American Actor & Legend
January 26, 1925 — September 26, 2008
One of Hollywood's last great movie stars. A half-century of unforgettable performances. Those blue eyes. That smile. The man who could not be contained by a screen.
Biography
Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Shaker Heights, Ohio. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he studied at Kenyon College and later at the Yale School of Drama before training at the Actors Studio in New York — the crucible that would forge one of the most naturalistic screen presences in cinema history.
His breakout came in 1956 with Somebody Up There Likes Me, but it was his ferocious turn in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) that announced something different — a raw, physical intelligence that felt wholly unlike the polished stars of the era. He could play rebellion and dignity simultaneously, a contradiction that kept audiences riveted for five decades.
Newman's partnership with director George Roy Hill and actor Robert Redford produced two of cinema's most beloved films: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). But it was the quieter roles — Eddie Felson in The Hustler, Hud Bannon, Luke Jackson — where his genius burned coldest and brightest.
Off-screen, he was a racing driver of genuine skill, a devoted husband to Joanne Woodward for 50 years, and a philanthropist who gave away every cent of profit from his Newman's Own food brand — over half a billion dollars to charity.
"The embarrassing thing is that my salad dressing is out-grossing my films."— Paul Newman
Filmography
From smoldering rebels to weathered legends — a career that never stopped reaching.
Beyond the Screen
"A man with no enemies is a man with no character."
— Paul Newman