{"id":35843,"date":"2023-04-14T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T12:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/"},"modified":"2023-04-14T12:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:08:24","slug":"actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Paul Newman\u2019s Lifelong Struggle with Insecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The actor Paul Newman was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won for <em>The Color of Money<\/em> in 1987. He also received an honorary Oscar in 1986 and the Academy&rsquo;s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994.<\/p>\n\n<p>But his life was hardly free of disappointment and tragedy. He wrestled with his drinking, a habit he knew was self-destructive but says &ldquo;unlocked a lot of things I couldn&rsquo;t have done without it.&rdquo; And he was shattered when his son, Scott, who had led a drifting life in his father&rsquo;s shadow and was receiving psychiatric treatment, died in 1978 at the age of 28.<\/p>\n\n<p>Decades into his singularly successful career as an actor, Paul Newman offered a frank admission. &ldquo;I am faced with the appalling fact that I don&rsquo;t know anything,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n\n<p>Newman was also dogged by self-doubt, perpetually questioning his choices and plagued by past mistakes. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m always anxious about admitting to failure,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To not being good enough, to not being right.&rdquo; Newman&rsquo;s lifelong insecurity is one of the more striking themes to emerge from a posthumous memoir by the actor, titled <em>The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3404,3422,3552,3572,3786,3931,3972,3973,4254,4482,4603,4752,4910,4917,4919,5102,5178,5265],"tax_ctp_topics":[377,384],"class_list":["post-35843","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-alcohol","tax_ctp_tags-anxiety","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-choice","tax_ctp_tags-disappointment","tax_ctp_tags-failure","tax_ctp_tags-faultfinding","tax_ctp_tags-faults","tax_ctp_tags-insecurity","tax_ctp_tags-mistakes","tax_ctp_tags-past","tax_ctp_tags-questions","tax_ctp_tags-self-condemnation","tax_ctp_tags-self-esteem","tax_ctp_tags-self-examination","tax_ctp_tags-success","tax_ctp_tags-tragedy","tax_ctp_tags-weakness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Actor Paul Newman\u2019s Lifelong Struggle with Insecurity - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Actor Paul Newman\u2019s Lifelong Struggle with Insecurity - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The actor Paul Newman was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won for The Color of Money in 1987. He also received an honorary Oscar in 1986 and the Academy&rsquo;s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994. But his life was hardly free of disappointment and tragedy. He wrestled with his drinking, a habit he knew Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-23T19:08:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/\",\"name\":\"Actor Paul Newman\u2019s Lifelong Struggle with Insecurity - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-14T12:10:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-23T19:08:24+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Actor Paul Newman\u2019s Lifelong Struggle with Insecurity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Actor Paul Newman\u2019s Lifelong Struggle with Insecurity - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/actor-paul-newmans-lifelong-struggle-with-insecurity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Actor Paul Newman\u2019s Lifelong Struggle with Insecurity - CT Pastors","og_description":"The actor Paul Newman was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won for The Color of Money in 1987. 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