I feel a little resentful that I was unwittingly someone else trying to get a piece of him, and that definitely affects my opinion of this "memoir. The stories shared here mostly avoid the glamour grind of Hollywood and instead detour into Newman's relationship with Joanne Woodward, whom he met while both were breaking into the New York theatre scene. While his kids figured the transcripts from their father's project were floating around somewhere, it took a decade to locate them. A political activist and humanitarian, he raised and donated nearly one billion dollars to many charities. I have been a huge fan of Paul Newman since I saw my first of his movies, The Long Hot Summer, which also happened to feature his wife Joanne Woodward.

In films like “The Long, Hot Summer” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” both from 1958, Newman’s baby blues launched him into the zeitgeist alongside Marlon Brando and James Dean as a matinee idol full of rebellion and edge. Newman was the recipient ofnumerous awards, including anAcademy Award, aBAFTA Award, threeGolden Globe Awards, aScreen Actors Guild Award, aPrimetime Emmy Award, theCecil B. Newman entertained millions in some of Hollywood's most memorable roles ever, and brightened the lives of amny more, especially seriously ill children, through his charitable works. It documents his chaotic early life in Ohio as the son of an overbearing, unpredictable mother and a “dismissive, disinterested” father.Hence his obsession with racing cars, which began with a movie role as a grand prix driver in Winning but took him “outside that fictional experience into something real and quite primitive”.

Yes a great film career, enormous about of charity work, some lovely salad dressing, but so many interesting stories missing. It does help you feel like you know him as a person, and in compiling it they've done a good job of bringing in a few other voices from other people he had interviewed. While a bumpy, disjointed confessional, it also smolders with introspection as Newman tries to ascertain what he couldn’t see in himself that so many others did.She dandled him like a doll and he compares himself to the lapdogs she stuffed with chocolates until they “became so cancerous and obese they could hardly move”. Newman was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA, three Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy, the Cecil B. He was certainly very philanthropic, but he also came across as incredibly lonely and someone who was constantly looking for his true passion. He talks about his teenage insecurities, his early failures with women, his rise to stardom, his early rivals (Marlon Brando and James Dean), his first marriage, his drinking, his philanthropy, the death of his son Scott, his strong desire for his daughters to know and understand the truth about their father. 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.

Stars gamble their whole career once or twice a year by accepting a role; too many duds/years in a row, you're done. Great for the person who wants some insight into the ordinary man, but not for you if you idealize the extraordinary star persona.This book turns him inside out all over again: bravely outfacing pain, it resembles a self-administered colonoscopy. And what I appreciated the most is that this wasn't too long (and by that I mean long winded) and it wasn't too short.

The greatest movie star of the past 75 years covers everything: his traumatic childhood, his career, his drinking, his thoughts on Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, John Huston, his greatest roles, acting, his intimate life with Joanne Woodward, his innermost fears and passions and joys. Although there are tales of filming "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Hud" and "The Sting", Newman is more interested in discussing such serious issues as his alcoholism. In her hotly anticipated memoir, the author traces the challenges and triumphs of her upbringing in New Jersey and the work (including a stint as an intern with Sen. Still, it's a fascinating portrait of an actor of preternatural beauty who worked extraordinarily hard at his craft. Between the bathroom and the breakfast room, every day when you come down from your shower, you could start your day with the f-cking fanfares and flashbulbs going off.The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man is revelatory and introspective, personal and analytical, loving and tender in some places, always complex and profound.