Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning actor with the legendary blue
eyes, achieved superstar status by playing charismatic
renegades, broken heroes, and winsome antiheroes in such
revered films as The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict, The Color
of Money, and Nobody’s Fool. But Newman was also
an oddity in Hollywood: the rare box-office titan who cared
about the craft of acting, the sexy leading man known for
the staying power of his marriage, and the humble celebrity
who made philanthropy his calling card long before it was
cool.
The son of a successful entrepreneur, Newman
grew up in a prosperous Cleveland suburb. Despite fears that
he would fail to live up to his father’s expectations,
Newman bypassed the family sporting goods business to pursue
an acting career. After struggling as a theater and
television actor, Newman saw his star rise in a tragic twist
of fate, landing the role of boxer Rocky Graziano in
Somebody Up There Likes Me when James Dean was killed
in a car accident. Though he would joke about instances of
“Newman’s luck” throughout his career, he refused to coast
on his stunning boyish looks and impish charm. Part of the
original Actors Studio generation, Newman demanded a high
level of rigor and clarity from every project. The artistic
battles that nearly derailed his early movie career would
pay off handsomely at the box office and earn him critical
acclaim.
He applied that tenacity to every endeavor
both on and off the set. The outspoken Newman used his
celebrity to call attention to political causes dear to his
heart, including civil rights and nuclear proliferation.
Taking up auto racing in midlife, Newman became the oldest
driver to ever win a major professional auto race. A food
enthusiast who would dress his own salads in restaurants, he
launched the Newman’s Own brand dedicated to fresh
ingredients, a nonprofit juggernaut that has generated more
than $250 million for charity.
In Paul Newman: A
Life, film critic and pop culture historian Shawn Levy
gives readers the ultimate behind-the-scenes examination of
the actor’s life, from his merry pranks on the set to his
lasting romance with Joanne Woodward to the devastating
impact of his son’s death from a drug overdose. This
definitive biography is a fascinating portrait of an
extraordinarily gifted man who gave back as much as he got
out of life and just happened to be one of the most
celebrated movie stars of the twentieth century.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy