Paul Newman @100: The Early Roles (1954-1959)

by Cláudio Alves

THE LONG, HOT SUMMER (1958) Martin Ritt

On January 26th, it'll be a century since Paul Leonard Newman came into this world. To celebrate this centennial, various writers from our Film Experience team will explore some of the blue-eyed star's best performances and most interesting pictures. There'll be some analysis of Oscar-honored triumphs, perchance a look at his directorial career, re-evaluations and sweet farewells as we remember one of the greats. As one dives into Newman's life on screen, feel free to explore the actor's tag on the site and re-discover some of the many, many pieces we've already posted about him over the years. From Oscar histories to overviews of his creative partnership with Joanne Woodward, there's a lot to enjoy.

For now, let's go back to the start, where everything began. Let's look at Paul Newman's early roles, those 1950s projects that saw him go from a nobody to a veritable, no doubts about it, Hollywood star…

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Showbiz History: Trainspotting's 25th and a one-time-only Globe happening

8 random things that happened on this day, February 23rd, in showbiz history

1939 The 11th Academy Awards are held with zany family comedy You Can't Take It With You winning the top prize and Jezebel pulling down both Lead and Supporting Actress. This past summer we spent a lot of time discussing the 1938 film year. What's more, I even ranked all ten Best Picture nominees and guest starred on the "And the Runner Up Is..." podcast about it (icymi). Honestly these viewing projects, but especially 1938, got us through the first few months of the COVID lockdown. 

1950 The 7th Golden Globes are held honoring the best of 1949. All the King's Men wins Best Picture (as it also would at the Oscars later). It was the last year of the Globes before they begin to separate their categories into Drama and Comedy but the next piece of Globes trivia is even more unusual...

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Linking Neverland

• /Film the Wicked movie has a new release date, December 22nd, 2021. We'll believe that once we see actual casting news or a start date for filming. So should we start talking about the 94th Academy Awards yet. LOLOLO no. No we shan't.
• Library of America Sheila O'Malley's great essay on East of Eden (1955)
• Deadline Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect, True Blood) gets a leading sitcom role. Yay, it's about time since she's always hilarious. The comedy is about a church choir that gets a new director (Bradley Whitford)

• IndieWire interesting quotes from indie filmmakers trying to diversify their crew to have more gender parity and multiculturalism and the obstacles they do and don't face.  
• LA Times women over 70 are killing it right now: Glenn Close, Betty Buckley, RBG, Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, etc
• AV Club Black Panther's Michael B Jordan is attached to a film adaptation of the popular new fantasy epic Black Leopard, Red Wolf set in an alternate reality Africa. (Hmmm, can he also make movies called Black Tiger, Black Jaguar and Black Lion for a full set of big cats?)
• /Film Aquaman's gross has gotten so big that Warner Bros is going to do a spin-off horror film The Trench set in the kingdom of the film's most memorable sequence
• AV Club Steve Buscemi learns about that viral 'deepfake' video of his face superimposed on Jennifer Lawrence's body
• Pajiba explains the whole Jeff Bezos vs National Enquirer business. My god what a mess (but a fascinating one)
• MNPP's obsession with Armie Hammer really does make us love Armie Hammer more
• Towleroad Ellen Page drags Chris Pratt over his homophobic church
• Variety controversial Michael Jackson Sundance doc Leaving Neverland premieres on HBO on March 3rd 

Oscar Shorts Alert
Don't forget that all 15 Oscar-nominated short films are now in theaters. If they're not in your city, they'll be available On Demand on February 19th.

Link Street

Do you know what live streaming is? 

Vanity Fair celebrities react to Fathom Events Woody Harrelson Lost in London Live streaming experiment (which happens this week)
Interview Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) one of the "Faces of 2017" portfolio
TFE Happy birthday to Betty White and James Earl Jones both among the oldest living screen stars
Vulture in-depth interview with smart funny one of a kind Billy Eichner
This is Not Porn Jim Carrey impersonating celebrities in 1992 
Coming Soon new images from Netflix superhero team series The Defenders
In Contention Thelma Schoonmaker and Janet Ashikaga to be honored by the Editors Guild this year
Mind of a Suspicious Kind a reminder of the amazing cinematography of Wings (1927) with a funny anecdote 
Mike's Movie Projector two movie premieres of 1954: A Star is Born and East of Eden 

ICYMI
If you were away for the weekend... 
Team Experience Awards Moonlight, Arrival, Jackie, The Handmaiden, and more...
Nathaniel's Top 20 Sing Street thru La La
Pfandom Episode 2 Pfeiffer in 1979
Pablo Larraín we spoke with the director of the incredible Jackie about "curiousity, love, and rage"
Podcast in the two most recent conversations we covered Silence, 20th Century Women, Hidden Figures
Toni Erdmann's screenplay. Have you seen it yet? 

Link to the Future

Past
The New Yorker a memoir about growing up with B Movies
Aint It Cool News looks back at Alien Ressurection. The Alien franchise is on everyone's brain now that Prometheus is (nearly) upon us. 
IndieWire the cooking channel's Baron Ambrosia names his five favorite food movies. Not the usual comfort food answers. The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover? Well done, Baron. 

Present
Coming Soon The Avengers will come to home video as part of a 10 disc set of Marvel Universe movies. (Hey they gotta move those Incredible Hulk discs somehow.) Details forthcoming. One billion dollars at the box office clearly wasn't enough booty! 
World of Wonder Charlize Theron teaches us to walk like queens. "Just think MURDER..."
My New Plaid Pants today is my friend JA's seventh anniversary online. His blog is still great. 
In Contention Michael Mann will chair the Venice Film Festival this year 
Emerging Artist Contest Quentin Tarantino is hosting a contest for upcoming filmmakers although finding your own voice here means remixing and mashing film clips from Django Unchained and others... makes sense that Tarantino would want a new voice adept at mixing old voices (sound familiar?) but if you're a filmmaker this contest is definitely worth checking out. 

Future
TMZ Lindsay Lohan on "preproduction" set testing out her Liz Taylor biopic look.
Awards Daily has the first promotional photos for Only God Forgives the Refn/Gosling follow up to the great Drive. Including this one...

Rope of Silicon seems that the Andy and Lana Wachowski have finally shaken off the Speed Racer blues with Cloud Atlas arriving soon and Jupiter Ascending which will "reinvent action" in preproduction. Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis will star.
The Mary Sue realizes that Charlize Theron is the coolest girl in the movies while she talks Mad Max and, uh, Game of Thrones. It's weird to me that people are still unaware that Charlize Theron is most awesome when playing herself... but welcome to Charlize fandom one and all.
24 Frames Kristen Stewart wants to make a new East of Eden picture, the James Dean movie being one of those pesky adaptations that sacrifices huge swaths of a book in order to make itself into a great movie. How rude of it!