A Brief Commemorative Writing for the Late Great Paul NewmanIn our society there are many different things that influence our culture. One of the biggest influences on our culture is that of the media. And for more than five decades Paul Newman was one of the greatest actors that our media has ever seen. From starting his career in small supporting roles, to starring in and directing his own box office hits, Paul Newman was one of the biggest things to ever happen to America’s film industry.Although Newman had an expansive career on Broadway and other off camera performances, his biggest accomplishments and most amazing performances were seen on the big screen. Newman’s first hit movie was called “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in which he portrayed a very complex character and impressed audiences and film critics with his great acting ability. Not only did he give a good performance but also received his first academy award nomination for this film. He would go on to start in many great movies and be nominated for a number of other awards. Some of his greatest movies include “Cool Hand Luke” in which Newman played an antihero who was a prisoner in a work camp trying to escape, and in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” he acted alongside Robert Redford in the Western about two outlaws belonging to the ‘Hole in the Wall gang’.One of Newman’s best played roles and arguably his most influential film was called “Hud” in which he played a young man who was by himself against the world and his own parents. Many say that this was his best performance and one of the very best of that decade. Newman’s acting career was scattered with reviews like that and it would not end until he quit acting. And he never quit acting.
Legendary Actor Paul Newman Dies
Charities Were His PassionAccording to Reuters, one of the greatest actors who has ever graced the silver screen, Paul Newman, died Friday night, September 26 at his home in Westport, Connecticut. The legendary performer acted in over 50 movies, many of them to later become classics, and was nominated
Legendary Actor Paul Newman Dies Date: September 26, 2008Westport, CTUnited States of America for numerous acting awards throughout his six-decade career. Paul Newman was 83.Paul Newman, a native of Cleveland, Ohio took his Midwestern work ethic to Hollywood and treated acting as a job, saying once that acting had “nothing to do with being an adult.” And although his profession garnered him fortune and fame, Newman’s passions were car racing and promoting social causes. His Newman’s Own Foundation owned a line of food products that has generated over $250 million for charity (Newman, who created and oversaw the company, refused any kind of salary.) over the years.Newman was nominated for nine Oscars and won Best Actor for 1986′s “The Color of Money.” He won an Emmy for his supporting role for the multiple award-winning mini-series “Empire Falls.” His film credits read like a “best of ” list: “Hud,” “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” “The Hustler,” “Somebody Up There Must Like Me,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “Nobody’s Fool,” “The Verdict,” and “The Road To Perdition.”But this writer’s favorite will always be “Cool Hand Luke.” Paul Newman’s easy, laid back performance of a fun-loving southern boy placed in a soul-crushing prison is the epitome of great acting. Newman’s title character is a tragic hero, actually a pride-filled young man set against an unforgiving corrupt penal system, exemplified by the brilliant performance given by Strother Martin, who won an Oscar for his work. Newman himself would be nominated for a Best Actor award, his first of five.
Paul Newman Dead at Age 83: A Sad Loss
Paul Newman Has Always Been One of My Favorite Actors, Especially After He Responded to a Charitable Donation RequestSad news today as CNN, Reuters and the BBC report that Paul Newman, the legendary Hollywood actor, has died at age 83. He died on Friday, September 26th 2008, after a long battle with cancer. He died at home.Paul Newman was always my favorite actor. This status was cemented forever when I was organizing a charity auction to benefit AIDS charities in Dallas, Texas and I wrote to Mr. Newman asking for an item donation to auction. Out of over 300
celebrities, he and his wife, Joanne Woodward, were the first Hollywood actors to respond to my letter. They sent a beautiful pewter beer mug and autographed photographs and wished us good luck with our event. For the next three years, every time I asked them to donate for that year’s auction there seemed to be no hesitation as a donation arrived quickly in the mail.Paul Newman, over a career spanning more than 50 years, made almost 100 movies and appeared in numerous TV movies and shows. He was best known though for movie roles in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “The Verdict” and “The Sting”. My favorite Paul Newman movie role though was “Sully” in the 1994 movie “Nobody’s Fool’. Newman played an aging loser who works in a construction company part-time and spends his time driving the owner of the company crazy by flirting with his wife and trying to ruin his business. He also has problems with his relationships with his son and grandson and, at one point, even gets jailed for hitting a policeman. But, in the end, his luck changes, he wins the lottery, mends his relationship with his son and Sully finally realizes he’s happy. This is one of Newman’s greatest roles and it earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.Not only was Paul Newman one of the world’s best actors though, he was also known as a race car driver and the owner of “Newman’s Own”, a company that sells spaghetti sauce, salad dressing and popcorn among other things. The great thing about “Newman’s Own” is that all their profits (around $175 million so far) have been donated to children’s charities.
Actor Paul Newman Dead at Age 83: A Biography of This Legendary Man
Actor Paul Newman died Friday (09/26/08) at age 83. He succumbed to cancer. Newman had been battling this disease for months. Below is a biography of this legendary man’s life. It shows that he definitely had a lot of heart and desire to live a full life. Early YearsBorn in a suburb of Cleveland (Shaker Heights, Ohio), Paul Newman was the product of two cultures. His mother Theresa was Slovak and a Catholic (later converted to Christian Science) while his father Arthur was Jewish. His parents gave him and his brother (Arthur) a comfortable living because they owned a sporting good store.At a young age, Paul Newman, showed an interest in theater. By age seven, he did his first play at school. He was a court jester in Robin Hood. However, it would not be apparent to the world that Newman was a star until he got into his late 20′s. By then, he’d graduated from Shaker Heights High School, fought in World War II and graduated from Kenyon College. It was at this point that he started to seriously pursue an acting career. Movie CareerIn preparation for a career in acting, Paul Newman studied acting at Yale University under Lee Strasberg. Then, he left New York and moved to Hollywood. His moved paid off. Newman immediately got roles in Broadway plays (Picnic, The Desperate Hours, Sweet Bird of Youth) and debuted in his first movie The Silver Chalice by 1954. This moment would mark the beginning of a lucrative film career. Below is a list a few memorable ones:Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)The Long Hot Summer (1958)The Young Philadelphians (1959)Exodus (1960)Paris Blues (1961)The Hustler (1961)Hud (1963)Harper (1966)Hombre (1967)Cool Hand Luke (1967)Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)The Towering Inferno (1974)After making several movies, Paul Newman returned to the theatre and began doing Pulitzer Prize-winning plays like The Shadow Box and The Glass Menagerie. He also acted in an HBO series Empire Falls. In March of 2007 at age 82, Paul Newman officially retired from acting because he could no longer keep up.Personal Life
At the Age of 83, Great Actor Paul Newman Dies of Cancer
Paul Newman Passed Away in Westport, Connecticut After a Long Battle with CancerPaul Newman, one of the greatest actors of our time, has passed away at the age of 83. Newman had been fighting a continued battle with cancer, and had gone back to his home in Westport, Connecticut. This is where he was when he died on Friday, taking away one of Hollywood’s greats.Newman has been one of those iconic type actors, where he was always bigger than the films he was in, always bringing with him a certain charisma and charm that simply jumped off the screen. He became quite famous in the 1950′s, and then put out huge hits like The Hustler, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting. Along the way he achieved a lot of box office success, and with that cam numerous nominations and successes for cinematic awards. At the end of his career he was moving behind the directors chair, but could also be heard as the voice of characters in such films as Pixar’s Cars, where he played the old Hudson Hornet.His career spanned many years, attaining him nominations for Oscars as best actor in Nobody’s Fool, The Color of Money, The Verdict, Absence of Malice, Cool Hand Look, Hud, The Hustler, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He also took home a Best Supporting Actor Nomination for his role in the Tom Hanks vehicle Road to Perdition. He only one one award though, taking home the 1987 Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his part in The Color of Money. It didn’t tarnish his reputation as a leading man to only take home one Oscar though, as his body of work really stands up there with the best actors we have seen grace the screen.
A Decade by Decade Look at the Career of Paul Newman – Retiring at 82
Paul Newman announced last week that, at the age of 82, he is retiring from film work after a career spanning over 50 years with 40+ films. He has been nominated 9 times for Academy Awards (8 for acting and
1 for producing) finally winning on his 7th try. He will continue with his auto racing and food product production but felt that film work was too demanding, especially trying to remember his lines. There have long been rumors that Robert Redford had finally found a project for the two of them but apparently a rumor was all it was and movie lovers will be left wondering what if?If Newman does indeed hold to his retirement announcement then his last movie was the animated hit “Cars” from last summer. His last on screen performance was the HBO mini-series “Empire Falls” and his last big screen performance was 2002′s “Road To Perdition.”I can’t imagine a movie world where movie lovers can’t look forward to a new Paul Newman movie but its better he go out while he can and not be forced to due to illness or worse. I wanted to take a look back at his long and storied career with all the highs befitting his immense talent and all the lows befitting an actor working for money or simply choosing poorly.1950′s – Newman’s film debut came in 1954′s “The Silver Chalice,” a film so bad that Newman would later take out a newspaper ad apologizing and advising fans to never watch it. His next film got him his first real notices as boxer Rocky Graciano in “Somebody Up There Likes Me.” His next few films (The Rack; The Helen Morgan Story; Until They Sail) provided Newman with good roles that were little seen. 1958 saw the release of “The Long Hot Summer” and “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” and the success of both films made Newman a movie star. He finished the decade with the forgettable “Rally Round the Flag, Boys” and the inspired “The Young Philadelphians.”
Paul Newman Donates $10 Million to Kenyon College
Kenyon College announced on Saturday that alumnus and actor Paul Newman has donated $10 million for a scholarship fund. Newman attended Kenyon and graduated in 1949 with a degree in drama and economics. Newman was urged along with his wife Joanne Woodward to make their large donation to Kenyon public to encourage other alumni to give to other scholarship funds. The donation will help in creating a rolling fund to provide partial and full scholarships for 15 to 20 students yearly. The
Paul Newman Donates $10 Million to Kenyon College first of the Newman’s Own scholarships will be handed out in the up coming academic year. According to the Associated Press, after looking back on his career of over 50 years Newman stated, “My days there [Kenyon College] were among the happiest and most formative of my life. I believe strongly that we should be doing whatever we can to make all higher education opportunities available to deserving students. I hope others will support Kenyon in this manner.” In addition to this most recent gift, Newman is also well known for the over $175 million he has contributed to various charities, including his own Hole in the Wall camps for children with cancer and other life-threatening illness. Newman’s Own stands out among other business because it sees no profits after cost and other taxable responsibilities are met. Paul Newman’s career began in early 1950s with small television roles and later grew into movie roles due to his captivating style. In 1958 he met his future wife Joanne Woodward on the set of “The Long, Hot Summer” acting opposite her and Orson Welles. Newman received his first Oscar nomination in 1959 for his portrayal of Brick Pollitt in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” His career continued with 6 more Oscar nominations until his first win in 1987 for Best Actor in a Leading Role for “The Color of Money.” Since then he gone back to his first love of the stage and has helped in many acting studios for young and upcoming actors.
Actor Debate – Steve McQueen Vs. Paul Newman – Part One
Big Screen Giants, but There Can Be Only OneAs two of the finest American actors of all-time, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman dominated the often underrated classic films of the 1960’s and eventually starred together in the 1974 disaster picture The Tower Inferno. After the Inferno, McQueen who battled cancer, only made a few
more films, with Tom Horn his final role before his 1980 death. Although Newman is still alive and kicking, his glory days seemed to end when the 1980’s hit and although he has starred in many films none of them have come close to his performances in the prime of his career.So this brings us to our first in a series debates pitting actors versus actors, McQueen versus Newman, with a focus on what we consider the prime of their careers, 1958 (the year Newman broke out in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) to 1974 (when the two shared the screen in The Towering Inferno). Co-writer Pat Harrington will be taking the side of Newman, while I (Guy Stuller) will be defending McQueen on the matter. In the timeframe we are debating, who made the better films and how much influence did each actor have in making those films great? PH – I would argue that Newman made better films in the aforementioned timeframe based on the titles that still stand head and shoulders above most films made in the era. Cat On a Hot Tin Roof was only the beginning of a brilliant 16-year span that included such classic films as “The Long, Hot Summer,” “The Hustler,” “Hud,” “Hombre,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “The Sting” and “The Towering Inferno.”