Paul Newman

Paul Newman (1925- ), American actor, businessman, and philanthropist, who won an Academy Award (Oscar) for his role in The Color of Money (1986). He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and started acting at high school, studying later at the Yale School of Drama and the Actors Studio. After a successful Broadway debut in Picnic by William Motter Inge in 1953, Newman signed with Warner Bros. to act in films, but returned to the Broadway stage to play in Joseph Hayes’s The Desperate Hours. He won critical acclaim for his portrayal of boxer Rocky Graziano in the film Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) by Tennessee Williams.

Some of Newman’s finest films were made in the 1960s, including The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Hombre (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967), and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). This last film—featuring himself and Robert Redford—was the highest-grossing Western in film history at the time. Newman and Redford’s second film together, The Sting, won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1973.

Newman also produced and directed a number of films himself. His directorial debut was Rachel, Rachel (1968), which starred his wife, Joanne Woodward; he was also the producer. Other films he produced or directed include They Might be Giants (1971), as producer; The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), as producer and director; Harry and Son (1984), as producer and director; and The Glass Menagerie (1987), as director.

From the late 1970s, Newman began to play older characters, enhancing his reputation as an accomplished actor in such films as The Verdict (1982). He finally won an Academy Award for playing the pool shark Fast Eddie Felson in The Color of Money (1986), which followed the character he had played 25 years earlier in The Hustler into middle age. He also appeared in Blaze (1989) and Mr and Mrs Bridge (with Joanne Woodward, 1990). After relishing the rare experience of playing the villain in Joel Coen’s The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Newman was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as construction worker Sully Sullivan in Nobody’s Fool (1995), and appeared as a quarrelsome father to Kevin Costner in the romantic drama Message in a Bottle in 1999. He also starred as a Chicago gang boss in the Depression-era thriller Road to Perdition (2002; Sam Mendes) and won a Golden Globe for his supporting role as the father of a Maine restaurateur in the mini-series Empire Falls (2005).

In 1982 Newman began to market his recipes for spaghetti sauce and salad dressing under the Newman’s Own label; the company gradually extended its product line and Newman donated all the profits from the business to various charities. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with a humanitarian award in 1994 in recognition of his efforts.