and fortune he appears to be a private man.

Hopefully, he is resting peacefully at home and thinking nice thoughts about his loving family, charitable contributions, successful career, and days at the track..

All good things.

He's one of a special breed and has done it all. I don't want to sound maudlin and I do hope he's ok. Most couldn't carry his jock strap.

87 blk coupe

He is preparing to past on. I saw somewhere he has started to give his millions away.

I think the guy is great but can he even remember where the start finish line is??

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,365221,00.html


Movie star Paul Newman has quietly turned over the entire value of his ownership in Newman’s Own — the company that makes salad dressing and cookies — to charity.

Completed over a two-year period in 2005 and 2006, the amount of his donations to Newman’s Own Foundation Inc. comes to an astounding $120 million.

This is unprecedented for any movie star or anyone from what we call Hollywood. Of course Newman and actress wife Joanne Woodward have never been Hollywood types. They’ve lived their lives quietly in Westport, Conn., for the last 50 years. (They were married in January 1958. And people said it wouldn’t last!)

This column learned about this extraordinary gift as news started coming out recently about Newman’s battle with lung cancer. This is not news to my readers. I told you several months ago that Newman — who has five grown daughters — was seeing an oncologist, that he’d been in and out of Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital on many visits from Westport. Like everything else, the Newmans tried to keep Paul’s illness a private matter.

I saw an interview with him in May talking about his team winning the Indy 500. He said something really odd.
I hope to see my car in victory lane here or looking from above. ( He said something to that effect)
He looked very thin.
The interview was on Speed channel and Bob Varshaw said it was good to see him at the track. He alluded that Paul Newman was ill but didn't elaborate.

My favorite Newman movie? "The Hustler"...he was only nominated for the Oscar in that one. But IMHO, his performance there was every bit as good, perhaps better, than the one he gave in "Color of Money", where he did win an Oscar...

On the track? He could be classified as a well talented "Local Yuk"...his money helped, but he drove well while following the "how fast do you want to spend?" rule.

Overall? Most of us can only hope we do as well through this journey called life...a journey that has no dress rehearsals.

Paul Newman has often reminded me of my Dad, at least visually as they got older. They shared a number of features visually (at least to me). The most recent pictures that I've seen of Newman remind me of my Dad just a couple of years ago. My dad was a couple of years older and just passed away in April. Technically, he passed away from Anorexia. The reality is that he was suffering from a series of small strokes which pretty well sapped his desire to keep living. Not even 5 years ago he was still living independently and volunteering at the local hospital where he was often pushing people many years his junior around in wheel chairs. At the end of the day, it's always going to be something. None of us lives forever.

In PLN's case, it may be cancer. It might be something else. But when you're that old, "You don't buy green bananas" to quote George Burns. I've always had a great respect for PLN, and appreciate his "just one of the guys attitude" that I used to see when we both would be racing at SCCA events up here in the Northeast during the 80's. I always avoided taking pictures of him when he was standing around talking because I didn't want to interrupt that moment of inconspicuousness that he was enjoying. I have pictures of him in his car, but not when he was standing 5 feet from me.

I hope that he and his family can enjoy their time together during their twilight years and appreciate the mark that he has made on them, on us and on the world. In the case of my Dad, I'm happy that we were able to do this and he fully understood how much I appreciated all that he had done for me, and all that we had shared in life. It may not have been obvious at the time, but we were able to share that understanding in his final days. So I was lucky to have my Dad pass away knowing that I told him how much he meant to me while he was still alive, rather then wait, and say it over his casket when he can't look me in the eye while I'm saying it.

Paul Newman has certainly been a great contributor to humanity. I hope that he understands how much so many of us appreciate him.

i read an article stating that he's been battling cancer for the past 18 months.

He's confined to a wheel chair and is in very poor health due to the cancer.
He does not have long, God bless him. He is what others should aspire to be.

His company (which is very successful) has donated all profits to charity. All of them, over $250 million since it's creation.

Many people see Steve McQueen as the ultimate personification of cool. That was his Hollywood image and that's fine. However, I'd like to award that title to Mr. Newman for not only being a classy guy, but a great actor and private individual doing what's right w/o pushing his celebrity status. His body of work is eclipsed by his gifts to charity. There are any number of celebrity actors of equal wealth but choose not to lift a finger for those less fortunate. Besides that, he's also a consummate car guy.

May his remaining days be happy and peaceful.

Sherwood

So that's were my money goes when I buy his salad dressing!

Gonna have to buy more :)

Talk about Paul being out of the norm of hollywood glitter, he never wore anything but a Timex!!!!!!

Listen to this crazy story.

After an SCCA event at Road Atlanta back in 1985, Paul Newman used to take his crew to a Chinese Restaurant at a small strip shopping center in Buford, Georgia. If you walked in the place now you'd see the owner and Paul photographed together on restaurant wall. He would reserve a small dining room off the main part of the restaurant for his crew. Well, I went with some freinds after the races for dinner at th e same place and had to use the washroom. Well, Paul came into the washroom the same time and how many can say they stood next to Paul Newman at the urinals in Buford, Georgia? The conversation was short but I congradulated him on a great race in his 300 Z Nissan.

He has a great and warm smile. I wish him well.

Bob

I road the elevator w/ C. Heston in San Francisco one time. He was there for an NRA gathering.:D

Thought he wore a Rolex Daytona

Here's a picture of Newman and a few of his Datsun 280ZX Turbo back in 1981. My Dad and I took the pictures at the Memorial Day races at Lime Rock that year. I have to admit that the 280ZX Turbo was just about the wildest car this side of a 935! If I remember correctly, the car had a turbocharged version of the V8 engine that was originally used in the Japanese Presidential limousine.

Unfortunately he only came in 12th in GT that year. Soon after I took the picture of him going through the "S's", we went straight-on at the right-hander onto "No-Name Straight". It was the strangest thing, the car went straight into the woods (stuck throttle cable???) and all of the saplings snapped right back up after the car went over them -- so that if you didn't actually see the car go into the trees, you'd never know that it was there. I was sitting on the hill with some binoculars and remember Newman walking somewhat sheepishly out of the woods without his car.


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Rumor has it he's not doing well, hope this is not true??

From what I've read and seen he is tying up loose ends and making plans for his demise. He is not doing well.

I was at the corner store the other day and saw his picture plastered on some tabloids. What a shame that a classy guy like Newman can't be given the respect and privacy he's earned.

my ex g/f actually hung out on the cape with him a few times. She said he is an incredibly sweet and charismatic guy.

We all go some time. I doubt he has many regrets...

When it's my time I hope I can look back and say that I accomplished 1/10th of what Mr. Newman has. He's lived life the way it should be lived. good family man, married to the same beautiful woman for most of his life, successful and respectable career, turned his hobby and love into a 2nd successful career (racing).
Turned another hobby into a very successful business where 100% of ALL profits went to provide for children with terminal diseases. 1/4 of a $ billion last I heard.
He's done it right.

Belgian newspaper today, report that Newman as just a few weeks left, and has stopped the chemo because he wants to go out with dignity

From Wikipedia (FWIW):

"In June 2008 it was widely reported that Newman, a former chain smoker, had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was receiving treatment at Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York City.

Photographs taken of Newman in May and June showed him looking gaunt. Writer A.E. Hotchner, who partnered with Newman to start Newman's Own salad dressing company in the 1980s, was quoted in the media as saying that Newman told him about the disease about 18 months ago.

Newman's spokesman told the press that the star is "doing nicely," but neither confirmed nor denied that he has cancer.

In August, Newman reportedly had finished chemotherapy and had told his family he wished to die at home.

His oldest daughter, Nell, is poised to take over Newman's Own, all proceeds of which, go to charity."

I know that everyone has to go sometime, but it's sad to me because it seems like only yesterday that he was young and vital. He looked so good at 60, 70... Damn, life goes by fast. Better start living. :cool:

I saw him at Lime Rock a few years ago, he was driving a Corvette in the race - #78 which was his age at the time. He led most of the race until the car broke. The pit crew was a bunch of hippy looking guys, and the whole operation was very low key. I think that he just enjoyed the driving.

I can't think of many actors that have less ego and a need to be loved. He did what he wanted and gave back more than most publicity driven philanthropists.

A hell of a guy.

I bet he's done more good than we will ever know. Hope the best for him. A fine human being.

He was on Letterman a few years ago around his birthday. He ended being strapped to hundreds of helium balloons outside the studio and tethered around 50 feet in the air.It was pretty cool to watch.

He and Leno raced go-carts (electric) around the studio a couple years ago. Beat Leno. Very competitive.