Paul Newman

Actor and philanthropist

• Born: January 26, 1925
• Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
• Died: September 26, 2008
• Place of death: Westport, Connecticut

Newman considered acting a craft, and he made fifty films over thirty years. He evolved from a matinee idol to a character actor of significant depth and nuanced emotions, playing both heroes and antiauthoritarian figures. Newman became a renowned philanthropist.

Early Life

Paul Newman was born to Arthur and Theresa Newman in 1925. His Jewish paternal grandfather, Simon, was born in Hungary, immigrated to America, married Hannah Cohn, and owned a millinery shop in a Jewish neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Newman’s father inherited a talent for business and co-owned a sporting goods store, Newman-Stern. Newman’s mother, a Catholic, was born in Austria. Several of Newman’s relatives were prominent in Cleveland. His aunt, Lillian, wrote poetry in Yiddish; another aunt, Ottile, headed the drama department at Euclid Temple, a prominent synagogue; and his uncle, Aaron, cofounded the Jewish Independent newspaper. The Newmans belonged to the temple, a synagogue in the Woodland Avenue Jewish enclave. They were members of Oakwood Club in Cleveland Heights, but they moved to Shaker Heights in 1927. With his older brother, Arthur, Jr., Newman enjoyed tobogganing, ice skating, and team sports. Although Newman was athletic, he performed in neighborhood skits and at age eleven enrolled in Curtain Pullers, a group that studied drama at the Cleveland Play House.

Young Newman delivered newspapers and worked as a clerk in a Jewish delicatessen in the upscale Shaker Heights neighborhood. He graduated from Shaker Heights High School, starring in school plays. He went to Ohio University in 1943, pledged Phi Kappa Tau, and was a business major, but excelled in drama productions. On June 6, 1943, he was called up by the Navy. He became a rear-seat radioman and a gunner in torpedo bombers assigned to squadrons that flew out from Barber’s Point, Hawaii, over the Pacific. In 1945, Newman enrolled on the G.I. Bill at Kenyon College, graduated in 1949, and found his career in drama after starring in Kenyon’s productions.

Newman played in summer stock in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, at the Belfry Theatre. He mastered voice projection, stage presence, and a charming luminosity. He married actor Jacqueline Emily Witte on December 27, 1949, and they had three children: Alan Scott (born 1950), Susan Kendall (born 1953), and Stephanie(born 1955). He continued repertory acting in Woodstock, Illinois, at the Opera House, and his good looks, vibrant blue eyes, and athletic physique endeared him to audiences. In 1950, he worked briefly at the family store in Cleveland following his father’s death. When Newman-Stern was sold, Newman went to Yale, studying under Constance Welch. In the summer of 1952, Newman and his family moved to New York, where he worked in television and at the Actors Studio, where he learned the method acting style of Konstantin Stanislavsky.

Life’s Work

Newman’s first break was in Picnic (1953) on Broadway, for which he earned rave reviews. Newman transitioned into films, signed a contract with Warner Bros., refused to change his Jewish name for the screen, and accepted a role in The Silver Chalice (1954). Newman moved easily among films, television, and Broadway productions for the rest of his life, receiving acclaim in all venues. He played in The Desperate Hours (1955) on Broadway; garnered applause for “Guilty Is the Stranger,” an episode of Goodyear Television Playhouse; and starred in a 1955 television presentation of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (1938). The Battler (1955) followed, a part he gained after actor James Dean was killed in a car crash.

Newman’s first film success was his portrayal of boxer Rocky Graziano in Somebody up There Likes Me (1956), and he received wide acclaim for the authentic realism of his performance. Success followed with the film The Rack and television’s Bang the Drum Slowly in 1956. Newman was viewed as a sex symbol, a stud, a man’s man, captivating, his shirtless muscles rippling, and his portrayals of heroes or redemptive antiheroes were mesmerizing.

In 1956, Newman and his wife separated, but his career soared, with his portrayals in The Helen Morgan Story (1957), Until They Sail (1957), and The Long, Hot Summer (1958), made with Joanne Woodward. Three Faces of Eve (1957) had made Woodward a star, and for it she won an Academy Award. Newman starred with Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), which received brilliant reviews. After a Mexican divorce for Newman, he and Woodward married January 29, 1958. They had three daughters: Elinor Theresa (1959), Melissa “Lissy” Stewart (1961), and Claire “Clea” Olivia (1965). Newman received the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958, and appeared in Sweet Bird of Youth (1959) on Broadway and the film From the Terrace (1960).

He bought out his contract with Warner Bros. and thereby was able to negotiate increased salaries based on his critical acclaim. In Newman’s blockbuster epic film Exodus (1960), which recounted the founding of Israel, he played Ari Ben Canaan. This was followed by gigantic Newman successes with The Hustler (1961), Paris Blues (1961), Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Hombre (1967), and Cool Hand Luke (1967). Ever humble, Newman appreciated his achievements and continued his diligent work ethic. Newman formed a film production company, first with Martin Ritt in 1960, called Salem Pictures and another company, with John Foreman in 1969, which produced the auto-racing film Winning (1969), for which Newman learned to race cars. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid appeared in 1969, with Newman and Robert Redford, and it proved to have one of the largest box offices of all time. In 1969, Newman, Barbra Streisand, and Sidney Poitier formed First Artists Production Company; for this company, Newman did Pocket Money (1972) and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972). Newman and Redford reunited for The Sting in 1973. Newman starred in and directed Sometimes a Great Notion (1970), and he appeared with his son Scott (who died in 1978) in The Towering Inferno in 1974.

Newman and Woodward purchased a country home in Westport, Connecticut, in the early 1960’s, and they kept apartments in New York City and Los Angeles. In 1976, Newman drove a Triumph TR-6 to win the National Championship and the Sports Car Club of America President’s Cup for Excellence. At age seventy Newman became the oldest driver to win the Twenty-Four Hours of Daytona.

Newman often rewrote scripts to reflect his take on his character or to improve the story line. He always wished to improve, giving the public all he had as an entertainer. He succeeded admirably, becoming an icon in the entertainment industry. Newman proved an able director with Rachel, Rachel (1968) and The Glass Menagerie (1987). Newman used his celebrity to support such worthy issues as civil rights. A gutsy nonconformist, Newman had both the swagger and sagacity of a rebel but the intelligence to stay within the lines. He continued working in Slap Shot (1977), Absence of Malice (1981), Harry and Son (1984), and The Verdict (1982). He won an Academy Award for The Color of Money (1986). Nobody’s Fool (1994) won him the best actor award from the Film Critics Circle, he played the Stage Manager role in Our Town at the Westport Country Playhouse in 2002 and on Broadway in 2003, and he won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Empire Falls (2005). Newman died of lung cancer in 2008 at eighty-three.

Significance

Newman was an actor of such great magnitude that he could challenge Hollywood’s contract system and work as an independent, forming his own production companies and selecting his own roles, which allowed him to control his image. He capitalized on fame and success to work for significant political and charitable causes, endearing him to the film industry that established him as a legend and to the public that found him so endearing.

Bibliography

Dherbier, Yann-Brice, and Pierre-Henri Verlhac, eds. Paul Newman, a Life in Pictures. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2006. The editors live and work in Paris and reveal the international appeal of Newman, illustrating his family life and his film career through photographs.

Lax, Eric. Paul Newman: A Biography. Atlanta: Turner, 1996. An informed biography that treats Newman with respect for his acting abilities and his involvement in political causes.

Levy, Shawn. Paul Newman, a Life. New York: Harmony Books, 2009. Well-researched, detailed biography written by a film critic for The Oregonian in Portland.