58 Paul Newman Movies & TV Shows, Ranked Best to Worst

This Academy Awards-winning movie is about an elaborate con planned to take revenge. When his mentor-partner Luther is killed by a ruthless crime-boss Lonnegan, young swindler Hooker seeks help of con-pro Gondorff to plot a complicated scam to get back at Lonnegan. They assemble a group of con-artists for the scheme. However, they also encounter several twists and obstacles along the way.

The documentary film biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., constructed using original newsreels, chronicles the important events of his Civil Rights Movement. King’s journey from a regional activist to the world-renowned leader of non-violent campaign for racial equality is captured through events from the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott to the 1968 assassination in Memphis, and also includes rare footage of his speeches, arrests, and protest-marches. 

War veteran Lucas ‘Luke’ Jackson is sentenced to two years on a chain gang for cutting parking meters. However, in the prison, he becomes an inspirational hero to the rest of his fellow convicts, including the prisoners’ leader Dragline for standing up to the guards and their sadistic leader Walking Boss Godfrey. 

The classic Western is based on the true story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, better known as Butch Cassidy and Harry Longabaugh, the Sundance Kid. The movie follows them as they become folk heroes from train robbers to bank robbers, to outlaws, until they meet their end in Bolivia, with guns blazing. 

Small-time pool hustler, Fast Eddie Felson, enters the crooked and perverted world of major league professional pool-hustling and high-stakes winnings. He eventually ends up losing against the legendary player, Minnesota Fats, and getting involved with corrupt manager Bert Gordon. He does return to beat Fats but after paying a horrible personal price. 

Brick Pollitt, an alcoholic ex football player injures himself while he was drunk. Shortly after, he goes with his wife Maggie to visit his family’s plantation in Mississippi, for his father’s 65th birthday. His father wants to know why they are still childless, unlike Brick’s brother.

Homer Bannon is an honest and hard-working rancher in Texas. He has a bitter relationship with Hud, his son, who is selfish, egotistical and arrogant, and also an alcoholic since he killed his brother in a car crash. When they lose one of their cows due to a disease, he claims his father to be mentally incompetent to save the herd.

Set in Chicago during the great depression, this crime-drama film follows a hitman working for an Irish mobster who raised him. Road to Perdition is adapted from a graphic novel of the same name.

In order to restore his career and self-respect, a lawyer takes up a medical malpractice case to trial, rather than settling it outside of court. However, he has to go against a powerful attorney Edward Concannon.

Rocky Graziano, who had a difficult childhood, makes a career in crime. He frequently run in prisons and detention centres, and there too he is unruly. Once out, he takes up boxing to earn quick money. He quickly realises his potential in the ring and fights odds to become a champion.

Hombre is a Western film which tells the story of John Russell, a white man who grew up among Native Indians. This makes him the subject of racism, but when the people are attacked by outlaws, he becomes their only hope for survival.

In the small New England town of Charlestown, the minor league hockey team, the Charlestown Chiefs is not doing too well. After years of failure, they decide to achieve success with their violent and thuggish lifestyle.

Although Sully is sixty years old, he likes to avoid responsibilities and spend him time at odd construction jobs or at the local bar. However, this changes when his estranged son, Peter, pays him a visit, along with his own son.

A conman hears rumours about his late father's pyromaniac tendencies upon arrival in his hometown. Meanwhile, he impresses the civic leader who considers him to be a suitable prospective husband for his daughter.

Conspiring board member Sidney J. Mussburger decides to take control of Hudsucker Industries. To do so he hires graduate, Norville Barnes, thinking him to be stupid, to devalue the company’s stock. But things don’t go according to plan when Norville’s latest invention increases the value and undercover reporter Amy Archer finds out about Mussburger’s villainous plans. 

A drifter returns to his hometown after several years of trying his luck to find success in the movies. Along with him is a former film star, whom he had picked up along the way. He tries to get help from her in order to get a successful screen test. Meanwhile, he also takes the time to meet his former girlfriend, who is the daughter of a local politician- the same man who had forced him to leave.   

Former pool hustler ‘Fast’ Eddie Felson takes in a new apprentice, the talented and charismatic Vincent Lauria. As he keeps teaching Vincent and his girlfriend Carmen, Eddie and Vincent have a falling out, thanks to Vincent’s showboating and jealousy. When Eddie takes up playing again, he ends up in a game against Vincent. 

A massive fire breaks out during the opening ceremony of the world’s biggest skyscraper, and it threatens to destroy not only the tower but also everyone inside. The city’s rescue teams try their best to fight the fire and save the people trapped inside. 

An innocent man is maligned by a naïve reporter, Megan Carter. However, she helps him fight the authorities when she learns about his innocence.

Shortly after he rides into a West Texas border town named Vinegaroon, he is beaten up by the customers in a saloon and left to die. However, a young girl named Maria finds him and helps him, after which returns to town and shoots the three men who had wronged him. Seeing that the town is without law and order, he appoints himself as the judge, and decides to deliver justice in his own way.

Capt. Edward Hall Jr., who had been a POW in Korea for 2 years, returns home where he faces court-martial for collaborating with the enemy. His father, a distinguished officer, renounces his son, so a disheartened Hall decides to plead guilty. But his attorney encourages him to recount his experiences. Will he succeed in convincing the court; more specifically, his father?   

Lew Harper is a private investigator in Los Angeles, who is having a divorce from a woman whom he still loves. He is soon hired by a wealthy but disabled woman to find her missing husband. On the way, he gets involved with several strange characters, who threaten him. He continues his investigation which eventually leads him to an alien-smuggling ring.

Silent Movie is a comedy film which tells the story of Mel Funn, who used to be a great film director in Hollywood at one point. However, his career declined due to his drinking problem. Along with his sidekicks, he decides to make the first silent movie in forty years, in order to make a comeback.

This historical drama film revolves around the creation of the State of Israel, created in 1948. This however results in war with its Arab neighbors.

Fort Apache the Bronx is a crime drama film which tells the story of a lonely policeman who struggles to maintain law and order in a difficult area in New York, where his colleagues use mostly ruthless methods. When a boy dies in suspicious circumstances, the cop refuses to let it go unchallenged. But he has to soon face the wrath of his fellow officers.

During the Cold War, American physicist Prof. Michael Armstrong defects to East Germany. His fiancée and assistant Sarah Sherman, who follows him to East Berlin, is shocked by his action. However, he is on a secret mission as double agent to get an important solution for a nuclear secret, before returning to the US. But Sarah’s presence makes the escape risky for both.

Set during the WWII in New Zealand, the movie is inspired by a story authored by James A. Michener for Return to Paradise. The movie follows four sisters – Anne, Barbara, Delia and Evelyn – and their romance with US soldiers. Meanwhile Jack Harding, a marine, is assigned to find out the genuineness of the potential matrimonial alliances between the American soldiers and New Zealand women.

Fat Man and Little Boy is a historical drama film which is about the Manhattan Project, a secret wartime project in New Mexico commanded by General Leslie Groves, where the first atomic bombs were designed and built.

Released in the UK as Both Ends of the Candle, the film traces the life of torch singer and actress Helen Morgan. Beginning her career as a Chicago carnival dancer, Helen catches the attention of Larry Maddux, a fast-talking bootlegger and with his help reaches stardom. But her fame and wealth cannot bring her happiness and she soon turns to alcohol. 

Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man is an adventure war film, which tells the story of an immature young man from Middle America. The film explores his cross-country journey as well as his military service during the First World War. 

Carol Ann MacKay is a nurse who is living a happily married life with her husband Wayne MacKay. However, when a legendary bank robber is placed in the nursing home where she works, Wayne and Carol decide to plan a robbery together, in order to escape from their boring lives.  

Message in a Bottle is a romantic drama film, which revolves around a woman who finds a romantic letter in a bottle washed ashore. She is determined to track the man who wrote it, and eventually finds a man who has been writing to his deceased wife. 

Twilight is a mystery thriller film which tells the story of Harry Ross, a private detective, who lives with two former movie stars named Jack and Catherine Ames. When Jack assigns a simple task to Harry, which involves delivering a package, things get confusing as when Harry arrives at the address, he encounters a wounded man named Ivar, who starts shooting at him.  

Thanks to wife Grace’s enthusiasm about joining all civic committees, Harry Bannerman is sent to talk to the Army about their planned missile base in Bannermans’ town, Putnam’s Landing. Instead, Army appoints Harry as their liaison officer, complicating the matters. If that is not enough, he has to fend off flirtatious advances of their neighbor Angela and clear the misunderstandings of Grace. 

Samantha Blake, a ladies fashion buyer, doesn’t want to romance due to her past experience. Steve Sherman is a womanizing newspaper reporter who first meets her on a flight to Paris and later mistakes her for a high class prostitute after she undergoes a makeover in the city. The encounter turns from simple fun to something more serious when the two genuinely fall for each other.

Rheinhardt, an alcoholic wanderer, accepts an announcer’s job at WUSA, a New Orleans right-wing radio station, although he doesn’t agree with the station’s political views. When friend Geraldine and activist neighbor Rainey question him about WUSA’s involvement in hate propaganda and conspiracy to instigate a riot at a planned rally, Rheinhardt realizes that he can’t insulate himself, and needs to take a stand.

Elegant at 80 years, Lady Lendale relates her life’s romantic adventures to biographer Sir Percy. Basically from Corsica, she meets and falls for anarchist Armand while working as a laundress in Paris. Later, she marries the smitten aristocrat, Lord Lendale, on the condition of saving Armand from jail after attempted assassination of a Prince. But her wealthy, upper-class life hides a secret. 

Cars, the animated Pixar classic, tells the story of anthropomorphic talking cars. Racing rookie Lightning McQueen finds himself trapped in Radiator Springs after falling off his truck. As McQueen starts doing community service for damaging roads, he makes friends, falls in love, and ends up being trained by racing legend Hudson Hornet to discover who he truly is inside. 

The 3D computer-animated film follows legendary Lightning McQueen who feels he is being pushed out of the racing by new generation of high-tech fast racers. Now, to regain his place as champion, McQueen needs help from young racing trainer Cruz Ramirez and Fabulous Hudson Hornet’s former-engineer Smokey. Equipped with modern tricks, McQueen is set to take on Storm at the Florida 500.