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Paul Leonard Newman (born January 26, 1925) is an iconic, Academy Award, Golden Globe, Cannes Award, and Emmy Award-winning American actor and film director. He is the founder of Newman's Own, a food company of which all profits and royalties are donated to charity. As of 2006, these donations exceeded $200 million USD.
Background
Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland, to Theresa Fetzer and Arthur S. Newman, a retail store owner. Newman's father was Jewish, the son of European immigrants Simon Newman and Hannah Cohn, while his mother was Slovak and practiced Christian Science.
Newman served in the Navy in World War II, in the Pacific theater. Prior to entering the service, he attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he was initiated into the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He completed his degree at Kenyon College after the war and later studied acting at Yale University and under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City. Oscar Levant writes that Newman was initially hesitant to leave New York for Hollywood: "Too close to the cake," he reports him saying, "Also no place to study."
Film career
While he was attending graduate school at Yale, he became a successful stage actor in New York City. He made his Broadway theatre debut in the original production of William Inge's Picnic with Kim Stanley. He later appeared in the original Broadway productions of The Desperate Hours and Sweet Bird of Youth with Geraldine Page. He would later star in the film version of Sweet Bird of Youth, which also starred Page.
His first movie, The Silver Chalice (1954) has been described by Newman himself as the "worst movie of the entire 1950s decade," but he rebounded with acclaimed roles such as Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) as boxer Rocky Graziano and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite Elizabeth Taylor.
Newman appeared in a screen test with James Dean for the role of Cal Trask in East of Eden, but Dean won the part.
Major films
With his piercing blue eyes and handsome chiseled features, he could have been just a romantic leading man, but he wanted much more than that. Newman fought for important roles in great movies, rather than trade on his good looks and take standard pretty boy roles Hollywood offered every young handsome actor. Newman was one of the few actors who successfully made the transition from 1950s to the 1960s and 1970s cinema. His rebellious persona translated well to a subsequent generation. He has been frequently mentioned by younger actors as an influence.
Newman has appeared in such classics as The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963),Harper (1966), Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977) and The Verdict (1982). He appeared most notably with Robert Redford in the films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).
He also appeared with his wife, Joanne Woodward, in the feature films The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!, (1958), From the Terrace (1960), Paris Blues (1961), A New Kind of Love (1963), Winning (1969), WUSA (1970), The Drowning Pool (1975), Harry & Son (1984) and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990). They also both starred in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls, but did not have any scenes together.
In addition to Harry & Son, which Newman starred and directed, he also directed three feature films (which he was only the director) that starred Woodward. They were Rachel, Rachel (1968), based on Margaret Laurence's A Jest of God, the screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), the television screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box (1980) and a screen version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1987).
Recent work
Recently, he appeared in a Broadway theatre revival of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. He received his first Tony Award nomination for his performance. PBS and the cable network Showtime aired a taping of the production, and Newman was nominated for an Emmy Award, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie.
One of his most recent screen appearance is as a conflicted mob boss in Road To Perdition opposite Tom Hanks. Now in his early eighties, Newman has almost retired but has continued acting occasionally, such as doing voice work for Disney/Pixar's Cars as the character Doc Hudson
Awards
Newman has been nominated for an Academy Award nine times as an actor, in addition to the producer nomination he received for Rachel, Rachel. He was nominated for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; The Hustler; Hud; Cool Hand Luke; Rachel, Rachel; Absence of Malice; The Verdict; Nobody's Fool; and Road to Perdition. Of his acting nominations, he won once, for his leading role on The Color of Money in 1986. That award came a year after he won an honorary Oscar for his "many and memorable and compelling screen performances." In 1994, the Academy awarded him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his charity work. In all, he has three Oscar statuettes.
Newman was nominated for five BAFTA Awards, winning once for The Hustler. He won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for The Long, Hot Summer.
In 2005, he won his first ever Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award, for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for Empire Falls, which he also produced. He got another Emmy nomination as producer for the miniseries. He was previously nominated for Outstanding Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for Our Town, in 2003; and for Outstanding Director of a Miniseries or TV Movie, for The Shadow Box, in 1980.
In 1969, he won the Golden Globe award for Best Director, for Rachel, Rachel, but failed to get an Academy Award nomination even though the film was nominated for Best Picture. He won the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984.
And finally, in 1968, Newman was awarded the second of a long series of prestigious "Man of the Year" awards by Harvard University's renowned performance group, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
Life outside the cinema
Personal life
Detached from Hollywood, Newman makes his home in Westport, Connecticut with his wife Joanne Woodward most of the year. He also lives in the small town of Golden Beach, Florida.
He has married twice. His first marriage was to Jackie Witte, and lasted from 1949 to 1958. Together they had a son, Scott, who was born in 1950 and two daughters, Susan Kendall (1953) and Stephanie. Scott died in 1978 from an accidental drug overdose . Scott had appeared in such films as The Towering Inferno as a firefighter, and in the 1977 film Fraternity Row. Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son. . Susan is a stage actress and philanthropist. She also produced his telefilm The Shadow Box.
Newman married Joanne Woodward on January 29, 1958. They have three daughters — Elinor Teresa (1959), Melissa Steward (1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (1965). Newman directed his daughter Elinor (stage name Nell Potts) in the central role alongside her mother in the film The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Newman has been married to Woodward now for almost 50 years and when asked why he never committed adultery by Empire magazine he famously replied "Why fool around with hamburgers when you have steak at home?"
For his strong support of Eugene McCarthy in 1968 (and effective use of television commercials in California), Newman was 19th on Richard Nixon's enemies list. He has said that this is one of his life's proudest achievements.
Consistent with his work for liberal causes, Newman publicly supported Ned Lamont's candidacy in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Primary against Senator Joe Lieberman.
Auto racing
He first became interested in the motorsport ("the first thing that I ever found I had any grace in") while training for, and filming, Winning, a 1968 film, despite being color-blind.
Newman's first professional event was in 1972, in Thompson, Connecticut. He ran the 24 hours of Le Mans once in 1979 and finished second in a Porsche 935 of Dick Barbour, mainly due to the driving skills of German team mate Rolf Stommelen.
From the mid seventies to the early nineties, he drove for the Bob Sharp Racing team, racing mainly Nissans. He became heavily associated with the brand during the eighties, even appearing in commercials for them. Although they named a Skyline model after him, calling it the "Newman", he was most closely associated with the Z series, which he used for most of his race victories and championship titles.
At the age of 70, he became the oldest driver to be part of a winning team in a major sanctioned race, the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1995. Newman told an Associated Press journalist in March 2005 that he'll "probably race for another year".
Newman co-founded Newman/Haas Racing with Carl Haas, a Champ Car auto racing team, in 1983. He is also a partner in the Champ Car Atlantics team Newman-Wachs racing. The 1996 racing season was chronicled in the IMAX film Super Speedway, which Newman narrates.
Later in his career, he voiced the Hudson Hornet "Doc Hudson", a former racecar in silent retirement in the little town of Radiator Springs, in the 2006 Disney/Pixar animated release Cars. In 2007 the movie "Dale" about the life of the legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt will be released featuring Paul Newman as the narrator.
Philanthropy
With writer A.E. Hotchner, Newman founded Newman's Own, a line of food products, in 1982. The brand started with salad dressing, and has expanded to include pasta sauce, lemonade, popcorn, and salsa, among other things. Newman donates the proceeds, after taxes, to charity. As of early 2006, the franchise has resulted in excess of $200 million in donations. He co-wrote a memoir about the subject with Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good (ISBN 0-385-50802-6). Among other awards, Newman co-sponsors the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, a $25,000 reward designed to recognize those who protect the first amendment as it applies to the written word.
One beneficiary of his philanthropy is the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a residential summer camp for seriously ill children, which is located between Ashford and Eastford in Connecticut. Newman cofounded the camp in 1986; it was named after the gang in his film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Newman's college fraternity, Phi Kappa Tau, adopted "Hole in the Wall" as their "national philanthropy" in 1995. One camp has expanded to become several Hole in the Wall Camps in the U.S., Ireland, France and Israel. The camp serves 13,000 children every year, free of charge.
Main Filmography
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) |The left-handed Gun (1958) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) | The Long, Hot Summer (1958) | Exodus (1960) | The Hustler (1961) | Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) | Hud (1963) | The Prize (1963) | Torn Curtain (1966) | Harper (1966) | Hombre (1967) | Cool Hand Luke (1967) | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) | The Sting (1973) | The Mackintosh Man (1973) | The Towering Inferno (1974) | The Drowning Pool (1975) | Absence of Malice (1981) | The Verdict (1982) | The Color of Money (1986) | Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) | Blaze (1989) | The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) | Nobody's Fool (1994) | Road to Perdition (2002) | Cars (2006)
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