The Unseen Legacy of Paul Newman
Paul Newman, a towering figure in Hollywood during the 1960s and 1970s, may have passed away in 2008 at the age of 83, but his life and career were meticulously documented over three decades before his death. Frustrated by unauthorized biographies and personal gossip, Newman took it upon himself to record an oral history of his life. These tapes, found in a basement laundry room, are now set to unveil long-hidden stories about the actor's life.
Newman's family is planning to turn these recordings into a memoir, scheduled for release by Knopf this fall. Alongside the tapes, the book will include new interviews with family members and friends. The memoir promises to be a revealing look into Newman’s life, filled with candid reflections on his career, relationships, and personal struggles.
A Life Marked by Comparisons and Opportunities
Newman's reflections include his feelings of jealousy toward contemporaries like Marlon Brando and James Dean. In the mid-1950s, he missed out on the chance to co-star with Dean as his twin brother Aron Trask in East of Eden. He also served as a last-minute replacement for Dean in a live TV broadcast of Our Town featuring Frank Sinatra. After Dean's untimely death in 1955, Newman replaced him as a boxer in a TV adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Battler.
This wasn’t the only time such a switch occurred. Owing to comparisons with Dean, Newman was cast as Billy the Kid in The Left Handed Gun, a role originally intended for the late actor.
Personal Struggles and Deep Insecurities
Newman’s posthumous memoir also reveals his deep insecurities, including his mother’s critical view of his childhood appearance. In newly discovered recordings, Newman shared his self-doubts, mentioning that his mother never considered him handsome as a child, which weighed heavily on him even after achieving stardom.
Peter Gethers, the editor of Newman’s unfinished memoir, commented: "He said that his mother did not so much think of him as flesh and blood, but as a decoration. He says that if he was not a pretty child, she never would have paid attention to him at all. It's a devastating thing to read, and clearly forms so much of his life and his insecurity about being an actor."
Gethers praised the raw honesty in Newman’s autobiography, noting: "What he recorded, and in essence what he wrote, was so honest and revealing. It showed this extraordinary arc, a guy who was very, very flawed at the beginning of his life and as a young man, but who, as he got older, turned into the Paul Newman we want him to be."
A Life of Many Dimensions
The memoir will cover various aspects of Newman’s life, including his acting career, passion for race driving, candid confessions about his struggles with alcohol, and his failings as a spouse during his first marriage to Jackie Witte. It will also explore his relationship with his second wife, Joanne Woodward, whom the editor describes as "remarkably loving, affectionate and sexy."
Newman also shared his painful experience of coping with the tragic death of his son Scott due to substance abuse at a young age. Alan Scott Newman, Paul Newman's son, followed in his father’s footsteps into the acting world, even sharing the screen with him in the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. In the film, Scott portrayed a firefighter battling acrophobia, sharing scenes with Steve McQueen but not directly with his father. However, both Newmans appear together in the movie's climactic finale.
Tragedy struck in 1978 when Scott fell from a motorcycle and began taking painkillers and receiving psychiatric treatment funded by his father, Paul Newman. Sadly, on November 19, at the tender age of 28, he succumbed to a lethal combination of valium, alcohol, and other drugs.
A Memoir of Truth and Reflection
A new book, primarily a memoir comprising 80 percent of its content, is being compiled by one of The Sting star's closest confidants, screenwriter Stewart Stern. This work promises to offer an intimate look into the life of one of Hollywood’s most iconic figures, shedding light on both his triumphs and his struggles.
