'Marked by hate' ('Somebody Up There Likes Me'Me, 1956)
The film that launched him to fame, after debuting in the unfortunate and Longer than a Day without Bread 'The silver chalice'. Newman puts himself under the command of an inspired Robert Wise to narrate the story of boxer Rocky Graziano, making the film one of the most popular that talks about the aforementioned sport. Winner of two Oscars, for best black and white photography and for best artistic direction, the film and Newman get closer to the viewer than ever before. Anecdotes: This is Steve McQueen's first film appearance, and the role of Graziano was for James Dean, but a famous traffic accident prevented it.
'The Long, hot summer' ('The Long, Hot Summer, 1958)
This film which adapts the story of William Faulkner marked the birth of two relationships. Newman met his wife Joanne Woodward here, with whom he was married for more than 50 years, and with whom he shared the bill several times. And Martin Ritt would meet here with what would be his fetish actor. The relationship between a landowner and a stable boy whom he sees as his own son is not forgotten. Orson Welles himself gave the reply in this unforgettable film.
'The left handed' ('The Left Handed Gun, 1958)
Attention, another character that James Dean had to interpret (as we continue like this we will have to say that Dean's death favored Newman's career). A film in which Arthur Penn varied the real story considerably, and made a psychological western in which all of Billy the Kid's violence is justified by a father's lack of affection. Newman is a time bomb waiting to explode in this film, and it was his first approach to the Western genre.
'The Cat on the tin roof' ('Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958)
The first film adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play is to be done in color. Richard Brooks managed to transcend the theatrical limits of the work, managing to make pure cinema. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor give life to a married couple with certain bedroom problems, since he thinks more of someone else (homos- connotations are well present in the story), and both give off a high-temperature tension. Newman dazzles and the mediocre Taylor has never been so good.
'The Hustler' ('The Hustler', 1961)
Eddie Fast Felson is probably Newman's most famous character. Undoubtedly Robert Rossen's best film, in which he goes from realism to tenderness with enviable ease, as well as carrying out a deep analysis of the everlasting issue of success, so much to the taste of Americans. Billiards and his world serve to tell the story of a true loser who tries to open a hole in life. One of those movies where everything is on his site. Martin Scorsese made an exemplary sequel, 'The Color of Money', in which Newman had the opportunity to round out his best-known character, obtaining an Oscar award.
