Matinee Classics - Paul Newman Biography & Filmography

Paul Newman ACTOR

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PAUL NEWMAN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Paul Newman was born January 26, 1925 in Shaker, Ohio. He was born as Paul Leonard Newman. He was the son of a successful sporting goods business owner.

Throughout grade school and high school he showed an interest in acting and participated in numerous school plays. He joined the Navy, being trained as a pilot, but after it was discovered that he was color blind, he was discharged and then chose to attend Kenyon College in 1946. After graduation he married his first wife, Jackie, and they had three children, Scott, Susan, and Stephanie. Their son Scott died in 1978.

He lost his father in 1950 and for a brief period ran his dad’s sporting goods shop, but realized that that was not where he belonged and so he chose to attend the Yale Drama school, following which he moved to New York and attended the famed New York Actors Studio after two agents spotted him in a performance and saw he had a special talent.

His first Broadway appearance was in Picnic (1953). Upon completion Warner Brothers offered him a contract. His first film, The Silver Chalice (1954) also starring Jack Palance, Virginia Mayo and Pier Angeli, and in his opinion turned out to be a disaster. He even took out a full page add in a trade paper apologizing to the public for his performance.

However, in 1956 he appeared in Somebody Up There Likes Me and included Everett Sloane, an uncredited Steve McQueen, Pier Angeli, Sal Mineo and Robert Loggia and his performance was much better and critics acclaimed it as brilliant. In 1957 he was cast in The Long, Hot Summer, co-starring Joanne Woodward. During shooting this film they realized they were meant to be together. Jackie gave Paul a divorce and he and Joanne married in Las Vegas in January of 1958. They had three daughters together, Nell, Melanie and Melissa, and raised them in Westport, Connecticut. The couple would work on-screen together throughout their careers.

In 1959 Paul received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) starring alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives and Jack Carson. Newman bought himself out of his Warner Brothers contract and then starred in From The Terrace (1960) with his wife Joanne Woodward and Ina Balin, Barbara Eden, Leon Ames and Myrna Loy.

He continued to move up in stardom, starring in films such as The Hustler (1961) co-starring Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason and Murray Hamilton, The Prize (1963) starring with Elke Sommer, Edward G. Robinson, Diane Baker and Kevin McCarthy, Hud (1963) costarring Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and Brandon de Wilde and Cool Hand Luke (1967) starring with Strother Martin, George Kennedy, Wayne Rogers, J.D. Cannon, Ralph Waite, Jo Van Fleet, Anthony Zerbe, Dennis Hopper and Joe Don Baker. Not only was he a talented actor, he was also involved in producing many films, which included Rachel, Rachel (1968) which was given good marks. Although the film and Joanne Woodward were each nominated for an Oscar, Newman was not nominated for Best Director. He did, however, win a Golden Globe for his direction.

His stardom continued with Cool Hand Luke in 1967 for which he received his fourth Academy Award nomination. Paul Newman and Robert Redford came together in 1969 to release Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and it was a huge box office success! The 1970's followed with films such as W.U.S.A. (1971), a political film showing Newman's views on social activism.

In 1971 Newman announced a new production company founded by Barbra Streisand and Steve McQueen. This was created to give performers a chance to produce their own work. The first film he produced was Pocket Money in 1972.

The Sting (1973) again starring with his friend Robert Redford and also Robert Shaw and The Towering Inferno (1974) starring alongside Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner, Robert Vaughn, Fred Astaire and Jennifer Jones, were also hit films, and his next major success was the 1977 sports spoof Slap Shot, which went on to become a cult classic, and Absence of Malice (1981) sharring the spotlight with Sally Field, was a success that kept his career moving in the right direction.

He received his sixth Best Actor Oscar nomination for The Verdict (1982) also starring Charlotte Rampling, James Mason and Jack Warden and in 1987 finally received his first Best Actor Oscar for The Color of Money (1986) co-starring a young Tom Cruise.

Paul and Joanne were very involved in charitable organizations such as being the founder of Newman's Own, a line of food products that has earned over $100 million for charity. In 2006 he opened a restaurant called Dressing Room, which helps out the Westport Country Playhouse, a place the Newman's take great pride in. He also started The Hole in the Wall Gang Camps, an organization for terminally ill children in Ashford, Connecticut, and also runs a fall Discovery program for inner city kids, also in Ashford.

He did appear in two more films, Blaze and Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) starring with Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack and Laura Dern, before slowing down his on-screen appearances. In 2000 he starred in Where The Money Is.

Within a space of five months in 2003 he was nominated for an Oscar for Road to Perdition (2002) co-starring another Academy Award winner Tom Hanks and Jude Law and Daniel Craig and a Tony for Our Town. He was an amazing actor and was nominated ten times for the Academy Award, including eight times as Best Actor, once as Best Supporting Actor, and once for Best Picture.

In 2005 Premier Magazine ranked him as the #6 Greatest Movie Star of all Time. His last movie, Cars (2006) was the highest grossing movie of his entire career.

Paul Newman passed away on December 26, 2008 from cancer.

Paul Newman was one of the biggest movie stars of the 20th century and will be remembered not only as an amazing performer but also a very good-hearted, charitable man who did what he could to make things better for others. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the Motion Pictury Industry.

Filmography:

1949 The Aldrich Family

1952 Suspense

1952 Woman in Love

1952 Tales of Tomorrow

1953 The Man Behind the Badge

1953 The St. Paul Story

1952-1953 The Web

1953 The Leech

1953 One for the Road

1953 The Bells of Damon

1952 Deadlock