Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, filmmaker, racecar driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He has been described as "one of the last of the great 20th-century movie stars". He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, seven Golden Globe Awards, an Actor Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear for Best Actor, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and nominations for two Grammy Awards and a Tony Award. Along with his Best Actor Academy Award win, Newman also received the Academy Honorary Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and raised in Shaker Heights, the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, Newman showed an interest in theater as a child and at age 10 performed in a stage production of Saint George and the Dragon at the Cleveland Play House. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in drama and economics from Kenyon College in 1949. After touring with several summer stock companies including the Belfry Players, Newman attended the Yale School of Drama for a year before studying at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg. His first starring Broadway role was in William Inge's Picnic in 1953 and his final was in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in 2003.
Newman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Color of Money (1986). His other Oscar-nominated performances were in
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Absence of Malice (1981), The Verdict (1982), Nobody's Fool (1994), and Road to Perdition (2002). He also starred in such films as Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Harper (1966), Torn Curtain (1966), Hombre (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Sting (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977), and Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981). He also voiced Doc Hudson in Cars (2006).
Newman won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing. He co-founded Newman's Own, a food company that donates all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of May 2021, these donations totaled over US$570 million.
Newman continued to found charitable organizations, such as the SeriousFun Children's Network in 1988 and the Safe Water Network in 2006. Newman was married twice and fathered six children. His second wife was actress Joanne Woodward, with whom he had a screen partnership in directing or acting together throughout their lifetime.
Early life and family
Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and raised in nearby Shaker Heights, the second son of Theresa Garth (née Fetzer, Fetzko, or Fetsko; Slovak: Terézia Fecková; 1894–1982) and Arthur Sigmund Newman Sr. (1893–1950), who ran a sporting goods store.
His father was a son of Simon Newman and Hannah Cohn, Jewish emigrants from Hungary and Poland, respectively.
Newman's mother was a practitioner of Christian Science. She was born into a Roman Catholic family in Peticse, a village then in the Zemplén county of the Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and now in Slovakia. Newman's mother worked in his father's store while raising Paul and his elder brother Arthur.
Newman showed an early interest in theater; his first role was at the age of seven, playing the court jester in a school production of Robin Hood. At age 10, Newman performed at the Cleveland Play House in a production of Saint George and the Dragon, and acted in their Curtain Pullers children's theater program. Graduating from Shaker Heights High School in 1943, he briefly attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he was initiated into the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
Navy service
Newman served in the United States Navy in World War II in the Pacific theater. He enrolled in the Navy V-12 pilot training program at Yale University but was dropped when his colorblindness was diagnosed. He later recounted that it was "a bit more complicated" than colorblindness. He also "couldn't do the mathematical things that being a pilot requires". A subsequent test found that he was not colorblind. Boot camp followed, with training as a radioman and tail gunner. He performed poorly in that role, and a friend from the service recounted in Newman's posthumous memoir that his friends lied to Navy trainers so he could pass.
Qualifying in torpedo bombers in 1944, Aviation Radioman Third Class Newman was sent to Barbers Point, Hawaii. He was assigned to Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons VT-98, VT-99, and VT-100, responsible primarily for training replacement combat pilots and aircrewmen, with special emphasis on carrier landings. Newman later flew as a turret gunner in an Avenger torpedo bomber. As a radioman-gunner, his unit was assigned to the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill with other replacements shortly before the Battle of Okinawa in spring 1945. The pilot of his aircraft had an earache and was grounded, as was his crew, including Newman. The rest of their squadron flew to the Bunker Hill. Days later, a kamikaze attack on the vessel killed several hundred crewmen and airmen, including other members of his unit.
In a 2011 interview, screenwriter Stewart Stern recounted that Newman drew on an incident from his Navy years as an "emotional trigger to express the character's trauma" when acting in the 1956 film The Rack. He said that Newman thought back to an incident in which his best friend was sliced to pieces on an aircraft carrier by a plane's propeller.
Education
After the war, Newman completed a Bachelor of Arts in drama and economics at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, in 1949. Shortly after earning his degree, he joined summer stock companies, including the Belfry Players in Wisconsin and the Woodstock Players in Woodstock, Illinois. He toured with them for three months and developed his talents. He later attended the Yale School of Drama for one year before moving to New York City to study under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Oscar Levant wrote that Newman initially was hesitant to leave New York for Hollywood and that Newman had said, "Too close to the cake. Also, no place to study." Newman arrived in New York City in 1951 with his first wife Jackie Witte, taking up residence in the St. George section of Staten Island.
Career
1953–1958: Early roles
He made his Broadway theatre debut in the original production of William Inge's Picnic with Kim Stanley in 1953. While working on the production, he met Joanne Woodward, an understudy. The two were married in 1958. He also appeared in the original Broadway production of The Desperate Hours in 1955. In 1959, he was in the original Broadway production of Sweet Bird of Youth with Geraldine Page and three years later starred with Page in the film version. During this time Newman started acting in television. His first credited role was in a 1952 episode of Tales of Tomorrow entitled "Ice from Space". In the mid-1950s, he appeared twice on CBS's Appointment with Adventure anthology series.
In February 1954, Newman appeared in a screen test with James Dean, directed by Gjon Mili, for East of Eden (1955). Newman was tested for the role of Aron Trask, Dean for the role of Aron's twin brother Cal. Dean won his part, but Newman lost out to Richard Davalos. That same year, as a last-minute replacement for Dean, he co-starred with Eva Marie Saint and Frank Sinatra in a live color television broadcast of Our Town, which was a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's stage play. After Dean's death, Newman replaced Dean in the role of a boxer in a television adaptation of Hemingway's story "The Battler", written by A. E. Hotchner. It was broadcast live on October 18, 1955. That performance led to his breakthrough role as Rocky Graziano in the film Somebody Up There Likes Me in 1956. The Dean connection had additional resonance. Newman was cast as Billy the Kid in The Left Handed Gun, which was a role originally earmarked for Dean. Additionally, Dean was originally cast to play the role of Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me; however, with his death, Newman got the role.
Newman's first film for Hollywood was The Silver Chalice (1954), co-starring Italian actress Pier Angeli. The film was a box-office failure, and the actor would later acknowledge his disdain for it. In 1956, Newman garnered much attention and acclaim for the role of Rocky Graziano in Robert Wise's biographical film Somebody Up There Likes Me. That year, he also played the lead in Arnold Laven's The Rack. In 1957, Newman worked again with director Wise in Until They Sail. Also that year, he acted in Michael Curtiz's The Helen Morgan Story.
1958–1979: Career stardom and acclaim
In 1958, Newman starred in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite Elizabeth Taylor. The film was a box-office smash, and Newman garnered his first Academy Award nomination. Also in 1958, Newman starred in The Long, Hot Summer with his future wife Joanne Woodward, with whom he reconnected on the set in 1957 (they had first met in 1953). He won Best Actor at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival for this film. He and Woodward had also appeared on screen earlier in 1958 in the Playhouse 90 television play The 80 Yard Run. The couple would go on to make a total of 16 films together.
In 1959, Newman starred in The Young Philadelphians, a film that also featured Barbara Rush, Robert Vaughn and Alexis Smith and was directed by Vincent Sherman. He also co-starred with Woodward in the film Rally Round the Flag, Boys!. In 1960, he starred in Exodus and co-starred with Woodward in From the Terrace.
In 1961, Newman starred in Robert Rossen's The Hustler. The film, which was based on a book of the same name by Walter Tevis, tells the story of small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson (Newman) who challenges a legendary pool player portrayed by Jackie Gleason. The film was a critical and financial hit. Newman won both the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award and the Argentinian Film Festival Best Actor awards. He was also nominated for the same prize at that year's Academy Awards. Stanley Kauffmann, writing for The New Republic, praised the principal cast, calling Newman "first-rate".
Also that year, Newman co-starred with Woodward in Paris Blues. In 1963, Newman starred in Hud and co-starred with Woodward in A New Kind of Love. In 1966, he starred in Torn Curtain and Harper.
In 1967, Newman starred in Martin Ritt's Hombre. The film earned many positive reviews. Also that year, he starred in Stuart Rosenberg's Cool Hand Luke. Newman was again nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, considering it "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Luke is the first Newman character to understand himself well enough to tell us to shove off. He's through risking his neck to make us happy. With this film, Newman completes a cycle of five films over six years, and together they have something to say about the current status of heroism".
In 1968, Newman directed Rachel, Rachel starring Woodward and based on Margaret Laurence's A Jest of God. According to Woodward, Newman did not like the book and had no intention of directing the film. He changed his mind when Woodward could not find any other director. To do the project, the pair accepted a deferred payment. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture and won two Golden Globes including Best Director.
In 1969, Newman co-starred with Woodward in James Goldstone's auto racing film Winning. It was one of the top-grossing film that year in the U.S., reaching the thirteenth position and earning $14,644,335.
Also that year, Newman teamed with fellow actor Robert Redford and director George Roy Hill for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Scriptwriter William Goldman talked to Newman about his ideas on approaching the subject matter. Once a script was completed, actor Steve McQueen, who had read it, called Newman suggesting that they star in it together. Newman, assuming he would play the character of Sundance, suggested that they jointly buy the intellectual property, at which point McQueen hesitated. It was eventually bought by producer Paul Monash, and Newman was cast as Butch, which created a title change with Redford as Sundance. Newman explained that for the scene where his character performs bicycle tricks a stuntman had been hired, though the footage had left director Hill unsatisfied; Newman had to perform the tricks. Furthermore, Newman explained that it was his idea with Goldman to develop the musical interlude. The film was a success, grossing over $15 million at the box office, and it was fourth highest-grossing film of the year. At the Academy Awards it was nominated for Best Picture as well as well as receiving nominations in other categories.
Finally that year, along with Barbra Streisand and Sidney Poitier, Newman formed First Artists Production Company so actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves.
In 1970, Newman produced and co-starred with Woodward in Stuart Rosenberg's WUSA, based on Robert Stone's novel A Hall of Mirrors. Newman and his partner John Foreman purchased the rights for $50,000. The film flopped both commercially and critically. However, Newman later said that it is "the most significant film I've ever made and the best".
In 1971, Newman directed and starred in Sometimes a Great Notion based on Ken Kesey's novel. Although several directors were considered, it was announced that Newman would direct. However, Richard A. Colla was signed to direct the film in May 1970. Five weeks after principal photography began, Colla left the project due to "artistic differences over photographic concept", as well as a required throat operation. At the same time, Newman broke his ankle and the production shut down on July 29. As co-executive producer, Newman considered replacing Colla with George Roy Hill, but Hill declined the offer, so when filming resumed two weeks later, Newman was directing.
Also that year, Newman hosted David Winters' made-for-TV documentary Once Upon a Wheel. Winters said that at the time Newman had publicly stated he did not want to do television and turned it down for that reason until Winters explained his own vision to Newman. Newman, a race car enthusiast, said, "The show gives me a chance to get close to a sport I'm crazy about. I love to test a car on my own, to see what I can do, but racing with 25 other guys is a whole different thing. There are so many variables, the skill demanded is tremendous." Bob Bondurant, Newman's driving instructor who appears in the film, explained that Once Upon a Wheel was a passion project for Newman "because he wanted to learn how to drive" and that he had refused projects that would have paid him a much larger salary. The project marked Newman's return to television after a decade long absence, and his first time as the lead of a program. During post-production, Winters said that Newman, who liked what he saw, gave him the idea to add some footage to sell it as a theatrical film worldwide. Upon its release, the documentary generally received good reviews for its directing, pace, photography, music, and human interest stories.
In 1972, Newman's vehicles produced by First Artists included Pocket Money and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. Also that year, Newman directed The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, the screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. It was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and Joanne Woodward won the best actress award.
In 1973, Newman reunited with director George Roy Hill and fellow actor Robert Redford in The Sting. The film made over $68,000,000 in the North American box office and was the highest-grossing film of 1974. For his participation, Newman received top billing, $500,000, and a percentage of the profits. The film was awarded Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
In 1974, Newman co-starred with Steve McQueen in John Guillermin's disaster film The Towering Inferno. Newman plays an architect trapped in a burning skyscraper that he had designed. Newman was paid $1,000,000 plus a percentage of the gross, and he insisted that he do his own stunts. The film was a success and its North American gross was $55,000,000.
In 1975, his third film with First Artists was the Harper sequel The Drowning Pool, in which Woodward appeared.
In 1977, Newman reunited with director Hill in the hockey sport comedy Slap Shot. At the time of its release the film received mixed reviews, many saying that it was "setting a new standard in its use of obscenities". Years later on Home Video and cable showings the film gained cult status. That year, Newman opened the Hamptons Hollywood Cafe with his friend Ron Buck.
1980–1999: Late career roles and Oscar win
In 1980, Newman directed the television screen version of the Pulitzer Prize–winning play The Shadow Box. In 1981, he acted in Sydney Pollack's Absence of Malice. He starred in Sidney Lumet's The Verdict in 1982. The film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture, and Newman received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1984, Newman starred in and directed Harry & Son.
In 1986, twenty-five years after The Hustler, Newman reprised his role of "Fast Eddie" Felson in the Martin Scorsese–directed film The Color of Money, for which he finally received the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film was a commercial success although it received mixed reviews. Newman starred with Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and John Turturro.
In mid-1987, Newman sued Universal Pictures for allegedly failing to account properly for revenues from video distribution of four of his films made for Universal and that Universal owed him at least $1 million for the home video versions of The Sting, Slap Shot, Winning, and Sometimes a Great Notion. The complaint claimed that Universal accounted for the cassette revenues in a way that improperly decreased amounts due to Newman, with the actor wanting a full accounting along with $2 million in damages.
Also in 1987, Newman directed a screen version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie starring his wife Joanne Woodward, John Malkovich, and Karen Allen. The film was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Variety called it "a reverent record" of the Williams play that "one watches with a kind of distant dreaminess rather than an intense emotional involvement" and cited the "brilliant performances ... well defined by Newman's direction".
In 1990, Newman co-starred with Woodward in the James Ivory film adaptation Mr. and Mrs. Bridge based on the Evan S. Connell novel of the same name. In 1994, Newman played alongside Tim Robbins as the character Sidney J. Mussburger in the Coen brothers comedy The Hudsucker Proxy, which received mixed reviews. Also that year, he acted in Robert Benton's Nobody's Fool earning yet another nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
2000–2008
In 2003, Newman appeared in a Broadway revival of Wilder's Our Town, winning a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance. PBS and the cable network Showtime aired a taping of the production, and Newman was nominated for an Emmy Award as well for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie. Newman's last live-action movie appearance was as a conflicted mob boss in the Sam Mendes-directed film Road to Perdition (2002) opposite Tom Hanks, Jude Law, and Stanley Tucci. For his performance he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Although he continued to provide voice work for movies, Newman's last live-action appearance was in the 2005 HBO mini-series Empire Falls, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Richard Russo, in which he played the dissolute father of the protagonist Miles Roby and for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
In keeping with his strong interest in auto racing, Newman provided the voice of Doc Hudson, a retired anthropomorphic race car, in Cars (2006). This was his final role in a major feature film as well as his only animated film role. Almost nine years after his death, he was billed as Doc Hudson in Cars 3 (2017), his appearance made possible through the use of archival recordings. Newman retired from acting in May 2007, saying: "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." He came out of retirement to record narration for the 2007 documentary Dale about the life of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt and for the 2008 documentary The Meerkats, his final film role overall.
Personal life
Marriages and family
Newman was married twice. His first marriage was to Jackie Witte (1929–1994) from 1949 to 1958. They had a son, Scott (1950–1978) and two daughters, Susan (1953–2025) and Stephanie Kendall (born 1954). Scott, who appeared in films including The Towering Inferno (1974), Breakheart Pass (1975), and Fraternity Row (1977) died in November 1978 from a drug overdose. Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son. Susan was a documentary filmmaker and philanthropist and had Broadway and screen credits, including a starring role as one of four Beatles fans in I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), and also a small role opposite her father in Slap Shot and appeared in A Wedding (1978). She also received a Golden Globe and Humanitas Award, plus Emmy, Peabody and Grammy Awards nominations, for her role as co-producer of Newman's 1980 telefilm The Shadow Box. She died on 2 August 2025 at the age of 72; her death was not made public until October 7, 2025.
Newman met actress Joanne Woodward in 1953, on the production of Picnic on Broadway. It was Newman's debut; Woodward was an understudy. Shortly after filming The Long, Hot Summer in 1957, he divorced Witte to marry Woodward. The Newmans moved to East 11th Street in Manhattan, before buying a home and raising their family in Westport, Connecticut. They were one of the first Hollywood movie star couples to choose to raise their families outside California. They remained married for 50 years until his death in 2008. Woodward has said "He's very good looking and very sexy and all of those things, but all of that goes out the window and what is finally left is, if you can make somebody laugh... And he sure does keep me laughing." Newman has attributed their relationship success to "some combination of lust and respect and patience. And determination."
They had three daughters: Elinor "Nell" Teresa (b. 1959), Melissa "Lissy" Stewart (b. 1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (b. 1965). Newman was well known for his devotion to his wife and family. When once asked about fidelity, he said, “I don't like to discuss my marriage, but I will tell you something which may sound corny but which happens to be true. I have steak at home. Why should I go out for hamburger?” He also said that he never met anyone who had as much to lose as he did. In his profile on 60 Minutes, he admitted he once left Woodward after a fight, walked around the outside of the house, knocked on the front door and explained to Joanne he had nowhere to go. Newman directed Nell alongside her mother in the films Rachel, Rachel and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Newman and Woodward also acted as mentors to Allison Janney. They met her while she was a freshman at Kenyon College during a play Newman was directing.
In his biography Paul Newman: A Life (2009) film critic Shawn Levy alleged that Newman had had an affair in the late 1960s with divorcée Nancy Bacon, a Hollywood journalist, that lasted one and a half years. In an article in the Irish Independent, which stated also that Levy's claims "caused outrage" and were widely considered "an attempt to sully the image of a revered cinematic legend and committed philanthropist", the affair was reportedly denied by a friend of Newman's wife Joanne, who said she was upset by the claim. Levy criticized the tabloid newspaper the New York Post, which had a long-standing feud with Newman, for focusing on and emphasizing this aspect of his biography.
Newman and Woodward were the subject of a 2022 docuseries by Ethan Hawke, The Last Movie Stars, which was broadcast on HBO Max. The docuseries was based upon tapes compiled by Newman's friend Stewart Stern for a memoir that Newman abandoned but which was eventually published in 2022 as The Extraordinary Life of An Ordinary Man. Laura Linney voiced Woodward and George Clooney voiced Newman.
Jewish identity
Even though Newman followed the pluralistic Unitarian Universalism movement as an adult, he called himself a Jew, "because it's more of a challenge". When he applied to Kenyon College after the Navy he gave his religion as "Christian Scientist", but apart from that he did not deny that he was Jewish. He recounted in his posthumously published memoirs of having a "strong sense of otherness" as a youth because he was half-Jewish. His heritage "got in the way of my sitting at the 'A' table, which was important to me," but he received no instruction on his Jewish heritage. He only knew that "if you were Jewish, some avenues were shut to you," and that "hurt me and my brother a great deal." Newman deflected the pain with humor, sometimes doing Yiddish voices "for laughs." He was excluded from a high school fraternity because he was Jewish and got into a "bloody fight" in the Navy because a sailor used an anti-Semitic slur. A family friend recounted that the "stigma" of being Jewish was strong in Shaker Heights at the time. "Paul didn't seem Jewish at all, but he paid a price, he had a rough time."
After he began appearing in films, Newman made a point of not changing his name. When he was being considered for the role of Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, producer Sam Spiegel asked him to "get rid of 'Paul Newman'". Newman's response to Spiegel was, "What do you want me to change it to, 'S.P. Ewman'?"