I was in L.A. when I woke up and turned on the hotel TV, hearing the news that Paul Newman had passed away.

It wasn't so surprising. A few months back it was leaked that he was real sick and his lung cancer had spread.

I thought about what chaos it must be around the corner, at his star on Hollywood Boulevard.

My friend called my cell phone to say "Can you believe those guys at CNN? They keep saying he won three Oscars. He only won one for 'Color of Money'. How do they get that wrong?"

I said, "The strange thing about him winning for that movie was...his performance in it was nothing special. And, those blue eyes everyone loves so much, were covered by sunglasses most of the time."

The better pool movie, everyone will agree, is The Hustler. Boy was Newman great in that. His scenes with the talented Jackie Gleason, should be (and probably are) shown in acting classes.

The big difference between them (other than weight), is Gleason was a known jerk. So many that had met him, complained of this. The Reader even did a cover story with a woman that did burlesque, and had a bad run-in when she mentioned liking his hat.

Yet I had never heard of anyone complaining about Newman that met him. Maybe that's why he was one of the Hollywood marriages that worked. He married actress Joanne Woodward in 1958 (he did have a first wife he was with for 9 years).

He donated over $200 million to charity with his food products. All the profits went to the charity. This guy was a true Hollywood humanitarian.

I remember as a teenager, buying a book about movies. I noticed he had two movies come out in 1969, the year I was born (Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid; Winning. The latter being what made him fall in love with racing).

One of his last "performances" was doing a voice-over for some cartoon. I believe it was called "Cars."

When I mentioned the two movies and the year of my birth, my grandmother told me he was born in Cleveland. Just like my mom. She said, "He lived in the rich section, in Shaker Heights."

I thought of how the word 'Heights' in a town name usually means a rich neighborhood. Here in San Diego, we have Logan Heights. So much for that theory.

My grandmother told me his dad ran a sports shop and was real nice. It was right next to where my grandmother sold purses. And, it always blew me away that she would just dismiss Newman ("Oh yeah, he was a cute kid. Very athletic. All the girls liked him. So what."). Instead, she liked to talk about how often she saw Tim Conway in her shop.

I saw on one news segment, they talked about Paul Newman being colorblind, and not being allowed to be a pilot in World War II because of that.

I remembered in 6th grade, finding out I was colorblind, and being told "you'll never be able to fly a plane." I replied with, "So."

You can't talk about Newman without mentioning your favorite films. I loved The Verdict and Cool Hand Luke, although both have a scene that isn't true to what characters in the films would've done. And it's almost hard to get passed that for me.

Slap Shot was good, as far as sports movies go.

I remember around 18 years ago, seeing him in Nobody's Fool. And thinking about how, even in his older years, he had a great presence on screen. He'd steal scenes from Bruce Willis (okay, well, maybe that's not hard to do).

One of my all-time favorite films was The Sting. And, most of the characters in it were great, but I could easily see different actors in the roles. Redford as the naive grifter, could've been played by a lot of actors. Charles Durning as the local flat-foot, could've been played by any heavy-set actor.

Ray Walston was aces. But, get an actor that had one of those auctioneer voices, and you're set.

Robert Shaw, one of the most underrated actors ever, was a great villian. But what big guy couldn't have pulled that off?

But I doubt you would've had as great a film without Newman. From the first scene of him nursing a hang-over in the bathtub, to him giving a thumbs up to Redford when they pull of the sting.

It reminded me of one of his many appearances on Letterman. He probably enjoyed appearing on that show more than most, because of their love of auto racing.

He talked about a young woman working in a pet store that kept staring at him. Obviously, he's used to that. But as he told the story, you were wondering where it would possibly go. She finally said, "Excuse me? Are you....uh...that guy?" He smiled, thinking it wasn't that unusual for someone to not remember a name. Especially a younger woman whose mom probably knows more about his film career than her. She continued, "...that guy, from the can of food we have in the back of the store?"

When Letterman changed networks, Newman appeared in the audience. I remember thinking he looked a bit uncomfortable. But when he threw out his one line to Dave, and pointed his finger at him while winking...I realized he will always be the epitome of cool.

James Dean thought he had it.

But, he was just a guy that overacted, squinted a lot, and thought driving cars fast (on regular roads) was cool.

Maybe he would've become a better actor.

I think he probably would've gone down the path Steve McQueen went. An actor that many compared to Paul Newman, but who I think couldn't hold a candle to him.