Paul Newman admitted that there were "elements of luck" in his career and that James Dean could have overshadowed him had the actor not died in a car crash in 1955.
The Hollywood star's remarks were revealed in a posthumous memoir, "The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man," which is to be released on Oct. 27.
"I know there are some people who attribute my career breakthroughs to Jimmy's death. Yes, there were elements of luck — and a lot of my success has indeed involved what I call 'Newman's luck,' " Newman, who died in 2008, said, according to the Independent.
"Luck recognized me. If Jimmy hadn't been killed, half of me says, You could have done it anyway. It would have been a hair slower, but it would have happened," he added.
Newman's career received a massive boost in 1955, when he took over Dean's role in the TV drama "The Battler" after the actor was killed in a car crash two weeks into filming. Newman was initially cast in a supporting role and had to quickly adapt.
"My character had to go from beat-up to handsome to beat-up again during the course of a live 6-minute show; I was having prosthetics glued on and taken off my face at a crazy pace," he recalled.
The following year, Newman was cast in another career-defining role for Bob Wise's Rocky Graziano biography film, "Somebody Up There Likes Me" — a part which was also rumored to have originally been intended for Dean.
"Word was that the film was to be Jimmy Dean's next project, and his sudden death obviously scrambled things; Wise and the producers cast me, probably on the strength of my handling the part in 'The Battler,' " said Newman.
Newman went on to star in a number of hit films including "The Hustler" (1961), "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), and "The Color of Money" (1986).
"Newman's luck began in 1925 when I was born white in America. Appearance is the second luck. Cognitive skills in inventing is the third luck," he explained.
"And I had the luck to overcome the fact that people always said about me. 'Isn't he darling!' or 'Isn't he so cute!' by having enough drive to see I wasn't ever going to survive just on that. I'd been in contact with indifference and stupidity and my own lack of perception," he added. "But I'd never really come in contact with true adversity."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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