The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir

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Understanding the irony that his looks would breed jealousy and suspicion in an industry where beauty opens doors, Paul Newman pursued gritty, hard-edged roles ( Hud, Cool Hand Luke), but there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that he would escape the sex symbol status that vaulted him to the top of the celebrity A-list. A stunning memoir by an actor who could convincingly play a charismatic but self-destructive outsider because he knew the breed all too well…a brutally frank reflection on a life filled with self-doubt…[ The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man]smolders with introspection as Newman tries to ascertain what he couldn’t see in himself that so many others did. He felt guilt over abandoning his children with his first wife, especially his eldest son, Scott, who died of an overdose at age 28. He was an American icon, a brilliant actor, a Renaissance man and a generous but modest philanthropist . 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 additional voices - from childhood friends and Navy buddies, from family members and film and theater collaborators such as Tom Cruise, George Roy Hill, Martin Ritt, and John Huston - that run throughout add richness and color and context to the story Newman is telling. In this way, it is mostly Newman's own words, but it's impossible to know if this is how he would have chosen to present his story and his voice. Like the alcoholic husband he played in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Newman relied on liquor to ease him into a merciful numbness. And in this way, we would learn about the man, the actor, his flaws, his imperfections, and the realness of him.I always had the sense I cater to appearances, that I drink too much, that I don't know how to define myself, so that I can't define my children, either - all of these negatives in my life. A political activist and humanitarian, he raised and donated nearly one billion dollars to many charities. I-aș fi acordat 5 stele dacă la final n-aș fi aflat că de fapt Newman n-a dorit niciodată să-și scrie memoriile.

Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. Newman himself, in “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man,” a stunning memoir by an actor who could convincingly play a charismatic but self-destructive outsider because he knew the breed all too well. also a director, race car driver, husband, father, philanthropist, (went further than most actors), business owner of a non-profit ‘Newman’s Own’ (salad dressings, etc.This posthumous memoir is a chronological, multi-voiced oral history, distilled from the 14,000 transcript pages. I recognize it in almost anything: plumbers, museum guides, limousine drivers, bank tellers—I delight in seeing it.