Then all this was put together for a book about Paul Newman, contributions and stories from his co-stars and directors. urn:lcp:walkingwithgiant0000town:epub:4c058467-1f20-45aa-a48d-c5434b23e985 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier walkingwithgiant0000town Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t87j3rz6c Invoice 1652 Isbn 9780830763825 This is a surprisingly candid look into Paul Newman’s own life, the good, the bad and the ugly. I have lived in Cleveland and its suburbs my entire life and always find it interesting how many famous actors, athletes and writers have come from Northeastern Ohio. Mr. Newman’s birthplace of Shaker Hts. is very familiar to me with its economic and religious diversity. While he relates that he and his family were well off financially in his early years, emotionally he felt on his own or smothered by his mother for only his outer appearance. His and his mother’s relationship would be tumultuous for her entire life. You work what you consider pretty hard at your craft, and you're getting to the point where you're just starting to feel kind of good about yourself, and then somebody says, 'Oh, God, take off your sunglasses so I can see your baby-blue eyes!' " Newman said, in an excerpt from the book released by People. Paul Newman was an ordinary man gifted with extraordinary good looks and extraordinary talent. Even if (in his own words) he probably would not accept that he had any talent at all.

In 1986, Paul Newman and his closest friend, screenwriter Stewart Stern, began an extraordinary project. Stuart was to compile an oral history, to have Newman's family and friends and those who worked closely with him, talk about the actor's life. And then Newman would work with Stewart and give his side of the story. The only stipulation was that anyone who spoke on the record had to be completely honest. That same stipulation applied to Newman himself. The project lasted five years. Newman at his best...with his self-aware persona, storied marriage and generous charitable activities...this rich book somehow imbues his characters' pain and joy with fresh technicolor." -- The Wall Street Journal A stint in the U.S. Navy flying as a radioman gunner during World War II put some meat on Newman’s bones — he grew 5 inches to 5-foot-10 — and forced some maturity on him. The service also gave Newman ample opportunity for some serious boozing and tomfoolery, neither helping him overcome his belief that he was a poser. An excessively private man he started to make notes for an intended Memoir and then gave it up. His children found much of the documents long after his death and decided to share it with the public. Since they are his children they would know better than I if he would be pleased about this or not – considering he passed away so many years ago, maybe now he couldn’t care less. Drawn from conversations between the late actor Paul Newman and screenwriter Stewart Stern, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man sees the Cool Hand Luke star reflecting on a life marked by dizzying success and psychological pain. The interviews, which took place over five years from 1986, were seemingly forgotten until Newman’s children unearthed them in 2019 and turned them into this memoir-cum-oral history.To say he was an extraordinary man would be an understatement. he saw himself as a working actor, not a movie star, and insisted that everyone else did the same. There was no ego, no entourage, no hangers on. Only Paul, his script and his incredible spirit. One can say this about very few people, but he was a truly great man. It seems to me to be one of the great 20th-century lives: he was famously generous, with his extraordinary and unstinting work for his charities, he was a shining example of how to use global fame for the greater good, and most of all he was one of the great movie actors of this or any other age. [Directing Newman] was the highlight of my professional life.' Sam Mendes Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman.

I thought I knew quite a bit about his life. Turns out, I knew next to nothing. From the long standing affair he had with Woodward, prior to his divorce and marriage to her, to the death of his beloved only son, I learned so much about his upbringing, his marriages, parenting and most importantly, his philanthropy. Per his daughter, “his obituary in the economist noted he was the most generous individual, relative to income, in the twentieth century history of the United State. He was also incredibly loyal to his friends and helped beyond what most people would do. I know of a few times he gave up part of his salary to his co-stars to level the playing field. He strove for fairness in all things.” He had a reputation for being a private person so I was pleasantly surprised how much he shared his thoughts and feelings of his childhood, career, marriages and fatherhood. He sought therapy over the years and I'm sure that led to quite a bit of reflection about his life. He's self-deprecating, to a fault in my opinion, but it also shows he didn't have a massive ego. He knew he had flaws, he knew there was always room for improvement. I always liked him as an actor but after reading this memoir, I have mad respect for him as a man. Good looks, charm and an air of confidence provided an effective cover. He went from understudy in the 1953 Broadway production of “Picnic” to a featured role, then to starring in the movies. It sounds so meta: the professional faker faking it so professionally. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-08-12 12:01:01 Boxid IA40208707 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier

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This was at times difficult to listen to because as he points out, there is a difference between the inner child and the outer self, the movie star persona who we all expect to see or meet. He was not an easy man (in his own words), but he does believe he always strives to do what is best especially as he has grown older. The Paul Newman narration is done by Jeff Daniels and is well done and easy to listen to.

Given this psychological record, Newman refuses to take credit for his much-praised philanthropy. Although the salad dressing sold as Newman’s Own generated millions for charitable causes, he winces at the way he marketed his celebrity on the shelves of grocery stores and suspects that his altruism came “from having no civic impulses at all, just inventing them the way I invented everything”. Presumably that also applies to his political activities in support of candidates who opposed the Vietnam war; though he voted Democrat, Newman defines himself as “an emotional Republican” – hard faced and self-contained or, as a college crony says of him, “tough and cold”, even “devilish”. Newman's often traumatic childhood is brilliantly detailed. He talks about his teenage insecurities, his early failures with women, his rise to stardom, his early rivals (Brando and Dean), his first marriage, his drinking, his philanthropy, the death of his son Scott, his strong desire for his daughters to know and understand the truth about their father. Perhaps the most moving material in the book centers around his relationship with Joanne Woodward - their love for each other, his dependence on her, the way she shaped him intellectually, emotionally and sexually.I was glad to get an inside look at an amazing actor who was a flawed human being who managed to make it to the top in Hollywood – one of the hardest places to make it at all. also a director, race car driver, husband, father, philanthropist, (went further than most actors), business owner of a non-profit ‘Newman’s Own’ (salad dressings, etc.), struggled with alcohol, was often lonely, a private man who needed to have a lot of people around him….. THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF AN ORDINARY MAN is revelatory and introspective, personal and analytical, loving and tender in some places, always complex and profound. What’s an insecure showoff to do? “Acting gave me a sanctuary where I was able to create emotions without being penalized for having them,” Newman writes. Yet he also says he never really liked the craft but discovered that he was good at it, at least in the eyes of others, and worked hard to make it a career.