![The cover of Paul Newman's The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir. Picture supplied The cover of Paul Newman's The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/6862cee8-838d-4c77-a749-5ecc9d556bf6.jpg/r0_0_1943_2850_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Here's a celebrity memoir with a difference.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Between 1986 and 1991, actor, director and philanthropist Paul Newman, who died in 2008 at the age of 83, gave a series of interviews to a close friend, screenwriter Stewart Stern (Rebel Without a Cause).
Stern - who died in 2015 - also interviewed family members, friends and colleagues about Newman and this book serves as a memoir and self-analysis of one of the most enduring and respected Hollywood stars. Not only is Newman remembered for his films - among them Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting - but for his political activism and charity work - ever bought Newman's Own salad dressing or pasta sauce? - that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and established holiday camps for seriously ill children.
Those hoping for a comprehensive, straightforward autobiography and a lot of fun anecdotes will be disappointed.
Mostly what we get is a more introspective and self-critical Newman. Occasionally the book feels a bit navel-gazing and self-indulgent but there's a raw, intimate feeling that predominates, like the best of his acting.
The subjects he discusses - often with surprising frankness - include his well-to-do but emotionally distant parents, his acting ambitions, his attitude to fame, his shortcomings as a husband and father, and his longtime problems with alcohol as well as the failure of his first marriage: he left his first wife, Jackie Witte, for actress Joanne Woodward, with whom he spent the rest of his life.
Newman agonises over his son Scott's death from a drug overdose - wondering, as so many parents in similar circumstances do, what he could have done to prevent it - and even questions his own altruistic impulses ("The only thing I can readily say in my defence is that I do them, and that's better than not doing them").
There are lighter moments, like his somewhat sophomoric practical jokes and his latterday car racing exploits.
Interspersed throughout are comments from family members, friends and colleagues, many of them now dead too. Sometimes they corroborate his feelings and observations, sometimes they contradict them, sometimes they offer insights of their own. Directors Elia Kazan, Sidney Lumet and George Roy Hill as well as actors Woodward, Tom Cruise and Robert Wagner are some of the big names who contribute.
This book has a complicated history.
The transcripts were apparently misplaced and rediscovered more recently and have been "compiled and edited" by David Rosenthal, with an introduction by one of Newman's daughters, Melissa, and an afterword by another, Clea.
And an editor's note tells us that there's been some restructuring, conflating and reorganising for narrative effect but says "this account represents an accurate if condensed adaptation of the Newman/Stern transcripts".
We can only guess at what might have been omitted or not discussed but while it's not a definitive biography, this is certainly a valuable reminder of Newman's life and impact.
Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books write-ups and reviews. Bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease!