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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Part One

America doesn't have a national epic, but Our Town might do in a pinch. The cracker-barrel homilies; the good-natured ironies; the snapshots of bygone ways; the razor-sharp observations couched in polite language; the hints of pain; the hesitance toward joy; the sneaky surges of emotion; the climax that brings a welling to your eyes despite yourself. It contains us, Thornton Wilder's chestnut.

That's why it can sometimes feel that if you've seen one production of it, you've seen 'em all.

Or maybe not.

Take this one--in particular, take the male leads.

The Stage Manager is a hawkish fellow: slender, purposeful, knowing, vigilant. He dresses for comfort and doesn't care if his collar is straight or if his tie is askew. Disheveled, with his spectacles perched on the tip of his nose and a vaguely distracted air, he's still rakishly handsome; clearly he was a corker in his time. He appears to have lived every vicissitude of life, and while experience hasn't entirely softened him, it has provided him a store of indulgence to mete out, judiciously but amiably, as he sees fit. There's no doubt that he can size a body up in a few piercing measures, and there's no doubt, either, that his arithmetic is sure. But such is his air of decency and authority that you find yourself hoping he deems you worthy.

George Gibbs, the youthful hero, is another matter: an all-American boy with muscles in his shoulders and, you can't help but suspect, in his head. His heart is in the right place, heaven knows, even if he must occasionally be reminded of just where that place is. He's a handsome thing, and enthusiasms burble out of him infectiously. His gaze is open, and his springy mien belies a real zest for life. But when he takes the time to notice smaller things or surprises himself by stumbling upon a sincere emotion, he turns puppyish. He even, caught up in the swell of love, croons; you wouldn't tune a piano to it, but it's sincere.

Their interactions are brief but memorable. At one moment the Stage Manager assumes the aspect of a biddy and lashes out at poor, dim George for tossing a ball to himself in the middle of the road. "You got no business playing baseball on Main Street," he cackles in an old lady's voice, cowing the boy, and you reckon he's getting a kick out of his charade as the lad dutifully scampers off.

Later, when George escorts his sweetheart, Emily, to the drugstore for an ice cream soda, the Stage Manager takes the persona of Mr. Morgan, proprietor and counterman. Precisely and warmly, he crafts the fountain treats for the youngsters, and when it turns out that George has forgotten his pocket money at home, he refuses to accept the boy's gold watch as collateral for the debt: "I'll trust you ten years, George--not a day over."

You sense affection in the older man and, equally, respect in the younger; the mutuality is warming. And as is so often the case, the warmth arises not only from the material but from the actors themselves --a real coup of casting, in fact.

The old man has acted for Leo McCarey, who directed the Marx Brothers, and Michael Curtiz, who made Casablanca, and he appeared many times on live television during that medium's golden age. The kid has worked with the Coen Brothers and Martin Scorsese and Sam Mendes and lent his voice to a big-budget Pixar movie and the video game version of it.

The old man is world famous: you can't go to the supermarket, the video store, or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway without encountering his image or his legacy. You think of Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, and James Stewart as his equals. The kid is making a big name for himself, but he keeps...

 

"Shawn Levy's absorbing, affectionate portrait manages to bring [Newman] back to us.... PAUL NEWMAN: A LIFE leaves readers with a suprisingly cheering message. If the rest of us can't aspire to having Newman's life, we can at least take inspiration from the way he lived his. We can play the cards we're dealt--with guts, grace and generosity."

 

"Eloquent and perceptive....Levy's meticulously researched biography is as revealing a portrait as one could hope for....By the time Levy details Newman's last recorded words, you may find yourself blotting the ink on the final page."

 

"[A] sweeping tribute to Newman....Levy offers reportage as impresive as his critical analysis. PAUL NEWMAN: A LIFE is a layered and absorbing portrait."

 

"A graceful tribute to a one-of-a-kind man."

 

"A rich, serious, yet thoroughly readable biography of a major American movie icon....Fascinating."

 

"[A] very readable accounting of Newman's life. Levy reveals the chinks...while still deeply appreciating the man."

 

"[R]ichly researched....Shawn Levy, a film critic at Portland's Oregonian, has done his homework....Being able to bask in Newman's Own insights is enough to bring this one-of-a-kind star back to life, however briefly. And to miss him terribly again when the final page is turned."

 

"An illuminating look at one of the true greats, full of humor and intelligent analysis--highly recommended."

 

"Levy's unique representation...will leave readers feeling that they have somehow slipped through the security gate and gotten to know a movie star who was famously guarded about his private life."

 

"Respectful, thoroughgoing....Levy doesn't' shy from discussing Newman's shortcomings as a father and husband, yet he leaves a glowing assessment of this legend's career."

 

"[Levy is] a bulldog researcher, and many of his judgments are astute...an entertaining, informative book."

 

"Nimble and exciting . . . Levy's writing is more smashing than an Austin Powers movie."

 

"An excellent book, not only in its depictions of the Pack's carryings-on but in its portrayal of the dark turns each life took."

 

Paul Newman by Shawn Levy
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