Biography of Paul Newman:- An American actor. As a Hungarian and Catholic mother and a German Jewish father, during his youth he received a solid formation, and not only in the area of interpretation.
His cultural and educational concerns inclined him to university studies, and he studied economics at Kenyon College in Ohio.
With the involvement of his country in World War II , he served as a sailor in the Navy and, after the war, studied drama at Yale.
Biography of Paul Newman
- Born:- 26 January 1925, Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States
- Died:- 26 September 2008, Westport, Connecticut, United States
- Spouse:- Joanne Woodward (m. 1958–2008), Jackie Witte (m. 1949–1958)
- Children:- Scott Newman, Nell Newman, Melissa Newman, Claire Olivia Newman, Susan Kendall Newman, Stephanie Newman
He also passed the Actor’s Studio, where he was one of the brightest students of his generation, among whom were some who would later achieve a special reputation, such as James Dean or Marlon Brando.
See Also: Biography of Gary Cooper
Newman is among those who best transposed the school method to their interpretations, which helped to popularize it and to make people and newspapers take care of it, since Actor’s Studio’s fame exceeded the realm of the exclusively professional.
Newman’s beginnings were theatrical; Managed to reach a great success in the scenarios and put in position to give the step to the cinema.
After appearing on some television shows, he was featured in Victor Saville’s The Silver Chalice (1954), a rather unlucky debut, as the film received no recognition.
Two years later, however, the rise of Newman took place thanks to a work that placed him in the forefront of the young actors of that moment. Robert Wise gave him the lead role of Mark of Hate (1956) -thought at first for James Dean-, which got into the skin of boxer Rocky Graziano, who became a prominent champion in the United States From a hard childhood and prison.
Then he came in a series of excellent performances that confirmed him as an actor of great value. His work in Arthur Penn’s ” The Left Hand” (1958) , in which he played Billy the Kid, the legendary gunman of the West , may be mentioned.
The version of this character (often taken to the cinema) emphasized, in this occasion, in the psychological aspects of the bandit, and the critic considered that Newman was memorable in its work.
That same year it returned to obtain another great success when embodying the young husband of the cat on the roof of zinc (1958), of Richard Brooks, an adaptation of the work of Tennessee Williams in which the frustrations and anxieties of the personage and their relation Matrimonial and family offered an excellent space for Newman to offer a display of all his dramatic ability to a very high level.
He returned to success with his performance in Vincent Sherman’s The City in Front of Me (1959), this time as a young student who made his way into the world of law and maintained different love relationships. It was one of the tapes that began to give him greater popularity outside the United States.
At the beginning of the sixties he collaborated in two films that, for different reasons, had an excellent reception. One was Exodus (1960) by Otto Preminger, a film version of the voluminous novel that best-selling specialist Leon Uris wrote about the formation of the state of Israel.
Conceived as a great show film, Preminger managed to introduce some moments of excellent cinema. Newman incarnated Ari Ben Canaan, the Jewish agent who transported the emigrants to Israel and participated there in the fight against the English and Arabs.
The tape, because of the important production that surrounded him, indicated that Paul Newman had achieved the status of a great star, although he would never have been very much in agreement with such label, since he always showed reticence with the excessively commercial consideration that the great studies Gave their products.
However, his militancy in radical political stances, within the concept in the United States is given to this word, did not prevent Newman from integrating, when necessary, in the celebrations and awards of the Academy without any problem.
His other important work at the beginning of the decade was Robert Rossen’s The Hard- Boiled (1961), a hard and uncompromising film about the life of a professional billiard player struggling to break through a world full of pitfalls, Mafia and violent organizations.
When the actor was fully placed, his next work was below what could be expected of him. Some of his failures not only competed as an actor, but also as a producer. Perhaps for this reason he began his activity as director, who began in the late sixties and came to 1987.
In this facet he made five films, some of which showed the desire to make a “different” cinema, where the ideas and typology of the characters dominated over the action and the anecdote. In some of them the feminine protagonism corresponded to his wife Joanne Woodward.
In this sense we should mention Rachel, Rachel (1968) and The effect of gamma rays on daisies (1972). Although his work as a director used to be received respectfully, they were far from the image he transmitted on the screen and the idea – sometimes incorrect – that the public had formed of him.
Therefore it could not be spoken of that they were a success, which did not prevent him to continue like director in new occasions.
Throughout the sixties and in his facet of actor, worked with directors like Alfred Hitchcock ( Rip Curtain , 1966), and obtained a major success with Two men and a destiny (1969), of George Roy Hill, in which participated As fellow cast member Robert Redford, whose work was well received.
In the eighties his activity was reduced, among other causes, because he put aside the roles of young man and sought interpretations more in line with the years he had.
They were works in which he appeared as someone more reflective, skeptical of life and with an ironic behavior, that did not hide a good dose of cynicism in the best sense of this word.
These were the years in which he appeared in unequal, but sometimes important, titles such as Sidney Pollack’s Absence of Malice (1981), Sidney Lumet’s Final Verdict (1982), and The Color of Money (1986) with Martin Scorsese in Direction, which is conceived as a second part of The Hustler , in which Newman plays a veteran billiard player who is guiding the footsteps of a promise , role played by Tom Cruise .
This work was especially important, because with him it obtained the Oscar of the Academy, for which it had been proposed up to six times. In 1994 he would receive another honorary Oscar for the whole of his career and for being one of the actors with more titles behind him.
His last works showed him as an old glory for which time had not passed in pail, but still retained the prestige and consideration of one of the most important actors of the second half of the twentieth century.
Of great appeal, Newman knew how to go beyond being a simple “pretty face” to demonstrate professionalism, interest and concern for the way of interpreting and analyzing the intricacies of his characters; Always considered that the cinema is more than pure entertainment.
His actions almost always had the tint of commitment, and although diversity was logical in someone with an activity as extensive as him, he always shown in conflicting types, uncomfortable in a society that they do not like even if they have no choice but to live in it and Adapt to an environment that they consider very questionable.
He was undoubtedly one of the forerunners of the anti-star concept, and he demonstrated this in 2002, when he was about to turn 78 on Broadway after almost four decades of absence with a new Adaptation of the classic by Thornton Wilder , Our Town .
Great amateur to the cars, participated in professional races. He created various types of business in which, with the coverage of his popularity, he sometimes sought part of the profits to revitalize on groups in need; Also held positions in the United Nations, although for a short time.
His love life was discreet for what is usual in Hollywood: his marriage to actress Joanne Woodward was an example of stability.
With a half-century career behind him and 57 films in his filmography, Newman announced in 2003 his retirement. Undoubtedly, his long career has made him one of the legends of American cinema, in the same style as the most famous actors of the past.
Intelligent and of exceptional physical appeal, for many years his name alone was enough to bring people to the movies. Some of his works are among the most important of the medium realized since the fifties.
