P A U L N E W M A N
The great actor Paul Newman passed into Eternal Life last week at the age of 83. He first acted in a Broadway play in 1953 and it was in New York that I first met Paul in about 1958.
During my first tour for United Artists of the South, I did a radio performance show in Saint Louis, Missouri with the actress Geraldine Page. So Geraldine asked me to call her when I got back to New York and in New York she invited me to go see The Sweet Bird of Youth, which Paul was in. We went backstage and I met Paul. Paul invited me to Downeys to get a couple Budweiser's. That was the same restaurant that I met columnist Earl Wilson in when he interviewed me for the New York Times.
Paul said to me, "There's a great need for an actor to take Jimmy's (James Dean) place and you're it!"
Paul Newman was a few years older than James Dean when they both auditioned for East of Eden. James Dean got the roll in part because Paul was thought to be too old for the role.
Paul was a very private person and he didn't talk about it with me, but I knew that Paul had never gotten over the death of James Dean. The James Dean that impressed Paul Newman was not only the actor but the race car driver. Paul fullfilled every dream that James Dean had about racing cars!
Wes Bryan
C 2008
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