Paul Newman - A True American Rebel

September 27, 12:09 PMPop Culture ExaminerDominic Patten

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A top notch class act

There are movie stars and there are movie stars and then there was Paul Newman.

The blue eyed Academy Award winning actor succumbed to cancer today at the age of 83.

He was a true American Rebel.

Not because of any bad boy behavior but because he was on screen in films like the legendary Cool Hand Luke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, The Verdict, Hud, Exodus, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting with buddy Robert Redford and one of the voices in Cars. He was an American Rebel because he never hide his practical liberal politics nor his race car obsession and he wore his placement on Richard Nixon's so called Enemies List like a badge of honor. He was an American Rebel because he marched for Civil Rights and supported Women's Rights long before it was popular to do so or seen as a good career move. He was an American Rebel because he was cool as ice while having a warmth and an enthusiasm for life. He was an American Rebel because he created and crafted a high quality food line and put the profits directly to charities that he actively participated in.

Hollywood will rightly mourn his passing, but we all are greater for the life of a man who loved his family, his craft, his country, his success and the ability that success provided him to help the lives of others.

We should all hope to have such a fully paid tab with the big barkeeper when our time comes.

I'm gonna celebrate his life the only way I know how. I'm gonna say a little prayer, then I'm gonna put Cool Hand Luke in the DVD player, pour myself a big glass of Newman's Own Lemonade, which I always have in the fridge, and start eating 50 boiled eggs cause, to quote from Cool Hand Luke, "that's the way he wanted it, well, he gets it."

Paul Newman, American Rebel, R.I.P.