It's 1956, and Paul Newman is born

Before his film career took off, Newman showcased his brilliance in the original screen adaptation of 'Bang the Drum Slowly'

It’s 1956. You skipped the overblown feature film from two years earlier, The Silver Chalice, and you haven’t had a chance to see the Rocky Graziano biopic, Somebody Up There Likes Me.

It’s 1956, and on your television screen (small by our standards, huge by yours), emerging into spotlight from the darkness of a soundstage, you see a man in a smartly fitted coat and open-collared shirt. For the next hour, you watch this man: earnest, charming, confident, cocky, disbelieving, wounded, desperate and finally, broken.

It’s Paul Newman, and my question is, could you tell it was Paul Newman?