Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward

Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man review – a screen idol full of self-loathing

This article is more than 2 years old

A painfully revealing memoir, taken from transcripts of reminiscences Newman recorded in the 1980s, lays bare a candid, complicated star

Peter Conrad

Mon 14 Nov 2022 

Movie stars, bemused by their own magnified faces, don’t usually have much interest in self-analysis. Paul Newman turns out to be the ruthlessly candid exception. In the late 1980s, between beery binges, Newman recorded endless hours of reminiscences, trying finally to understand the insecure, inadequate stranger who skulked behind his handsome facade. Probably alarmed by what he’d revealed, he later destroyed the tapes. But after his death in 2008, 14,000 pages of transcripts were discovered in his musty Connecticut basement and in a storage locker; these have now been cut and pasted into an autobiography, supplemented by contributions from colleagues and family members. The result is startling: Narcissus breaks the mirror, leaving only some cruelly jagged shards.

Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, 50 years of love and artistic commitment

A new documentary series called ‘The Last Movie Stars,’ which was presented by Ethan Hawkes at Cannes, explores the lives of the Hollywood stars, their passion for acting and off-screen disputes

Paul Newman y Joanne Woodward, 50 años de amor y compromiso artístico

Gregorio Belinchón
Cannes, May 25, 2022

There was a time when there were no bigger movie stars than Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Even now, decades later, these Hollywood icons have not been forgotten. Indeed, a new documentary series called The Last Movie Stars is taking a closer look at the famous couple.