![]() It was a different film released the same year - The Long, Hot Summer - that had a significant impact on him both professionally and personally. The lead role of Billy the Kid didn’t prove to be life changing for Newman. Paul Newman (Left) in The Left Handed Gun (1958) Though little law and order is administered in the Old West. On the road for revenge the film explores the real-life relationship between Bonney and lawman Pat Garrett - played by John Dehner - with all of its complexities which is ultimately shattered with deadly consequences as Newman’s now faltering, immature, self-centred cowboy steps outside the boundaries of both friendship and law one too many a time. Having befriended cattle boss John Tunstall (referred to as ‘The Englishman’) Newman flips Bonney’s tame innocence and yearning for a straight life into a changed, fiery hot-headed killer when Tunstall is murdered by rival cattlemen, as Newman sets out to avenge the death of his mentor. ![]() Roy Rodgers played the western rebel (as well as his lookalike deputy sheriff) in Billy the Kid Returns (1938) two decades before Newman’s interpretation and Sam Peckinpah teased out the final days of the outlaw, much more violently than The Left Handed Gun - in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) with James Coburn and Kris Kristoffersen. The story of Billy the Kid is a recycled one throughout Hollywood. Overlooking the titles inaccuracy (Billy the Kid wasn’t left-handed) Newman plays Bonney as an energetic and misunderstood gunslinger whose fate was always destined for tragedy. Celebrity, philanthropist, born again boy racer and family man, but to many - myself included - Paul Newman will always be a western star.įour years on from his debut feature The Silver Chalice, Newman first donned a Stetson in The Left Handed Gun (1958) as William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. Nearly 15 years after his passing, Paul Newman continues to have significant meaning to many. Paul Newman in his final western - Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976)
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