Pretty boy blue

In his memoir Somebody Down Here Likes Me, Too, the boxer Rocky Graziano, on whom Paul Newman based his performance in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), describes the actor in perfect Runyonese:

I could see right off there ain’t one thing phony about this guy. Maybe there was. He was too good-looking. In fact, the guy is pretty… He’s got bright blue eyes, but when you look in ’em you see a hard look dancing around inside. Only one other guy I see these same eyes on an’ that was another friend of mine, Frank Sinatra. When their blue eyes spot a wise guy, the eyes say, ‘Don’t fuck with me, man!’


To judge by Paul Newman, a monumental cuttings job by someone who never met him, and Paul and Me, an anecdotal memoir by his oldest friend, Graziano got him about right. Despite his close friendship with Gore Vidal — they used to go on holiday together, and one can hear Gore drawl, ‘No need to be shy, Paul, you don’t need a swimsuit among friends’ — Newman seems to have been a pretty straight guy.