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Paul Newman |
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Paul Newman was one of the new breed of leading men who rocked Hollywood in the late 1950's and early sixties. He was nominated six times before he bagged a Best Actor Oscar in 1986. His fame for his blue eyes and acting talent became legendary even before his award winning performances. Paul Leonard Newman was born on 26 January in the year 1925. His birthplace is in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. As a youngster, Paul Newman showed a lot of interest in the theatre and his mother Theresa Newman was instrument in propelling him in he enjoyed most, acting.
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His career started off as a door-to-door salesman for Collier's Encyclopedias before enlisting in the Naval Air Corps. His piloting ambitions were cut short because his attractive blue eyes were actually color blind. It was at Kenyon that Paul rediscovered his childhood interest in acting while studying literature and acting. In 1949 he met and married Jackie Witte, moved to New Haven, CT, had two daughters and then finally moved to New York for performing in Broadway. He did many small roles and finally signed a contract with Warner Bros. and later did most of his work for 20th Century-Fox.
Paul Newman received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) in which he starred with Elizabeth Taylor. This film received nominations including the Best Picture. He co-starred with Orson Welles, Joanne Woodward, Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury in the movie The long, Hot Summer (1958). Later, he went on to marry Joanne Woodward after his divorced. This movie was the start of the 10 movies in which they acted together. Famous movies of Paul Newman was The Hustler (1961) with Jackie Gleason where he played the role of a cocky young pool player who takes on the legendary Minnesota Fats for serious money. This movie was nominated for nine Oscars in 1961 and Paul Newman became and overnight superstar. He also starred in Hud (1963), Cool Hand Luke (1967), and finally The Color Of Money (1961) where he finally earned the Best Actor Oscar Award.
His other famous movies include Rachel Rachel, Absence of Malice, The Verdict, Nobody's Fool, Road to Perdition, Until They Sail, The Young Philadelphians, From the Terrace and The Sting. Apart from his acting fame, he was also well known for his humanitarian efforts. In 1993, he was honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award which is given to "an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry." He is also the founder of Newman's Own, a food company and is by far his biggest effort in his philanthropic works. All profits and royalties from this company are donated to charity and as of May 2007, these donations have exceeded $220 million USD. He leant his support for efforts like The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for terminally ill children and the Scott Newman Foundation for drug and alcohol abuse education.
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