PORT TOWNSEND — Organizers of the Port Townsend Film Festival, stunned by the news Saturday that veteran actor Paul Newman had died, are paying tribute to him this afternoon.
A free, public forum about Newman’s life and work is scheduled for 12:45 p.m. at the festival’s hospitality tent behind The Bishop Victorian Hotel, 714 Washington St.
The Oscar winner died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn. He was 83.
Piper Laurie, the film festival’s special guest who starred with Newman in “The Hustler” and “Until They Sail,” spoke of him briefly on Friday morning, before his death was announced.
“I love Paul Newman in [‘The Hustler’],” a role for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, Laurie said.
“He put so much heart into that role and into that movie.”