Paul Newman
From Philosopedia
Newman, Paul (26 Jan 1925 - 26 September 2008)
Newman was born in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, to a Catholic mother (Theresa Fetzer, 1896-1982, who converted to Christian Science) and a Jewish father (Arthur Simon Newman, 1894 - 1950, who owned a sporting goods store). His brother Arthur Jr. was born in 1924.
Newman enlisted in the Naval Air Corps, but his career there was cut short because of his being color-blind. He served as a radioman in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. Upon his return from the war, Newman enrolled at Kenyon College, Ohio, and received his B.A. in 1949.
In 1950 when his father died, Newman took over the family business, but sold it to his brother.
He worked in summer stock, in 1949 married stage actress Jackie Witte, with whom he had three children and divorced in 1958, enrolled at the Yale University grad program in acting, then left it for Broadway. His first Broadway success was playing the lead in Picnic. Newman was admitted to the Actor's Studio, studying "method" acting.
His first film, a biblio-epic flop, The Silver Chalice, came out in 1954. Newman's breakthrough role was portraying Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956).
In 1978, his son Scott died of drug overdose. In his memory, Newman instituted the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention.
Newman met actress Joanne Woodward while making The Long, Hot Summer (1957), and married her in 1958. They have three daughters and celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in 1998.
Newman was nominated ten times for "best actor" Oscars for such movie classics as: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), and Cool Hand Luke (1967). He won for The Color of Money (1987). Other films include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, in which he was paired with Robert Redford. In 1986, he received an honorary Oscar.
The Verdict (1982) was directed by Sidney Lumet and was about an alcoholic attorney trying to regain his self-worth and to achieve justice for a Boston family victimized by medical malpractice. Their daughter had been left in a coma during an operation in a Catholic hospital. Wrote Dan Rodricks, when the holy-rollers said no to Newman's plan to make the movie on a Virginia island in the Chesapeake Bay,
- * Tangier's born-again Christian elected leaders said no to Warner Bros.' proposal to film some scenes from Message in a Bottle, which was to co-star Newman and Kevin Costner. I worked this story at the time. "Each member of the town council read the script independently and, without any discussion, the vote [against the movie] was unanimous, 6-0," Mayor Dewey Crockett told me. "The objections were in three categories - language, sex and alcoholic beverages. There was a lot of raunchy language and seven or eight sex scenes. And we have a dry town here."
- * Still, Newman was cool about the rejection. He'd been booked for a private tour of Tangier and took it anyway. Two charter boat captains in Crisfield, Keith Ward and Curtis Johns, gave the actor a ride to the island and escorted him to the hardware store. Newman toured the island in a rented golf cart and left after about two hours, declaring Tangier one of the most beautiful places he'd ever visited.
- * Why did Newman make the trip? Nobody seemed to know. Perhaps he felt obligated because, despite the town council vote, a lot of people wanted to see Message in a Bottle filmed on Tangier. My contact on the story was Wallace Pruitt, who ran Shirley's Bay View Inn with his wife. "People are really tore up about it," he said. The film was shot on location in North Carolina. It was rated PG-13.
Newman ran "Newman's Own" line of food, donating more than $250,000,000 to charity. He also was known as a professional race-car driver.
On the website of the Unitarian Universalists, he is listed as a member. Ms. Woodward has taught Sunday School at the Westport Unitarian Society in Connecticut. He does not believe in an afterlife, Newman told television interviewer Barbara Walters.
After a long battle with cancer, Newman died at his farmhouse near Westport, surrounded by his family and close friends.
On 3 October 2008, Broadway theaters dimmed their lights at curtain time in his honor.
