10 Days Til Oscar. Sigh and Think of Paul Newman.
Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 4:36PM Today's magic number is 10. I know you were hoping for a look back ten years to that long awaited 2003 Supporting Actress Smackdown but the lists of reasons that has been delayed multiple times are too boring and painful to share. I promise it's coming! (I'll try for the Saturday morning before the Oscars as a deep breath before the plunge.) Funny but true: I was working on it earlier today and thought "oh, I know. I'll post it on the 10th anniversary of that Oscar ceremony" But guess what date that turns out to be? February 29th. A leap year haha and the date doesn't exist this year.
Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward in 1958 after the Oscars
I haven't managed to find a fun trivia note involving the number 10 that relates to this year's Oscars so please enjoy this photo of Paul Newman mocking his Oscar losses with a makeshift trophy (note that it says "Noscar" on it) alongside his wife's actual Oscar for Three Faces of Eve (1957). Paul, a perfect 10, was also nominated 10 times over the course of his career (once for Best Picture, 9 times for acting), finally winning the trophy on his 8th nomination which was coincidentally enough, the year after he had won the first of two Honorary acknowledgements (one a Jean Hersholt, the other a traditional Honorary Oscar). Before The Color of Money (1986) he had been locked up in a longstanding three way tie for "most nominated losing actor" with Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton; they all had 7 back then though Burton died a couple of years before Paul Newman finally won gold. Bette Davis is the only other actor with exactly 10 career nominations (unless you count that write-in situation) but we've already started discussing her.
For which of his pre-Oscar roles would you have given Newman the statue? Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Rachel, Rachel (1968), Absence of Malice (1981) or The Verdict (1982)?
If you need more Paul (and who doesn't) some more photos of Paul at the Oscars are after the jump...
at the '57 Oscars for Joanne's win
at the '61 Oscars for The Hustler
I think this one is from the 63 Oscars where he lost for "Hud"
at the '73 Oscars for Joanne's "Summer Wishes Winter Dreams" nomination
there is some disagreement as to which ceremony this is from -but it's not for his win in 86
at the 92 Oscars for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" co-star Liz Taylor's Jean Hersholt
Reader Comments (28)
at the very least - easy - the verdict! (btw - who is that standing behind Mr. Newman @ south station in Boston??? why, it's moi!!!
Definitely HUD and probably THE HUSTLER too. I love him in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF too; heck, I love him in most things! That pic from the '57 Oscars is dreamy. *sigh*
Thanks for these photos - a great way to start a Friday (in Australia).
He should have won for both The Verdict and Hud. (BTW, he thought he deserved to win for The Verdict, and Woodward thought he deserved to win for Hud, so I'm in good company.)
I'd have given it to him for Hud, at his prime and for his and hers Oscars with Neal.
Bette Davis famously went long and awkward presenting best actor to an absent Newman in '86. That photo with Cruise must be from his honorary win the year before.
Gotta be The Verdict or Road to Perdition.
Paul Newman just a perfect ten? Pshaw! To paraphrase Christopher Guest, Paul Newman goes to eleven.
He was great in all of them, but I would go with "The Verdict."
He should have won for Cat in Hot Tin Roof (David Niven, wtf?), The Hustler and Cool Hand Luke. Those were the years in which his was the best of the nominated performances.
Hud is his best performance, but it happened in the same year of Richard Harris in This Sporting Life - nobody could beat that performance that year.(I am glad Poitier won. It was important. But Harris was A M A Z I N G).
The Verdict - he is incredible, but Hoffman was the best.
Mr Newman was a seriously handsome man- a true movie star in every possible way.
He was brilliant in many films, but HUD and THE VERDICT are my favorites among his Oscar-nominated performanfes.
Cruise presented Newman with the Hersholt Award at the 1993 ceremony; I think that photo might be from then. Cruise looked more boyish than that back in 1985-1986.
He didn't attend the Oscars in 85. He was in location shooting The Color of Money and decided not to go. The photo with Tom Cruise was taken when he got the Jean Hersholt Award in 1993.
I've got the very first pic in my dressing room. It's so funny and he looks so sweet.
The Hustler and Cool Hand Luke.
@cal roth - Yes, Harris is amazing in THIS SPORTING LIFE. 1963 is probably one of the strongest Actor line-ups. Finney is excellent in TOM JONES, Poitier's was such a significant win, and I even remember Rex Harrison being good in CLEOPATRA!
Ignoring his competition those years for a moment, I would haven given him the Oscar every time. Great performances.
His smoldering intensity in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof won me over; a classic, timeless movie star.
Did Paul Newman win for his 7th nomination? After The Color of Money, he was nominated for Nobody's Fool and Road to Perdition.
Hud, I think the unseemliness of his character is what cost him the statue in that case. The Hustler, I wish he had won for this, they wouldn't have felt the need to reward his revisit to the role in the inferior Color of Money. Then Bob Hoskins or James Woods could have been awarded for one of their superior performances that year.
Love the picture from '61 with Joanne all Marilyn'd out. It was probably for From the Terrace but this was the peak of her brief glamour period. Also he and Dame Elizabeth look amazing together in that photo.
I'd give it for Cat, but it's a shame men never get it for the star making performances the way young women tend to.
Such an incredibly beautiful man at every age. Cool Hand Luke would be my choice.
Paul Newman. Sigh.
SIGH.
Imagine if he, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift had made a movie together. I don't think our eyes would ever stop spinning.
Usually the order is reversed, I think of Paul Newman and then I sigh.
1961 - Hud
1967 - Cool Hand Luke
1982 - The Verdict
1994 - Nobody's Fool
I think we all would like someone to look at us the way Paul Newman is looking at his wife.
And I would choose "Absence of Malice" followed by "Nobody's Fool".
Hud and Nobody's Fool. (Even Melanie Griffith was aces with him!)
Paul Newman was perfect 10 in everything, on the eyes and at the Oscars.
I am absolutely positive is 1993.
I think the 61 and 63 pictures are from the same ceremony. Woodward has the same oufit, hair and handbag in both photos and Newman has the same suit and is carrying the same piece of paper.