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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56 Days 'til Oscar Nominations. Let's talk 1956

by Nathaniel R

1956 is not, from our vantage point, a particularly lauded year in cinema but it's an Oscar field we tend to think of regularly for various reasons including but not limited to:

-Camp value (Ten Commandments, Bad Seed)
-Musicals (The King and I, High Society)
-Strange snubs (The Searchers received zero nominations despite Oscar's obsession with John Ford)
-Delayed foreign grandeur (La Strada and Seven Samurai, 1954 films both, were up for Oscars)
-not one but two kaiju movies (Godzilla and Rhodan)...and more.

What's your favorite movie of 1956? I don't think I've seen enough to feel comfortable with a full top ten but here are the five I like best currently (with much more to see) after the jump...

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Robert Wise Centenary: Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

For Robert Wise's centennial, we're looking back on a random selection of his films beyond the familiar mega-hits (The Sound of Music & West Side Story) which we are far more prone to talk about. Here's Nathaniel on the Paul Newman boxing drama...

The poster art for Robert Wise's 1956 biopic on Rocky Graziano reminds us that the more things change the more they stay the same. We're still getting taglines like "A girl can lift a fella to the skies!" (see: Theory of Everything) but Pier Angeli's role as Rocky's wife Norma in the Paul Newman boxing pic is actually fairly minor. She straightens him out primarily by giving him something consistent to hold on to in a life that's been previously totally adrift in noncommittal boxing matches for money and petty crimes. Not that his crimes were always petty, mind you, but we'll get to that in a minute. 

Up until Somebody Up There Likes Me Paul Newman had been doing minor TV roles and successful work on the stage. But his film debut in the biblical epic The Silver Chalice (1954) was an embarrassment. He won poor reviews and later stated...

 The moment I walked into that studio I had a feeling of personal disaster..."

Newman's Breakthrough after the jump...

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