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Milestones From a Legendary Career
All New to DVD November 27
Newman’s handsome chiseled features and famous blue eyes led to a quick entry into television drama, and after his first Broadway success in “Picnic,” he was offered a movie contract at Warner Bros. in 1954 and was on his way. Newman’s first film, The Silver Chalice, in 1954, was such an embarrassment to him that he actually took a Variety ad, apologizingfor his performance. But his second role in Somebody Up There Likes Me was enthusiastically praised and his career took off. After his first Best Actor Nomination for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Newman became one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s, during which time he starred in numerous hits, including The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Nominated nine times for a Best Actor Oscar®, he finally won in 1987 for his performance in The Color of Money. Now in his 80s, Newman still acts, winning both an Emmy® and Golden Globe® for his role in the 2005 HBO mini-series “Empire Falls,” but primarily is focused on philanthropic interests with his wife of almost 50 years, actress Joanne Woodward. His line of food products, whose profits are all donated to charity, have resulted in over $200 million in donations to several causes, the most famous of which is The Hole in the Wall Gang Camps for terminally ill children.
Paul Newman gives a memorable performance in this box-office hit based on Ross MacDonald’s The Moving Target. The first detective film in Newman’s then 23-film career, Newman’s sleuth, Lew Harper, chews gum fast and slips out of jams even faster DVD Special Features:
Newman returns as the quick-witted detective he first played nine years before in Harper. A cast to reckon with joins him in this mystery adapted from Ross MacDonald’s novel and directed by Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke). Joanne Woodward plays the New Orleans oil heiress who turns to Harper for help with a seemingly routine blackmail case. Young Melanie Griffith is her kittenish daughter, and Tony Franciosa, Coral Browne, Andy Robinson and Murray Hamilton keep The Drowning Pool’s intrigue as thick as gumbo. DVD Special Features:
Newman plays William Bonney, the fabled and legendary gunslinger known as Billy the Kid. The West had never seen the likes of this Brooklyn-born desperado, a troubled teen who wrote his name in blood on history’s pages. And the genre had never before seen a performance like that of Paul Newman. He displays a complex, twitchy moodiness that captures the killer’s half-boy, half-man nature. Another major presence is first-time film director Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man), here first exploring a theme he would return to again and again: the alienated outsider confronted by a hostile society. What Newman and Penn put on screen was new, provocative and startling, so it’s no surprise the movie’s initial reception was mixed. Today it’s hailed as a unique and influential Western. DVD Special Features
Paul Newman plays Joseph Rearden, British Intelligence’s man on the inside, in this tense and tricky thriller, directed by the legendary John Huston from a screenplay by Walter Hill (48 HRS.). It’s superbly cast with sterling talent that includes Dominique Sanda, Harry Andrews and Ian Bannen. James Mason (Newman’s adversary in The Verdict) plays a Member of Parliament who’s really a master spy – and the focus of Rearden’s assignment. In an era when spies came in from the cold, The Mackintosh Man generates a lot of heat. DVD Special Features
This inspiring bio-pic recounts the story of Rocky Graziano, the scrappy kid from New York who rose from poverty and rage to become middleweight champion. Newman plays Graziano to perfection, primarily because he met frequently with the real champ to study his speech and mannerisms. Robert Wise, who earlier captured the fight game in The Set-Up, directs what would become Newman’s breakout film and win two Academy AwardsÒ -- Best B & W Cinematography and Best Black and White Art Direction. Steve McQueen and Robert Loggia make their screen debuts; Perry Como sings the title song. DVD Special Features:
Diana Privitera @ NOBLE PR
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