Earlier today I wrote a brief appreciation of the great actor, which you can find here. I am also now regretting that I did not get any deeper into my "Rethinking Paul Newman" posts about his movies, but time and other projects intervened. And, frankly, I was hoping that he would be around longer. Anyway, one of the posts, about "Nobody's Fool," talks about the way Newman got better as an actor as he grew older. (You can find it here.) And of the many marvels that were Newman's career, that's a big one. He never rested on his laurels or bogged down in eccentricity. If his resume includes the occasional role that appears to be for the paycheck ("The Towering Inferno" comes to mind), they were rarities in a career that included repeated searches for challenging parts. "The Color of Money" has its merits, but look closely at "Nobody's Fool" and "The Verdict" and "Road to Perdition" and other parts that showed a man racing for glory instead of just riding into the sunset.
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it's hard not to admire Paul Newman for putting his money to work in such productive ways, such as his Newman's Own line–high quality stuff and the proceeds go to good causes… very smart.