Paul Newman
The Legendary Actor in World Cinema
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, race
car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He has won numerous awards,
including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen
Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear, a Cannes Film
Festival Award, and a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Paul Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Shaker Heights,
Ohio, the second son of Theresa Garth and Arthur Sigmund Newman Sr., who ran a
sporting goods store. His father was Jewish, the son of Simon Newman
and Hannah Cohn, Hungarian Jewish and Polish Jewish emigrants,
from Hungary and Congress Poland, respectively. Paul's
mother was a Christian Science practitioner. She was born into a Roman Catholic
family in Peticse, Zemplen County, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Newman did not practice any religion as an adult but called himself Jewish
because it was a challenge. Newman's mother worked in his father's shop while
raising Paul and his older brother Arthur.
Newman showed an early interest in the theater; At the age of
seven, he played the court jester in a school production of Robin Hood. At age
ten, Newman performed in the Cleveland Playhouse's St. George and the Dragon.
After graduating from Shaker Heights High School in 1943, he briefly attended
Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he entered the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
Newman served in the US Navy in World War II in the Pacific
Theater. Initially, he enrolled in the Navy V-12 pilot training program at Yale
University but dropped out when he was diagnosed with color blindness. Boot
camp continued with radioman and rear gunner training. Aviation Radioman 3rd
Class Newman qualified on torpedo bombers in 1944 and was assigned to Barbers
Point, Hawaii. He was assigned to Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons
VT-98, VT-99, and VT-100, with primary responsibility for training replacement
fighter pilots and aircrewmen, with special emphasis on carrier landings. He
later flew as a turret gunner on Avenger torpedo bombers. As a radioman gunner,
his unit was assigned to the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill in the spring of 1945
just before the Battle of Okinawa. The pilot of his plane suffered an earache
and his crew, including Newman, fell to the ground. The rest of their squadron
flew to Bunker Hill. A few days later, a kamikaze attack on the ship killed
hundreds of crewmen and airmen, including other members of his unit.
After the war, Newman graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier,
Ohio in 1949 with degrees in drama and economics. After graduating, he joined
several summer stock companies, notably the Belfry Players in Wisconsin and the
Woodstock Players in Illinois. As part of the Woodstock Players, he toured with
them for three months and honed his skills. He then attended the Yale School of
Drama for a year before moving to New York City to study under Lee Strasberg at
the Actors Studio. Oscar Levant wrote that Newman was initially reluctant to
leave New York for Hollywood, stating that Newman was "too close to the
cake. And there was no room to study."
His first starring Broadway role was in Willian
Inge's ‘Picnic’, and he starred in smaller roles for a few more films
before receiving widespread attention and acclaim for his performances in Somebody
Up There Likes Me in 1956 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1958, the latter of
which also starred Elizabeth Taylor.
Newman's major films include The Hustler in 1961, The Hud in
1963, Harper in 1966, Cool Hand Luke in 1967, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid in 1969, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean in 1972, and The Sting in 1973,
The Towering Inferno in 1974, Fort Apache, The Bronx in 1981, and voice
role of Doc Hudson in the first installment of Disney-Pixar’s
Cars as his final acting non-documentary role, with his archival voice
recordings being used again in Cars 3 in 2017, nine years after his death.
A ten-time Oscar nominee, Newman won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1986
for The Color of Money.
Newman was married twice. His first marriage was to Jackie Witte. They had a son, Scott, and two daughters, Susan and Stephanie Kendall. Scott, who appeared in films including The Towering Inferno, Breakheart Boss, and Fraternity Row, died of a drug overdose in November 1978. Newman started the Scott Newman Center for Drug Abuse Prevention in his son's memory. Susan is a documentary filmmaker and philanthropist, with Broadway and screen credits Susan played one of four Beatles fans in the 1978 film 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' and also had a cameo alongside her father in Slap Shot. She also received an Emmy nomination as a co-producer for his telefilm The Shadow Box.
Newman met actress Joanne Woodward in the 1953 Broadway
production of 'Picnic'. This was Newman's debut; Woodward was a scholar. After
filming The Long, Hot Summer in 1957, he divorced Witte to marry Woodward. The
Newman moved to East 11th Street in Manhattan before buying a house in
Westport, Connecticut, and raising their family. They were one of the first
Hollywood movie star couples to choose to raise their family outside of
California. They were married for 50 years until his death in 2008. Woodward
said, "He's very handsome and charming, but that all goes out the window,
and if what's left at the end can make someone laugh.. he certainly makes me
laugh." Newman attributes the success of their relationship to "some
combination of love and respect and patience. And determination."
They had three daughters: Eleanor Nell Theresa, Melissa Lizzie
Stewart, and Claire "Glee" Olivia. Newman was known for his devotion
to his wife and family. When asked about his reputation for reliability, he
famously quipped, "Why go out for hamburgers when you can have steak at
home?". Also said that he has never seen anyone who had as much to lose as
he did. In a profile, he admitted that he once left Woodward after a fight,
walked around the outside of the house, knocked on the front door, and told Joanne
he had nowhere to go. Newman directed Nell alongside her mother in Rachel,
Rachel, and The Effect of Gamma Race on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Newman and
Woodward acted as Allison Janney's advisors. They met her when she was a
freshman at Kenyan College during a play directed by Newman.
He and Woodward were the subject of a 2022 docuseries by Ethan Hawke, The Last Movie Stars, which was broadcast on HBO Max. Newman made his professional stage acting debut in Westport Country Playhouse's 2008 production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, but withdrew on May 23, 2008, citing health issues. In June 2008, it was widely reported in the press that he had lung cancer and was being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In an interview with The Associated Press in mid-2008, Hotchner said Newman had told him about the disease 18 months earlier. Newman's spokesman told reporters the actor was "doing well" but would not confirm or deny he had cancer. The actor was a heavy smoker until he quit smoking in 1986.
Newman died at his home in Westport, Connecticut on the morning
of September 26, 2008. He was cremated after a private funeral
service.
Newman won several national championships as a driver in the Sports
Car Club of America road racing, and his racing teams won several championships
in open-wheel IndyCar racing. He co-founded Newman's Own, a food company, from
which he donated all after-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of May
2021, these contributions amount to US$570 million. In 1988, Newman founded the
Serious Fun Children's Network, a global family of summer camps and programs
for children with serious illnesses that have served 1.3 million children and
their families since its inception. In 2006, Newman co-founded the Safe Water
Network with John Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, and Josh Weston,
former chairman of ADP.
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