Paul Newman is dead -- but Butch Cassidy lives

September 27, 10:02 AMDenver People ExaminerErnie Tucker

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Butch lives...

Butch Cassidy still lives.

Even as news that the great actor Paul Newman succumbed to cancer last night at 83, his spirit lives in what the AFI named one of the top ten Westerns of all time, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

Some of the filming for the Academy Award-winning 1969 classic took place with Durango as a backdrop. Newman and fellow star Robert Redford jumped into the river off of Baker’s Bridge in the southwestern Colorado area.  And according to some observers, the famous scene in which a railroad car gets dynamited was allowed in only one take due to budget constraints. When the balsa wood train car exploded, the impact was huge. Newman’s line, "Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?" was reportedly an ad lib.

Newman wasn’t a stranger to the Denver. His race car drivers were part of the now defunct Grand Prix series. In 2006, the sight of Newman collecting the a second place trophy for one of his drivers was one of the highlights for fans.

Of course, anyone who has shopped has seen his smiling mug in grocery stores have seen his Newman’s Own products, a line started supposedly as a joke in1982 with writer A. E. Hotchner, a Westport, Conn. The line has generated nearly a quarter billion dollars for charities through the years.

Oddly, several years ago a story made its way around the internet that Newman had died in a small plane crash. It was quickly debunked.

The legendary actor, entrepreneur, race car driver and all-around good guy instead left memories here.