Paul Newman
| Paul Newman | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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 in Exodus (1960) |
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| Born | Paul Leonar Newman January 26, 1925 (1925-01-26) (age 83) Cleveland, Ohio United States |
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| Years active | 1952 - 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Jackie Witte (1949–1958) Joanne Woodward (1958–) |
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Paul Leonard Newman (born January 26, 1925) is a celebrated Academy Award-winning American actor and film director.
He has won numerous awards including Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an Emmy award.
He is also the founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which Newman donates all profits and royalties to charity.[1] As of May 2007, these donations have exceeded $220 million USD.[1]
Contents |
Background
Paul Leonard Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio a suburb ofCleveland, Ohio. His father,[2] Arthur S. Newman Sr. of German-Jewish parents, ran a profitable sports goods store. His mother, Theresa (née Fetzer)[3] or Teresa (née Fetsko)[4] was born in a Slovak Catholic family in Ptičie near Humenné (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Homonna in Hungarian) and converted to Christian Science when Paul was 5. She worked in the shop, while raising Paul and his brother Arthur (who later became a producer and production manager).[2]
Newman showed an early interest in the theater, which his mother encouraged. At the age of seven, he made his acting debut, playing the court jester in a school production of Robin Hood. Graduating from Shaker Heights High School in 1943, he attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he was initiated into the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.[2]
Newman served in the Navy in World War II in the Pacific theater.[2] He flew from aircraft carriers as a rear gunner in the Avenger torpedo bomber.[citation needed] He had wanted to be a pilot, but did not qualify because he was color blind.[2]
After the war, he completed his degree at Kenyon College, graduating in 1949.[2] Newman later studied acting at Yale University and under Lee Strasberg at the Actors' Studio in New York City.[2]
Oscar Levant wrote that Newman was initially hesitant to leave New York for Hollywood: "Too close to the cake," he reported him saying, "Also no place to study."[5]
Film career
Newman made his Broadway theater 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,"[citation needed] but he rebounded with acclaimed roles in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), as boxer Rocky Graziano; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), opposite Elizabeth Taylor; and The Young Philadelphians (1959), with Barbara Rush and Robert Vaughn.
Newman appeared in a screen test with James Dean for East of Eden (1955). Newman was testing for the role of Aron Trask, Dean was testing for the role of Aron's older brother Cal Trask (although Newman is older than Dean). Dean won the part of Cal, while the role Newman was up for went to Dick Davalos. The same year Newman would co-star with Eva Marie Saint and Frank Sinatra in a live - and color - television broadcast of the Thornton Wilder stage play Our Town. In 2003 Newman would act in a remake of Our Town, taking on Sinatra's role as the stage manager.
Major films
Newman was one of the few actors who successfully made the transition from 1950s cinema to that of the 1960s and 1970s. His rebellious persona translated well to a subsequent generation. He has been frequently mentioned by younger actors as an influence.[citation needed]
Newman starred in Exodus (1960), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977) and The Verdict (1982). He teamed with fellow actor Robert Redford and director George Roy Hill for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).
He 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 starring in and directing Harry & Son, Newman also directed four feature films (in which he did not act) starring 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
In 2003, 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.
His last screen appearance was as a conflicted mob boss in Road to Perdition opposite Tom Hanks, although he continued to provide voice work for films. In keeping with his strong interest in car racing, he provided the voice of Doc Hudson, a retired race car in Disney/Pixar's Cars. He served as narrator for the 2007 film Dale, about the life of the legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt.
Retirement from acting
Newman announced that he would entirely retire from acting on May 25, 2007. He stated that he doesn't feel he can continue acting on the level that he would want to. "You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention. So I think that's pretty much a closed book for me."[6][7]
Other
Newman won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for The Long, Hot Summer and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Nobody's Fool
In 1968, Newman was named "Man of the Year" by Harvard University's performance group, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
Newman Day has been celebrated at Bates College, Princeton University, and other American colleges since the 1970s. Although the tradition is named after Newman, he has expressed disapproval of the drinking aspect of it, saying that since his son died of a drug overdose, he cannot condone any excessive use of drugs or alcohol.
Life outside the cinema
Personal life
Detached from Hollywood, Newman makes his home in Westport, Connecticut with his wife Joanne Woodward.
He has married twice. His first marriage was to Jackie Witte,[2] and lasted from 1949 to 1958. Together they had a son, Scott, born in 1950, and two daughters, Susan Kendall (1953) and Stephanie.[2] Scott Newman died in 1978 from an accidental drug overdose.[8] He had appeared in such films as The Towering Inferno as a firefighter, and doctor, and in the 1977 film Fraternity Row. Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son.[9] Susan is a documentary filmmaker and philanthropist. She also produced his telefilm The Shadow Box. He has 8 grandchildren from his daughters. His son had no children
Newman married Joanne Woodward on January 29, 1958. They have three daughters — Elinor Teresa (1959), Melissa Stewart (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. When asked why he never committed adultery by Empire magazine, he famously replied "Why go out for a hamburger 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.[citation needed]
Consistent with his work for liberal causes, Newman publicly supported Ned Lamont's candidacy in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Primary against Senator Joe Lieberman, and was even rumored as a candidate himself until Lamont emerged as a credible alternative. He has donated to Chris Dodd's presidential campaign.[10]
Auto racing
He first became interested in motorsports ("the first thing that I ever found I had any grace in") while training for and filming Winning, a 1969 film.
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.
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.[citation needed]
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/Lanigan 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. His team Newman/Haas/Lanigan announced a partnership with Robert Yates Racing of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, but that partnership collapsed when Yates announced his retirement from racing in September 2007.
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.[1] He co-wrote a memoir about the subject with Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good. 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 in Ashford, 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.[1]
In June 1999 Newman donated $250,000 to the relief of Kosovo refugees.
On June 1, 2007, Kenyon College announced that Newman had donated $10 million to the school to establish a scholarship fund as part of the college's current $230 million fund-raising campaign. Newman and Woodward were honorary co-chairs of a previous campaign.[11]
In October 2007, he made a donation of £20,000 to help breast cancer patients in southwest Wales through his Newman's Own Foundation.[citation needed]
Cultural reference
Newman is mentioned in S.E. Hinton's novel, The Outsiders. The book begins "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home."[citation needed]
The Scottish rock band Dogs Die In Hot Cars wrote a song entitled "Paul Newman's Eyes" on their first album Please Describe Yourself - a ballad to his infamous blue-eyed gaze.
Artist Gil Kane based his original illustrations of Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern) on a mid-30s Paul Newman.
In the Simpsons episode "King-Size Homer", the destruction of a corn field by radioactive gas leads a farmer to state that "Paul Newman's gonna have my legs broke."
Stage directorial debut
It's been announced by the Westport Country Playhouse that Paul would be directing his first stage play Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck which will premiere October 7, 2008.
Filmography
As actor
As director or producer
| Year | Title | Other notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1968 | Rachel, Rachel | Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture Nominated - Academy Award for Best Picture |
| 1969 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | Co-executive producer (uncredited) |
| Winning | Co-executive producer (uncredited) | |
| 1970 | WUSA | Co-producer |
| 1971 | Sometimes a Great Notion | Director and co-executive producer |
| They Might Be Giants | producer | |
| 1972 | The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds | Director and producer |
| The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean | Co-executive producer (uncredited) | |
| 1980 | The Shadow Box | Nominated - Emmy Award for Best Director for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special |
| 1984 | Harry & Son | Director and producer |
| 1984 | The Glass Menagerie | |
| 2005 | Empire Falls | Producer, Nominated: Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries |
Other awards and honors
Academy Awards
Honorary Award
- For his "many and memorable and compelling screen performances" (1986)
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
- For his charity work (1994)
Golden Globe Awards
New Star of the Year - Actor
- The Silver Chalice (1957)
Cecil B. DeMille Award
- Lifetime Achievement (1984)
References
- ^ a b c d FAQs. Newman's Own.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul Newman biography. Tiscali.co.uk.com.
- ^ Lax, Eric. Newmann: A Biography. urner Publishing, Incorporated, 1999. ISBN 1-57036-286-6.
- ^ Morella, Joe and Edward Z. Epstein. Paul and Joanne: A Biography of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Delacorte Press, 1988. ISBN 0440500044.
- ^ Oscar Levant, The Unimportance of Being Oscar. Pocket Books 1969 (reprint of G.P. Putnam 1968), p. 56. ISBN 0-671-77104-3.
- ^ Paul Newman quits films after stellar career. News.com.au. 27 May 2007.
- ^ Hollywood star Newman to retire. BBC News. 27 May 2007.
- ^ Clark, Hunter S. People. Time magazine. 17 February 1986.
- ^ Welcome. Scott Newman Center.org.
- ^ Dodd Gets Financial Boost From Celebs. WFSB.com. 17 Apr 2007.
- ^ "Paul Newman donates $10 mln to Kenyon College", Reuters, 2007-06-02. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.
Bibliography
- Newman, Paul and A. E. Hotchner. Newman's Own Cookbook. Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0684848325.
- Newman, Paul and A. E. Hotchner. Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good. Doubleday Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0385508026.
Further reading
- Lax, Eric. Paul Newman: a Biography. Turner Publishing, Incorporated, 1999. ISBN 1-57036-286-6.
- Morella, Joe and Edward Z. Epsteiny. Paul and Joanne: A Biography of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Delacorte Press, 1988. ISBN 0440500044.
- O'Brien, Daniel. Paul Newman. Faber & Faber, Limited, 2005. ISBN 057121987X.
- Oumano, Elena. Paul Newman. St. Martin's Press, 1990. ISBN 0-517-05934-7.
- Quirk, Lawrence J. The Films of Paul Newman. Taylor Pub., 1986. ISBN 0-8065-0385-8.
- Thomson, Kenneth. The Films of Paul Newman. 1978. ISBN 0-912616-87-3.
External links
- Paul Newman at the Internet Movie Database
- Newman/Haas Racing
- Newman's Own
- Paul Newman image gallery at The Guardian
- Paul Newman speaks at The American Ireland Fund Dinner Gala 2007 - video
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Henry Fonda (1981) · Ben Kingsley (1982) · Robert Duvall (1983) · F. Murray Abraham (1984) · William Hurt (1985) · Paul Newman (1986) · Michael Douglas (1987) · Dustin Hoffman (1988) · Daniel Day-Lewis (1989) · Jeremy Irons (1990) · Anthony Hopkins (1991) · Al Pacino (1992) · Tom Hanks (1993) · Tom Hanks (1994) · Nicolas Cage (1995) · Geoffrey Rush (1996) · Jack Nicholson (1997) · Roberto Benigni (1998) · Kevin Spacey (1999) · Russell Crowe (2000) Complete List · (1927–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present) |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Newman, Paul |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Newman, Paul Leonard |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Academy Award, Golden Globe, Cannes Award, and Emmy Award-winning American actor and film director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 1, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S. |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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