A vast number of impressive roles demonstrate that Paul Newman was not just a star who broke the hearts of female viewers on account of his good looks and became a role model for male audiences, but was also a great actor
After six Oscar nominations for leading actor and one for best film (1969 for his directing debut Rachel, Rachel in which he did not act), the already legendary Paul Newman, one of the greatest Hollywood stars of all time, received an honorary Oscar in 1986 for his compelling on-screen performances. This probably happened because the members of the Academy thought that his opus was drawing to a close, perhaps even because his key characteristic was exceptional male beauty which, in spite of his long-lasting youthfulness, was slowly showing the signs of age. Nevertheless, the next year Newman earned and won his first and only Oscar for his role in Martin Scorsese’s Color of Money and was nominated two more times after that - the last time was for his final film role, of more than seventy movies, in Road to Perdition (2002) by Sam Mendes.
His first acting success was on Broadway in William Inge’s Picnic, after which he left for Hollywood, where he affirmed himself playing the boxer Rocky Graziano in Someone Up There Likes Me (1956) by Robert Wise. Just two years later he earned his first Oscar nomination (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Richard Brooks), won the leading actor award in Cannes (The Long, Hot Summer by Martin Ritt), and brilliantly interpreted Billy The Kid in Arthur Penn’s The Left Handed Gun proving himself as one of the new rising stars (side by side with James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando) who expressed the rebellious spirit of the young generation.
Although he attended the famous Actor’s Studio in New York, at first glance his acting style wasn’t so emphatic and energetic but rather closer to the previous generation that dominated the big screen with a charismatic personality, adapting the roles to it rather than transforming each time by “living” the characters. That is why Newman’s rebels at first seem civilized, but the coldness of his blue eyed stare and a trace of an ironic smile reveal a force which cannot be tamed.
During the 1970s, already well matured, he often portrayed bold protagonists who are trustworthy, moral and fight for justice. Besides that, starting from the cult Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid by George Roy Hill he occasionally appeared in westerns, in which, with a certain dose of irony, he played legendary heroes, even adding a sense of parody, like in the The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean by John Houston.
A vast number of impressive roles demonstrate that Paul Newman was not just a star that broke the hearts of female viewers on account of his good looks and became a role model for the male audience, but was also a great actor. His work as a producer and direction of five above average films testify to his significant contribution to world cinematography in the second part of the twentieth century. (Tomislav Kurelec)