Newt's John Wayne Site

The Paul Newman Collection is a 7 film, 7-disc boxed set.

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Newman was born in 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a successful sporting goods store owner. He acted in grade school and high school plays and after being disharged from the navy in 1946 enrolled at Kenyon College. After graduation he spent a year at the Yale Drama School and then headed to New York, where he attended the famed New York Actors Studio. Classically handsome and with a super abundance of sex appeal, television parts came easily and, after his first Broadway appearance in "Picnic" (1953), he was offered a movie contract by Warner Brothers. His first film, The Silver Chalice (1954) was nearly his last. He considered his performance in this costume epic to be so bad that he took out a full-page ad in a trade paper apologizing for it to anyone who might have seen it. He fared much better in his next effort, Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), in which he portrayed boxer Rocky Graziano and drew raves from the critics for his briliant performance. He went on to become one of the top box office draws of the 1960s, starring in such superior films as The Hustler (1961), The Prize (1963), Hud (1963), Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). He also produced and directed many quality films, including Rachel, Rachel (1968) in which he directed wife Joanne Woodward and which received an Oscar nomination for best picture. Nominated nine times for a best actor Oscar, he finally took one home for his performance as an aging pool shark in The Color of Money (1986). Though well into his 70s as the century drew to a close, Newman still commanded lead roles in films such as Message in a Bottle (1999). He lives with his wife in Westport, CT. A caring and supremely generous man, he is the founder of "Newman's Own" a successful line of food products that has earned in excess of $100 million, every penny of which the philanthropic movie icon has donated to charity. Renowned for his sense of humor, in 1998 he quipped that he was a little embarrassed to see his salad dressing grossing more than his movies. (IMDb Mini-biography by Tom McDonough)

Some other facts about Paul Newman:

Owns The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp, a summer camp for children with cancer and other blood-related diesases (and their siblings) in Ashford, Connecticut, and also runs a fall "Discovery" program for inner city kids, also in Ashford.

Finished 2nd in the 1979 Le Mans 24hr race in a Porsche 935.

Nominated for a 2003 Tony Award for Best Actor in the Revival of a Play, for "Our Town". Within a space of five months in the year 2003, when, at the age of 78, he was nominated for an Oscar (for Road to Perdition (2002), a Tony, and an Emmy both for "Our Town").

Was named the #1 Box Office Star by Quigley Publications in its annual Top Ten Money Making Stars poll of movie exhibitors two years in a row, 1969 and 1970. Newman had been #2 in 1968 and #3 in '67 and would rank #3 in both 1971 and '74. Newman, who entered the list for the first time in 1963 at #9 and the last time in 1986 at #10, has made the list 17 times.

He was nominated for 9 Acting Academy Awards in 5 different decades, in the 50s (Best Lead Actor for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), in the 60s (Best Lead Actor for The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), and Cool Hand Luke (1967), in the 80s (Best Lead Actor for Absence of Malice (1981), The Verdict (1982), and The Color of Money (1986) winning for this last film), in the 90's (Best Lead Actor for Nobody's Fool (1994) and finally in 2002s Road to Perdition (2002) for Best Supporting Actor.

The role of Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) was originally awarded to James Dean, who died before filming began. Due to Dean's death, Newman was cast in the role. Dean also was signed to play Billy the Kid in The Left Handed Gun (1958), but that role was also inherited by Newman after Dean's death. Dean and Newman had shot their last screen-tests for East of Eden (1955) together; the six-years-younger Dean got the part and Newman went on to star in The Silver Chalice (1954), a notorious turkey.

A few quotes from Paul Newman:

"When I realized I was going to have to be a whore, to put my face on the label, I decided that the only way I could do it was to give away all the money we make. Over the years, that ethical stance has given us a 30 per cent boost. One in three customers buys my products because all the profits go to good causes and the rest buy the stuff because it is good."

"Being on President Nixon's enemies list was the highest single honor I've ever received. Who knows who's listening to me now and what government list I'm on?"

On philanthropy: "You can only put away so much stuff in your closet".

"If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you."

"For those of you who like to scarf your popcorn in the sack, the good news is that Newman's Own contains an aphrodisiac."

"I started my career giving a clinic in bad acting in the film, 'The Silver Chalice,' and now I'm playing a crusty old man who's an animated automobile [in 'Cars']. That's a creative arc for you isn't it?"

"I've repeatedly said that for people as little in common as Joanne and myself, we have an uncommonly good marriage. We are actors. We make pictures and that's about all we have in common. Maybe that's enough. Wives shouldn't feel obligated to accompany their husbands to a ball game, husbands do look a bit silly attending morning coffee breaks with the neighborhood wives when most men are out at work. Husbands and wives should have separate interests, cultivate different sets of friends and not impose on the other. You can't spend a lifetime breathing down each other's necks."