Paul Leonard Newman, also known as Paul Newman, was an American actor, movie director, race car driver, and entrepreneur who was born on January 26, 1925. Newman won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, among many others. Somebody Up There Likes Me is considered to be his number one movie of all time.
Somebody Up There Likes Me is a 1956 American drama film based on the life of middleweight boxing superstar Rocky Graziano, directed by Robert Wise and starring Paul Newman and Pier Angeli. Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckart, Harold J. Stone, Sal Mineo, and Robert Loggia make up the supporting cast. Fidel Castro is played by Steve McQueen, who has a short but noteworthy uncredited part.
The movie received three Academy Award nominations, winning two of them: Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. It lost its Best Film Editing nomination to Around the World in 80 Days. According to MGM figures, the film made a profit of $609,000 after grossing $1,915,000 in the United States and Canada and $1,445,000 overseas.
Rocky Graziano was supposed to be played by James Dean, but he passed away before production could begin, therefore Paul Newman was requested to fill the role. Rod Taylor, an Australian actor, was also considered for the job; despite being passed over, his screen test impressed MGM enough that they offered him a long-term contract.
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