Cool Hand Luke Star Said to Have Just Weeks Left to LiveFox News reported earlier this week that Oscar winning actor Paul Newman has cancer. The Fox report went on to say that Paul Newman has just a few weeks left to live and has started to get his affairs in order, including readying his oldest, Nell, to take the reins of Newman’s Own.
Paul Newman Said to Have Cancer, Wanting to Die at Home with Family Paul Newman is 83 years old. While Paul Newman’s Oscar win was for 1986′s The Color of Money, I know him best as Luke in 1967′s Cool Hand Luke. Cool Hand Luke is probably my most favorite movie of all time and my husband can testify that I could watch it over and over again like a child. I was so glad to find a friend in college who felt the same way about Cool Hand Luke. We would watch the movie then spout out our favorite movie quotes, such as when the mean warden proclaimed: “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate”, “No one can eat 50 eggs”, and of course, one of my favorites, spoken by Paul Newman, “Shaking the tree boss!” when he is making his escape by cleverly shaking the tree with a long string while the “Boss” thinks that he is going to the bathroom in the brush. I think this movie clicked with me because Luke was not a conformer. He had a free spirit and could not be held down by the rules put upon him. Cool Hand Luke is typical of the non-conformist nature of the late 1960s. The “No one can eat 50 eggs” comment just spurred Luke to do it because they said it couldn’t be done, and sure enough, though half comatose when done, Luke downed 50 eggs. I can still picture the way Paul Newman looked on screen when he finished that last egg. Luke’s antics boosted the morale for his prison mates and gave them something to take their mind off their misery.Cool Hand Luke highlights just how unfair life can be. Imagine being sentenced to a chain gang work prison just for taking the heads off parking meters when you were drunk? Anyone these days would be sentenced to ARD or community service. Luke’s mother is close to death in the movie, and rather than the warden having compassion, he sticks Luke in the box in case he might want to run and be with her when she died.
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