Movies for the Rest of Us: The Three Ages of Paul Newman

Already a TV and movie veteran, Cool Hand Luke marked the second phase in Paul Newman’s career, and it would be a decade later that he would reinvent himself once again. Bill Newcott looks at these three important phases in Newman’s career.

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Featured image: Paul Newman in
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (MGM)

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Comments

  1. Living in New York in the mid 1970s, I went to meet a friend at the Warner communications building next door to my office. I happen to turn around on the elevator and then walked Paul Newman. I wanted to say I went to Shaker heights high School too, I know where you worked at wooden’s delicatessen as a busboy, I know your house that you grew up in, etc etc. Instead I was completely tongue tied just staring at those blue eyes. Before you knew it the elevator came to my floor and I had to get off. I’ll never forget those blue eyes.

  2. J keep.buying Long Hot Summer, I can’t get over the fresh love for Joanne Woodward and I think all the stars were great. Paul was an Adonis, along with the movie HUD. You can feel the heat with your clothes on. Magnificent

  3. You omitted his chick flicks like “From the Terrace” and “The Long Hot Summer” and “HUD” that my girlfriends and I swooned over as teenagers and young adults. They were what made us fans of his for life. His voice as well as those amazing blue eyes was a large part of his attraction.

  4. Ironically, ‘Cat On A Hot Tin Roof’ was a far better showcase for both Elizabeth Taylor and Burl Ives than it was for Paul Newman. Not to say he didn’t do an excellent job. The role didn’t have the same range as the others. Some of the best scenes are when ‘Big Daddy’ isn’t mincing any words with those two, telling them off.

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