Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Or Cool Hand Luke. Or Hud. Or any film he acted in.
I have a personal Paul Newman story to share: In my past life, I attended hundreds of charitable events representing MegaCorp. About 10 years ago, I attended a charity gala for the Jackie Robinson Scholarship Foundation at the Waldorf=Astoria in NYC. At the pre-dinner cocktail reception, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Newman. Before I was introduced to him, I was warned not to be a fawning fan (i.e., don't ask for his autograph and don't take his picture!) so I racked my brain trying to think of something "smart" to say to him. I remembered that a colleague of mine had some connection to the Hole in the Wall Camps that Paul Newman was so passionate about, so when we were introduced, I mentioned that we had a mutual friend, and that my colleague had recently suffered a heart attack.
Mr. Newman asked me if I had my colleague's home address so he could drop him a note. I didn't have the information with me, of course, so Mr. Newman asked me for my card (!!!) and then gave me his card on which he wrote his assistant's name and phone number. He asked me to call his assistant with the address info, and I said I would do so.
The next morning I called my office for my phone messages and was told that "a woman who said she worked for Paul Newman" called and wanted to know if I left any information for him. My assistant thought it was me playing a joke on her as she was a huge P.N. fan. When I returned to the office, I gave her Paul's calling card as a souvenir. I did get the information to Paul Newman's office that day...and several days later, my colleague called me to say that he just received the most touching, handwritten get well note from Paul that referenced our brief meeting at the Waldorf.
What a lovely, genuine gentleman!
