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Paul
Newman
In
a business where public scandal and bad-boy behavior are
the rule rather than the exception, Paul Newman is as
much a hero offscreen as on. A blue-eyed matinee idol
whose career has successfully spanned five decades, he
is also a prominent social activist, a major proponent
of actors' creative rights and a noted philanthropist.
Born January 26, 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, Newman served
in World War II prior to attending Kenyon College on an
athletic scholarship; when an injury ended his sports
career, he turned to drama, joining a summer stock company
in Wisconsin. After relocating to Illinois in 1947, he
married actress Jacqueline Witte, and following the death
of his father took over the family's sporting-goods store.
Newman quickly grew restless, however, and after selling
his interest in the store to his brother, he enrolled
at the Yale School of Drama. During a break from classes
he travelled to New York City where he won a role in the
CBS television series The Aldrich Family. A number of
other TV performances followed, and in 1952 Newman was
accepted by the Actors' Studio, making his Broadway debut
a year later in Picnic, where he was spotted by Warner
Bros. executives.
Upon
Newman's arrival in Hollywood, media buzz tagged him as
"the new Brando." However, after making his
screen debut in the disastrous epic The Silver Chalice,
he became the victim of scathing reviews, although Warners
added on another two years to his contract after he returned
to Broadway to star in The Desperate Hours. Back in Hollywood,
he starred in The Rack. Again reviews were poor, and the
picture was quickly pulled from circulation. Newman's
third film, the charming Somebody Up There Likes Me, in
which he portrayed boxer Rocky Graziano, was both a commercial
and critical success, with rave reviews for his performance.
His next film of note was 1958's The Long Hot Summer,
an acclaimed adaptation of a pair of William Faulkner
short stories; among his co-stars was Joanne Woodward,
who soon became his second wife. After next appearing
as Billy the Kid in Arthur Penn's underrated The Left-Handed
Gun, Newman starred opposite Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on
a Hot Tin Roof, scoring his first true box-office smash
as well as his first Academy Award nomination.
After
appearing with Joanne Woodward in Rally 'Round the Flag,
Boys! -- the couple would frequently team onscreen throughout
their careers -- Newman travelled back to Broadway to
star in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. Upon
his return to the West Coast, he bought himself out of
his Warner Bros. contract before starring in the 1960
smash From the Terrace. Exodus, another major hit, quickly
followed. While by now a major star, the true depths of
Newman's acting abilities had yet to be fully explored;
that all changed with Robert Rossen's 1961 classic The
Hustler, in which he essayed one of his most memorable
performances as pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson,
gaining a second Oscar nomination. His third nod came
for 1963's Hud, which cast him as an amoral Texas rancher.
While a handful of creative and financial disappointments
followed, including 1964's The Outrage and 1965's Lady
L, 1966's Alfred Hitchcock-helmed Torn Curtain marked
a return to form, as did the thriller Harper.
For
1967's superb chain-gang drama Cool Hand Luke, Newman
scored a fourth Academy Award nomination, but again went
home empty-handed. The following year he made his directorial
debut with the Joanne Woodward vehicle Rachel Rachel,
scoring "Best Director" honors from the New
York critics as well as an Oscar nomination for "Best
Picture." The couple next appeared onscreen together
in 1969's Winning, which cast Newman as a professional
auto racer; the motor sport remained a preoccupation in
his real life as well, and he was the most prominent of
the many celebrities who began racing as a hobby. He then
starred with Robert Redford in 1969's Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid, which went on to become the highest-grossing
western in movie history. It was followed by 1971's W.U.S.A.,
a deeply political film reflecting Newman's strong commitment
to social activism; in addition to being among Hollywood's
most vocal supporters of the civil rights movement, in
1968 he and Woodward made headlines by campaigning full
time for Democratic Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy.
After
directing and starring in 1971's Sometimes a Great Notion,
Newman announced the formation of First Artists, a production
company co-founded by Barbra Streisand and Steve McQueen.
Modeled after the success of United Artists, it was created
to offer performers the opportunity to produce their own
projects. Newman's first film for First Artists' was 1972's
Pocket Money, followed by another directorial effort,
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.
After a pair of back-to-back efforts under director John
Huston, 1972's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and
the next year's The Mackintosh Man, Newman reunited with
Redford in The Sting, another triumph which won the 1973
"Best Picture" Oscar. He next appeared in the
star-studded disaster epic The Towering Inferno, followed
by 1975's The Drowning Pool, a sequel to Harper. His next
major success was the 1977 sports spoof Slap Shot, which
went on to become a cult classic.
A
string of disappointments followed, including Robert Altman's
self-indulgent 1979 effort Quintet. The 1981 Absence of
Malice, however, was a success, and for 1982's courtroom
drama The Verdict Newman notched his fifth "Best
Actor" nomination. He finally won the Oscar on his
sixth attempt, reprising the role of Eddie Felson in 1986's
The Color of Money, Martin Scorsese's sequel to The Hustler.
After starring in two 1989 films, Blaze and Fat Man and
Little Boy, Newman began appearing onscreen less and less.
In 1991, he and Joanne Woodward starred as the titular
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, and three years later he earned yet
another Academy Award nomination for his superb performance
in Robert Benton's slice-of-life tale Nobody's Fool. His
films since then have been fairly sparse and of mixed
quality, with Joel Coen's and Ethan Coen's The Hudsucker
Proxy (1994) being at the higher end of the spectrum and
the Kevin Costner vehicle Message in a Bottle (1999) resting
near the bottom. Newman again graced screens in 2000 with
Where the Money Is, a comedy that cast him as a famous
bank robber who fakes a stroke to get out of prison.
Still,
despite his movement away from Hollywood, Newman has remained
a prominent public figure through his extensive charitable
work; he created the Scott Newman Foundation after the
drug-related death of his son and later marketed a series
of gourmet foodstuffs under the umbrella name Newman's
Own, with all profits going to support his Hole-in-the-Wall
Gang project for children suffering from cancer. -- Jason
Ankeny
Source:
AllMovieGuide.com -->
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