Why did it take Paul Newman so long to win an Oscar?

As much as I like Paul Newman, I think that he was a pretty wooden actor for a lot of his career.

I imagine he had a hard time being taken seriously as an actor because he was in the popcorn and salad dressing business. Kind of a weird transition.

He won in 1987 for for The Color of Money which was far from his best performance.

He was nowhere near wooden lol. Some of you aren't fit to judge acting at all.

I wonder why he didn't win for The Hustler. He lost to Maximilian Schell who was a newcomer and barely had that much screen time. Plus he was up against his co-star Spencer Tracey.

Newman should have won for The Verdict. Ben Kingsley was one of those impersonation performances they love. He just looked like Gandhi and acted stoic and zen-like as Gandhi was.

He was very handsome

and he stayed handsome

Agreed, he should have won for “The Hustler” and (especially) “The Verdict”. His win for “The Color of Money” was a career win, but at least he finally took an Oscar home..

I love Newman but Hoffman was better than either Paul or Ben that year.

Once they were well-established, Newman and Woodward tended to be mostly East Coasters rather than staples in the "Hollywood Community". There's always been a prejudice on the part of Academy members (most of whom are in CA) towards those in the business whose home base is on the East Coast (obviously non-Americans are exempt).

It's why it took Scorsese so long to win (and for not one of his best) and why Woodward never won again (IMO she should have won over Glenda Jackson in 1972).

He became a better actor over time. To watch him in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, it shows him to not be up to the part. He was certainly gorgeous enough, but his acting fell well short. By the time of The Verdict, he had better mastered his craft.....and he was still gorgeous...

I’m guessing because being a ‘movie star’ isn’t the same thing as being a great actor

I think there was an indifference on Newman’s part if he won or not. Like Glenn Close many times he was never the front runner. He didn’t even win a golden globe until winning for directing Rachel Rachel in 1969. Jealousy maybe played a part too in the industry. When he lost in 1983, his acting was too great to ignore and they gave him an honorary one in 1986. Lo and behold he wins a competitive one in 1987.

He does a nice job in an early film, "Until They Sail," with luminous Jean Simmons.

I've mentioned an early performance of his on DL before: The Rack (1956). Anyone who thinks he's wooden should see his beautiful performance as a soldier returning from Korea in that movie.

And it has Chlorox Bleachman!

Clorox

Paul Newman was never "Hollywood." Maybe that's why it took him so long to win an Oscar. He wasn't just a pretty face. He was a great actor. And a true humanitarian; his charities have raised over over $485 million. And he never practiced what he called "noisy philanthropy"; he never trumpeted his efforts to help children and the environment, unlike a lot of celebrities who heavily publicize what they do for charity. For him, just doing what he thought would benefit others was reward enough.

I agree, R18. I loved Paul Newman. Great actor, even greater man.

He should have won for HUD, but Hollywood wanted to pat itself on the back by giving the Oscar to Sidney Poitier for a lesser performance.

I'll never forget what he said about the people in the business who make it and become stars. "Some of us just got lucky," he said, basically rejecting any idea that those who succeed must be more talented than those who don't.

He was great in Cool Hand Luke

Paul Newman was a bit too pretty to be taken seriously, a Brad Pitt type (but more handsome with artistic integrity Pitt lacks).

I love his films.

The Verdict. Absence of Malice Harper Hombre.

Paul Newman's accent slipped in The Long Hot Summer and his performance was overshadowed by Orson Welles in blackface! Ps. I love Orson Welles in The Long Hot Summer and I only watch the film for him.

The Long, Hot Summer. That irritating music

Funny, I watch that film to enjoy Angie

She looks amazing in this film

I’d forgotten about “Absence of Malice”, R23! I remember liking it a lot when I saw it at the theater (yes, I’m old!). Paul Newman and Sally Field were both excellent and I still remember a couple of excellent moments — a haunting scene of Melinda Dillon picking up newspapers off front porches after a revealing story is printed, and a furiousPaul Newman pinning Sally Field against the wall after that. Wonder how the film holds up.

i watch in regularly, i think it holds up well. all the actors are excellent , a true ensemble cast.

He looked great in Absence of Malice and Fort Apache, The Bronx, both released in 1981. He was 55.

i think he was more gorgeous as an older man. for me, his looks peaked in fort apache.

Paul Newman had a lot of Oscar nominations but they made him work until they finally gave him one (the inferior Color Of Money) for his body of work. They doing the same thing with Glenn Close.

At least he got one.

--Albert Finney, Peter O'Toole, Greta Garbo, Deborah Kerr, Gary Grant, Edward G. Robinson, etc.

He got better as an actor with time.

Oddly enough, they gave Paul Newman an Honorary Oscar in 1986 - and then the following year he won the real thing.

R35 Paul Newman with is Honorary Oscar.

He should have won the humanitarian away the Oscars give out, too.

[quote]There's always been a prejudice on the part of Academy members (most of whom are in CA) towards those in the business whose home base is on the East Coast

I disagree with this statement.

R34 Same thing happened with Henry Fonda: Honorary Oscar in 81, then Best Actor in 82.

r38, a shocking oversight. such a gifted actor who made truly iconic films.

What's with the idiot at R4, who has to stick "lol" in the middle of a sentence the way she snots a booger out when screaming at her mom?

Glad to see so many people agree about The Verdict. What a great film. I love when TCM airs it. Newman was phenomenal in it - such an arc that character takes. And great supporting turns by James Mason, Jack Warden and Charlotte Rampling who plays what I can only describe as the quintessential DL cunt.

james mason is one of my faves too, i love his performance in any film ive seen him star in

Jesus, how can you watch him in Cool Hand Luke and think his acting is wooden? He raised a lot of wood with that performance and HUD and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They both did;) Still gorgeous in The Verdict and he did such a beautiful job playing a down on his luck alcoholic lawyer. The scene where he has to sip from the shot glass because his hands shake is so real. He was robbed.

R41 Paul Newman SHOULD have won the Oscar for The Verdict (great performance, great movie) not The Color Of Money (not his best work or movie).

Same here, r42. Mason was robbed, too. Should have won for The Verdict.

cool hand luke, a classic film.a masterpiece.

He didn't fuck the right people.

Pocket Money is another of the four movies he made with the director of Cool Hand Luke, Stuart Rosenberg. It's no masterpiece, but Newman is funny and charming as a kind of dim cowboy.

Anybody know what Sally Fields said about him in her book? If I remember some interview I read, she was glowing about him.

I was around 13 when I saw The Long Hot Summer for the first time and I fell in love with Paul Newman and stayed in love for a long time. Yeah, it wasn't going to win any awards but I prefer it to Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. The chemistry with Woodward was genuine. She has always been great at playing repressed women just longing to break free. Loved the sly and naughty repartee between Orson Welles and Angela Lansbury. They were having fun playing off of each other. The lovely Lee Remick and Tony Franciosa rounded out the cast. Still one of my favorites and I will stop whatever I am doing to watch it.

Big Newman fan and I watched the Oscars through all those years he lost. Announcers would always remark before the awards pointing out that Newman "is not part of the Hollywood community" as a prelim to him losing. That's when I realized that the Oscars awarded for best performance was bogus.

R23 wrote

[quote} Orson Welles in blackface

WTF R23?

As for "The Verdict" - a relative who was in the business at the time told me that Robert Redford saw the script and wanted to do it, but only if the script was changed so that Frank Galvin was NOT an alcoholic. In fact, Redford had already begun the movie and the change he insisted on was refused so he quit. When approached, Newman was on board with the role.

In fact, Newman said years later that he would be interested in doing another film about Galvin because he wanted to know what had happened to the character.

agreed r50, liz is too brittle in 'cat on a hot tin roof', shes distracting

R51 Robert Redford is very image conscious and doesn't want to do a movie that makes him look flawed or bad. Paul Newman approached him about doing the classic gay novel The Front Runner but he turned it down.

R51, “The Verdict” producer David Brown wrote in his book about Robert Redford’s involvement in the film, and how he made all sorts of demands that the script would have to be changed to make Galvin’s character more admirable and heroic. When those demands weren’t met, Redford walked. Redford’s image consciousness was foolish — it was those flaws of Galvin’s that made his character arc more interesting. Brown also wrote that besides Charlotte Rampling (who’s wonderful) they had Julie Christie in mind for the female lead.

I can't imagine Redford in The Verdict. Newman was perfectly cast - I can't imagine anyone else in the role. Redford would not have been able to reach the depths Newman did.

Every actor in The Verdict, no matter how small the role, was letter perfect. It's mind blowing that Newman wasn't the first choice for the role of Frank Galvin. Thank god Redford was such a diva!

Never got Redford, but he was good in Inside Daisy Clover.

That Mason and Stanwyck also never got an Oscar, and that Ginger Rogers got one for Kitty Foyle, proves to me that those awards have always been very iffy.

R54 here. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but Arthur Laurents wrote similarly about Redford in his autobiography, “Original Story By”. During the making of “The Way We Were”, Redford was making all sorts of script change demands to make his character more heroic and less flawed. Laurents added that director Sydney Pollack, a longtime Redford collaborator, was always willing to acquiesce to him.

My favorite Redford film is Barefoot In The Park. He wasn't afraid to make a fool of himself back then. He and Jane had great chemistry. Such beauties. And he had some genuinely funny moments as the hapless newlywed drunk in love with his new wife. Of course, Mildred Natwick stole the movie from both of them as Corie's mother. It still holds up as a laugh out loud comedy classic.

r49 I don't know if she mentioned Newman too much in the book. She sort of skipped a lot of her films. It went from Norma Rae to Lincoln without much mention of stuff in between. (Where was a publisher demanding Steel Magloinas stories? That would have spiked gay sales.) Maybe she has a part 2 in the works.

Anyway she was very positive about Joanne Woodward and probably said nice stuff about Newman too but I don't really remember. (She also was very complimentary about Brad Davis in Sybil which goes against the DL myth that he terrified her on that film with erratic behavior.)

r59 I can remember seeing the scene on the late show as a child where Mildred Natwick falls down the stairs (it was such a pratfall) and being in hysterics. Plus the scene where Jane Fonda opens the door and Natwick basically falls in because the climb has been so long.

Yeah, her line readings in that movie are fantastic, r61.

R36 he did win the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Oscar. He’s posing with it in r35 pic. He didn’t show up for his honorary or competitive ones in the mid 80s.

Woodward did make some enemies in the academy when she outspokenly shamed them for not nominating Paul Newman as director for Rachel, Rachel but nominating her it for Best Picture.

R49 I didn't read Sally's book, but I do remember around the time of Absence, she was on some talk show discussing her friendship with "The Newmans" and her visits to their Connecticut house. Then sometime later, I was visiting my sister in New York, stopped into a local coffee shop, and saw the three of them having breakfast. (I knew The Newmans lived in the neighborhood). It was a regular weekday morning, no one seemed to recognize or bother them. I guess it was a real New York experience.

"

He sure was pretty, but not at 55. No dude, not even Paul Newman hits their physical peak at 55! Some real old men (women) on this thread I guess. Newman had no legs or ass but a beautiful Burne Jones face. Very good actor, low key and different. Blond hair blue eyed men or women are not that memorable on screen.....Newman is an exception. Memorable for his "modern" but not quite method performances. And his lips, and eyes and brow - beautiful classic head.

He must have deserved an Oscar but they didn't give them out like candy back in his day. The Verdict is a very good film. We study Lumet in school.

In 1970, when he was 45, he made an appearance on the Cavett show. Mustache and longish hair. Dazzling.

Redford was good in “Barefoot in the Park”, relaxed and funny. But Mildred Natwick stole the show and is a complete delight!

“I didn’t think I’d make it — if I’d known the people on the third floor, I’d have visited them!” (To Jane Fonda’s inquiry about a glass of water) “No thank you, dear — I don’t think I can swallow yet!”

I never cared for Redford r53... I found him a cipher onscreen, albeit a handsome one. His awareness of image is what kept him from cutting his hair in THE WAY WE WERE. He was always a matinee idol, never a real actor. ORDINARY PEOPLE was ok, but not stellar. Redford thinks way too much of himself and his abilities.

I loved him and Joanne in FROM THE TERRACE. It was a nice glossy, slightly lurid soap with great outfits and lots of bad dialogue.

Newman looked sublime in the scene from The Long Hot Summer when he stood shirtless and hugging a pillow at Woodward’s bedroom doorway...

Redford was good early on in "Downhill Racer".

This was apparently before he had the power to change the script so that his character was always "heroic".

In "Downhill Racer" he is beautiful but a nasty SOB. Made for a good portrayal.

I also heard that he insisted on character changes in "The Horse Whisperer" to the way the book created the character. Removing faults, etc.

All this has made me view him as a phony and see him as a handsome man who still clings desperately to his "surfer boy" image.

Unlike Newman who aged but remained a man comfortable with himself, whatever his age.

His Oscar win is one of my least favorite Oscar wins ever. Bob Hoskins deservedly won all the major awards that year for Mona Lisa but those shitheads in the Academy decided to snub him. Fuck them!

"Bob Hoskins deservedly won all the major awards that year for Mona Lisa but those shitheads in the Academy decided to snub him. Fuck them!"

I would have liked to have seen Bob Hoskins win, too. He really deserved it. Newman won because the Academy figured they'd finally give him an Oscar. But Hoski's performance was better.

I love Paul Newman. He absolutely deserved an Oscar! BUT - in my humble opinion - Bob Hoskins gave the performance of the decade in Mona Lisa!!

R72 I agree about Redford in "Downhill Racer": he does a lot with a good role, and it's an interesting movie. One of the few sports movies I've enjoyed.

The Verdict was good despite the fairly obvious, cliched plot.

He was stellar in "The Secret War of Henry Frigg".

Lindsay Crouse was good in The Verdict (even if she only got the part because her then husband wrote it)

I WANTED TO BE A NURSE!!!!

[quote]Why did it take Paul Newman so long to win an Oscar?

The reason is because other people won.

Cry me a river.

That's what I've been asking...………….

Cathy Tyson should have been nominated for supporting that year as well for Mona Lisa.

All I know is I loved and respected the man and the actor. I don't think we will see the likes of him again.

R72. I liked some of the changes Robert Redford made in the Horse Whisperer. In the book, the HW and mother did have a sexual affair and he dies at the end. No thanks. (At least that's how I remember it. It's been awhile.)

He is very respectul to the land and community when he films a movie. The people in the surrounding areas of Montana had nothing but good to say about him.

And he begged Norman McClean to change the ending of a River Runs Through It. Redford wanted to tell the truth of how Paul McClean died. But apparently Norman McClean had some kind of script approval and he refused. He wanted his books ending.

Anyway - back to Paul Newman.