Newman, Paul Leonard

▪ 2009

      American actor

born Jan. 26, 1925, Cleveland, Ohio

died Sept. 26, 2008, Westport, Conn.

was a matinee idol whose striking good looks and startling blue eyes became hallmarks in a film career in which he was honoured for his compelling performances with nine Academy Award nominations (one win); he also won two honorary Oscars, a lifetime achievement (1986) and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1994). Newman honed his craft at New York City's Actors Studio. Following his Broadway debut in Picnic (1953), he signed a film contract with Warner Brothers and also appeared in live television dramas (Our Town [1955] and Bang the Drum Slowly [1956]). His impressive portrayal of boxer Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) was followed by The Rack (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958; for which he received his first Academy Award nomination), The Long, Hot Summer (1958), and The Young Philadelphians (1959). Newman essayed the role that perhaps best defined his screen persona, that of pool shark “Fast” Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and earned another Oscar nomination. The Hustler was the first in a series of films in which Newman portrayed antiheroic protagonists. Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Hombre (1967), and Cool Hand Luke (1967) further solidified his image as an ingratiating iconoclast. Newman costarred in 11 films with his second wife, actress Joanne Woodward, and directed her in several others, beginning with Rachel, Rachel (1968). Two enormously popular comedies teamed Newman with costar Robert Redford. The western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) received seven Oscar nominations, and the Depression-era film The Sting (1973) won the Academy Award for best picture. Newman maintained his star status with such popular films as The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977), Fort Apache the Bronx (1981), and two for which he received Oscar nominations, Absence of Malice (1981) and The Verdict (1982). He finally won the Academy Award for his reprise as Felson in The Color of Money (1986). He also earned nominations for his depiction of an unemployed construction worker in Nobody's Fool (1994) and for his supporting role as a mob boss in Road to Perdition (2002). In 2005 he starred in the television movie Empire Falls, for which he won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. After voicing a character in the animated film Cars (2006), Newman retired in 2007. In addition to his Hollywood career, Newman launched (1982) the successful Newman's Own line of food products: its profits benefited a number of charitable causes. In 1988 he founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in south-central Connecticut for children with serious medical conditions. A passionate race car driver since the early 1970s, Newman became co-owner in 1982 of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

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