Paul Newman

Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, race car driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb 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, and he starred in smaller roles for a few more films before receiving widespread attention and acclaim for his performances in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

Newman's major film roles include Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961), Hud Bannon in Hud (1963), Lew Harper in Harper (1966), Luke Jackson in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Butch Cassidy in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Judge Roy Bean in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Henry "Shaw" Gondorff in The Sting (1973), Doug Roberts in The Towering Inferno (1974), Reggie Dunlop in Slap Shot (1977), Murphy in Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981), and as the voice of Doc Hudson in Cars (2006). He was nominated for ten Academy Awards, and won Best Actor for The Color of Money (1986).

Newman won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open-wheel IndyCar racing. He was a co-founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which he donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of May 2021, these donations have totaled over US$570 million. In 1988, Newman founded the SeriousFun Children's Network, a global family of summer camps and programs for children with a serious illness which has served 1.3 million children and family members since its inception. In 2006, Newman also co-founded Safe Water Network with John Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, and Josh Weston, former chairman of ADP, to improve access to safe water to underserved communities around the world.Newman was married twice and fathered six children. He was the husband of the actress Joanne Woodward.

Source: Wikidata , August 2023