Paul Newman

Some people are famous for 15 minutes, others are famous to 15 people but it’s only a chosen few who get to be legends of the Silver Screen. Each month, Jo Mama selects a star and celebrates their life and work. This month: Paul Newman. Illustration by Leonie Woods.

There were so many things about Paul Newman that were special. He had a knack at playing cheeky underdogs. The respected film critic Pauline Kael once wrote that she always found herself rooting for Paul; “Probably many others feel about Paul Newman as I do. I like him so much I always want his pictures to be good, for his sake as well as for my enjoyment.” Newman had a twinkle about him that set him apart from the crowds and somehow drew the viewer in. Janet Leigh observed that: “He makes you listen to him. He demands a response.”

Paul Leonard Newman was born in Ohio in 1925 and started making films in 1954. Despite amazing performances in classic such as Someone Up There Likes Me, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Exodos, he had to wait till he landed the part of Fast Eddie Felson, in The Hustler till he finally won an award. The film’s director Robert Rossen once said, “My protagonist, Fast Eddie, wants to become a great pool player, but the film is really about the obstacles he encounters in attempting to fulfil himself as a human being. He attains self-awareness only after a terrible personal tragedy which he has caused — and then he wins his pool game.” The legendary Jake LaMotta (who inspired Raging Bull) appears in this film as a bartender. Somehow Newman is more believable as a pool shark than Robert De Niro was as a boxer. One of the best scenes contains this speech which nobody could deliver better than Newman. “When I'm goin’, when I'm really goin’, I feel like a, like a jockey must feel when he’s sittin’ on his horse, he’s got all that speed and that power underneath him, he’s coming into the stretch, the pressure’s on him—and he knows. He just feels, when to let it go and how much. ‘Cause he’s got everything workin’ for him—timing, touch. It’s a great feeling, boy—it’s a real great feeling—when you’re right and you know you’re right. Like all of a sudden, I got oil in my arm. Pool cue’s part of me. You know, it’s a pool cue, it’s got nerves in it. It’s a piece of wood; it’s got nerves in it. You can feel the roll of those balls. You don’t have to look. You just know. You make shots that nobody’s ever made before. And you play that game the way nobody’s ever played it before.” Robert Rossen is believed to have named names during the McCarthy era. Some critics have suggested there’s some sort of parallel between Rossen’s bad decision in this matter and Fast Eddie’s alliance with the character Bert Gordon. Whatever Rossen did or didn’t do wrong in his life he was wise to rope in the cameraman Eugene Schufftan to help with The Hustler. Schufftan had made his name working with Fritz Lang on Metropolis and was a genius at framing shots and knowing how to make scenes unforgettably tense and claustrophobic. The Hustler is brilliant.

In the mid 60s Newman got the chance to star in Alfred Hitchcock’s 50th movie, Torn Curtain. Newman was so excited about the idea of working with “The Hitch” that he accepted the role before he’d read Brian Moore’s dodgy script. Torn Curtain is about an American atomic scientist who pretends to defect to Eastern Europe because it’s the only way he can steal a secret mathematical formula from a professor in Leipzig. Newman’s girlfriend in the film is played by Julie Andrews whose previous film The Sound of Music had been a monster hit. For some reason there was no great chemistry between the two actors and they never seem to convince the viewer that they are a couple. Hitchcock made the mistake of telling Andrews and Newman on day one of the shooting that he thought film making was boring. Newman liked to discuss his character’s motivation. Hitchcock believed actors should be treated like cattle. There are many reasons why Torn Curtain is a contender for Hitchcock’s most disappointing film. My top three reasons were his stupidity of sacking his best editor (George Tomasini), his best cameraman (Robert Burks), and the brilliant composer Bernard Herrman and replacing them with far less talented people.

However, there is one very memorable scene in Torn Curtain when Newman’s character murders an East German security agent with a spade, a carving knife and finally a gas oven

Hitchcock would later explain to his friend and fellow director Francois Truffaut ... “I thought it was time to show that it was a very difficult, very painful and it takes a very long time to kill a man.” Thankfully a year after Torn Curtain Newman would land a role that he was perfect for. 1967s Cool Hand Luke is a corker of a movie and was a hit with both critics and the public. Several scenes will always stick with you. One scene involves him continually “coming back with nothing” during a fight and the other involves him swallowing dozens of eggs. We also get to hear Paul perform a song about a “Plastic Jesus” (which will later be covered by numerous acts including; R.O.C, The Flaming Lips, and Billy Idol.

Possibly the two most loved and most popular films Newman made are his two collaborations with Robert Redford; Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973) Both won dozens of awards and were huge box office hits and deserve their 5 star ratings. There was something magical about the pairing of Newman and Redford. Both films are filled with the perfect amount of perfectly delivered gags, exciting japes and scrapes and lovely music. In 1986 Newman revived the character Fast Eddie Felson for the movie The Colour of Money and was awarded an Academy Award. Newman was definitely one of the good guys and it’s believed he raised over $200m for charity.

Redford and Newman were both keen to make a third and final film together. Redford loved Bill Bryson’s book, A Walk In The Woods and thought it would be perfect for them. Sadly Newman’s health was beginning to fail and he had to pull out. His part in the movie was played by Nick Nolte instead. In 2008 Robert Redford said in a statement on hearing the news that Paul Newman had died at the age of 83, “I have lost a real friend. My life — and this country — is better for his being in it.”