Yes, Paul Newman was a movie star. And, yes, he was terribly handsome, with those gorgeous cobalt-blue eyes.
Reportedly, he was sometimes resentful that much of his fame rested on the unearned blessings of a handsome face, a lean body and those stunning blue eyes. But his lasting heritage doesn't really involve all of that. In the movies, Newman often played iconoclastic anti-hero characters. But in life, he was a real hero, putting his personal ethics and morality in practice with a generosity that forever changed many thousands of lives. He is Ethic Soup.Com's first Ethics Hero.
Described as "a path-breaking citizen philanthropist", Paul Newman was a wonderful role-model, a respected public person who modeled giving for the rest of us.
He once told UC Berkeley students that he believed charitable contributions were investments in society and that he did not view a corporation as "just being a cash register."
HE DIDN'T TRY TO TAKE IT WITH HIM
To date, the profits -- ALL of the profits and royalties -- from his natural foods corporation, Newman's Own, have provided more than $250 million to charities throughout the world. Newman created the Hole in the Wall Gang Camps for seriously-ill children (and their siblings !) Beginning in Connecticut and named for the outlaw gang in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," there are now 11 camps, including some in France, Ireland, Israel, Africa and Vietnam, serving more than 135,000 kids every year -- all free of charge.
Newman wanted the camps to be safe spaces where kids could escape the fear, pain and isolation of their conditions, kick back and raise a little hell. Newman was actively involved in the camps. It was he who chose the cowboy hats for the kids, who had lost their hair due to chemotherapy, and the gear could disguise their baldness. "I wanted to acknowledge luck," Newman said. "The chance and benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others, who might not be allowed the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it." Also in his own words:
"I am confounded by the stinginess of some institutions and some people," Newman said, as quoted in the Huffington Post. "You can only put away so much stuff in your closet. In 1987, the average CEO earned 70 times more than someone working in his factory. It's now 410 times. I don't think there's anything odd about philanthropy. It's the other stance that confounds me."
Paul Newman cared for the underdogs. He marched for civil rights and bragged that one of his proudest achievements was being number 19 on President Nixon's infamous "enemies list."
About a month before his 70th birthday, in December 1994, he told Newsweek magazine that he had changed little with age:
"I'm not mellower, I'm not less angry, I'm not less self-critical, I'm not less tenacious," he said. "Maybe the best part is that your liver can't handle those beers at noon anymore."
In the New York Times obituary, Newman was quoted telling a reporter:
"We are such spendthrifts with our lives. The trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I'm not running for sainthood, I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out."
For those who would like to support the Hole in the Wall Camps, visit: www.HoleInTheWallCamps.org
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