#40: Paul Newman

I think there are very few things you could tell me about Paul Newman that I wouldn’t believe, far-fetched as they may be. If I heard he had been in the Marines, or rode horses, or lived by himself in the jungle, I would swallow each of these stories whole without giving them a second thought.

Along with a few other actors of his generation, Paul Newman is pretty much the model for old-school macho masculinity, and serious race car driving is part and parcel of that image. Even later years saw him more often selling salad dressings and spaghetti sauces than burning rubber on the track.