The career frustrations that pushed Paul Newman into the director's chair

Paul Newman is a Hollywood icon. His breakout role came in 1956 as boxer Rocky Graziano in "Somebody Up There Likes Me." By the 1960s, he was a superstar, landing the titular lead roles in the rebel "Cool Hand Luke" and the western "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

But in the late 1960s, Neman grew frustrated with his options as an actor. In a 1969 interview with San Francisco's KRON TV, Newman said:

"The reason I started directing was that it was very, very difficult to find scripts to do as an actor. There were scripts that I read as an actor that I would have said, 'Gee I would have loved to be connected with this project. Well now I can be connected to projects that may not be able to include me as an actor."

At the time, Newman was one of Hollywood's most successful actors, earning a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 'Cool Hand Luke.' It didn't matter to the actor, and Newman took the director's chair the following year. Although his directorial debut was successful, his work as a director is oddly underrated when it comes to his legacy.