Paul Newman (January 26, 1925–September 26, 2008) was born to Arthur Sigmund Newman and his wife Theresa Fetzer Garth, respectively a Jew and a Christian Scientist. He self-identified as a Jew.
As a child, Newman performed in theater and following graduation from college and a short stint at Ohio University, he served as a torpedo bomber and turret gunner in Avenger aircraft stationed on the carrier Bunker Hill. Post-war he earned a bachelor’s degree in drama and economics, then toured in summer stock companies. After attending the Yale School of Drama, he studied under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. He debuted on Broadway in 1953 in Picnic by William Inge, meeting there understudy Joanne Woodward, who became his second wife five years later and a star in her own right. With his first wife Jackie Witt, he had a son Scott and two daughters, Susan and Stephanie. He and Woodward had three daughters, Elinor, Melissa, and Claire.
In 1955, his first movie was The Silver Chalice with Pier Angeli. Two years later, he played Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me. In 1958, he starred with Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. He also starred with Woodward that same year in The Long Hot Summer. In 1960, he starred in Exodus, the story of Israel’s independence, and costarred with Woodward in From the Terrace. In 1961, he starred in The Hustler about a small town pool player who challenges a world-class pool champion played by Jackie Gleason. Many more movies followed, including in 1967 Cool Hand Luke, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor. In 1969, he teamed up with Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He also formed the First Artists Production Company with Barbra Streisand and Sidney Poitier focusing on enabling actors to develop movie projects for themselves. In 1971, merging his passion for car racing with his career, he hosted a television documentary, Once Upon a Wheel. In 1973, he and Redford teamed up again in The Sting, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In 1974, with Steve McQueen he made the disaster film The Towering Inferno.
In 1982 he won another nomination as best actor for his role in The Verdict. Two years later he won the best actor Academy Award for his role in The Color of Money, in which he reprised The Hustler role as “Fast Eddie” Felson. Tom Cruise was a costar. In 1990 he won another Best Actor nomination for his role in Nobody’s Fool. Over the years, he also won three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. With A. E. Hotchne in 1982, Newman founded a company called Newman’s Own, which expanded from salad dressing to pasta sauce, lemonade, popcorn, salsa, and wine among others products. All the proceeds, after taxes, were donated to charity. Among recipients were summer camps for seriously ill children. He also promoted access to safe water for underserved communities around the world.
Tomorrow, January 26: Samuel Gompers
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