Paul Newman refused to see anyone in his final days, but when Robert Redford appeared and spoke first after the doors opened, the entire room fell silent in tears, a moment that left everyone who heard it unable to hold back their emotions.
September 26th, 2008. Room 447, Sloan Ketering Hospital, New York. Paul Newman had been refusing visitors for 3 weeks. No family beyond his wife. No friends, no former co-stars. When Robert Redford walked through that door uninvited, Newman opened his eyes and said three words that had made every nurse in the hallway stop and cry.
Three words that summed up 40 years. Three words that you need to hear. But to understand why those words mattered so much, you need to go back to 1969. The first time Robert Redford met Paul Newman, he was terrified. It was a sound stage at 20th Century Fox, early morning February 1969. Redford was 32 years old.
He'd done some Broadway, a few movies, but nothing that made him a household name. He was still the pretty face from California that critics dismissed as lightweight. Paul Newman was already a legend. The hustler, cool hand Luke, Hud, an Oscar nominee four times over. And he had a reputation, intense, demanding, didn't suffer fools.
They were about to start filming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Redford walked onto the set that first day and saw Newman sitting in a director's chair, script in hand, not looking up. The crew was setting up lights. Newman was focused, serious, in his own world. Redford approached, extended his hand. Mr. Mr. Newman, I'm I know who you are," Newman said, still not looking up from the script.
There was a long pause. Redford's hand hung in the air. Then Newman looked up and smiled. "Relax, Sundance. We're going to have some fun." That nickname, "Sundance!" Newman had just given it to him right there before they'd filmed a single scene. It would stick for the next 40 years. What nobody on that set knew was that director George Roy Hill had a problem.
He'd cast two leading men, two massive egos, two actors who could each carry a film alone, and he needed them to not just coexist, but to become brothers on screen. Hill pulled them aside on day three. Listen, he said, "This movie lives or dies on your chemistry. If the audience doesn't believe you two would die for each other, we've got nothing.
I need you to actually become friends." Newman looked at Redford. Redford looked at Newman. Well, Newman said, "I know a bar." That night, they went to a dive in downtown Los Angeles. No cameras, no press, just two actors, a bottle of whiskey, and a conversation that lasted until 3:00 a.m. They talked about everything.
Redford's frustration with being seen as just a face, Newman's exhaustion with fame, their shared love of racing cars, their complicated relationships with Hollywood. By the end of the night, Newman made Redford a promise. Here's the deal, kid. I'm going to make you look good in this movie and you're going to make me look good and we're both going to walk away with something neither of us has ever had..
"Click now to uncover the unforgettable bond between two legends!"
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