PAUL NEWMAN (Rooney), a true screen legend, has been one of the American cinema’s most important and most prolific actors for over half a century. In 1987, he won an Academy Award® for Best Actor for his performance as pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson in Martin Scorsese’s "The Color of Money." It marked a reprisal of the role he had played 25 years earlier in "The Hustler," which had brought him his second of eight Best Actor Oscar® nominations. He received his first Oscar® nomination in 1959 for his work opposite Elizabeth Taylor in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and has also been Oscar®-nominated for his performances in the films "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke," "Absence of Malice," "The Verdict" and "Nobody's Fool."
Newman has also been recognized for his work behind the camera, earning an Academy Award® nomination for Best Picture for "Rachel, Rachel," which he produced and directed. He also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for the film, which starred his wife, Joanne Woodward. In addition, Newman was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1986 in recognition of his outstanding contributions to film, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1984. In 1992, he and Joanne Woodward received the Kennedy Center Honors.
Newman began his career on the stage, making his Broadway debut in the 1953 production of William Inge’s "Picnic." The following year, Newman made his first appearance on the big screen in "The Silver Chalice," but it was his portrayal of boxer Rocky Graziano in 1956’s "Somebody Up There Likes Me" that catapulted him to stardom. Over the next decade, the actor starred in two dozen films, including "The Long, Hot Summer," for which he was named Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, "The Left-Handed Gun," "Exodus," and "Sweet Bird of Youth," as well as his aforementioned Oscar®-nominated roles in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "The Hustler," "Hud" and "Cool Hand Luke."
In 1969, Newman teamed with Robert Redford in George Roy Hill’s smash hit Western "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," which became an instant classic. Four years later, Newman, Redford and Hill reunited in the Academy Award®-winning Best Picture "The Sting."
Newman’s iconic status has never waned over the years. His long list of film credits also includes "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean," "The Towering Inferno," "The Drowning Pool," "Slap Shot," "Fort Apache, The Bronx," "Fat Man and Little Boy," "Blaze," "The Hudsucker Proxy" and "Message in a Bottle," to name only a portion.
Additionally, Newman directed, produced and starred in "Harry and Son"; produced and directed "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds"; and directed "The Glass Menagerie," and the television movie "The Shadow Box," the latter for which he earned an Emmy Award nomination.
Apart from his film work, Newman has a well-known passion for automobile racing. He is also a dedicated philanthropist, whose Newman’s Own line of food products—all the proceeds of which go to charity—has generated more than 100 million dollars in donations. He is also devoted to the Scott Newman Center, named for his son, and the Hole-In-The-Wall Gang Camp, which provides a fun-filled environment for seriously ill children. In 1994, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Newman with the coveted Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
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