Paul Newman

Notable people · Entertainment · Business

Paul Newman

Shaker Heights-raised, Kenyon-educated film star of The Hustler, Hud and Butch Cassidy, racing driver and founder of Newman's Own.

Born January 26, 1925, Cleveland Heights
Died September 26, 2008, his home in Westport, Connecticut

derivative work: Seherr (talk) Paul_Newman_in_Carnation,_Washington_June_2007.JPG: TriviaKing (talk) The original uploader was TriviaKing at English Wikipedia. / CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: January 26, 1925, Cleveland Heights (Cuyahoga County) source
Died: September 26, 2008, his home in Westport, Connecticut source
Buried: Cremated after a private funeral; ashes scattered near his Westport home, CT source
Also known as: Paul Newman
Education: Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, to 1949, BA drama and economics
: Yale School of Drama, New Haven, CT
Known as: Entertainment, Business
Organizations: Newman's Own

Life story

Paul Newman was born in Cleveland Heights in 1925. His father ran a sporting goods store. At 10 he acted in a play at the Cleveland Play House.

He served in the Navy in World War II as an aviation radioman, then earned a BA at Kenyon College in 1949, and later studied at the Yale School of Drama and the Actors Studio.

His breakthrough was Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). He earned nine Oscar nominations and won Best Actor for The Color of Money (1986).

In 1982 he co-founded Newman's Own, giving all after-tax profits to charity (over $600 million by 2026), and in 1988 started the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. He died in Westport, Connecticut, in 2008.

Ohio ties

Cleveland Heights (1925-1927)
birthplace; the family belonged to the Oakwood Club there Cuyahoga County · source
Shaker Heights (1927-1943)
boyhood home; Shaker Heights High School, class of 1943 Cuyahoga County · source
Cleveland Play House (1930s)
child actor in the children's theatre; played in Saint George and the Dragon at ten Cuyahoga County · source
Ohio University, Athens (1943)
student for one semester; initiated into Phi Kappa Tau Athens County · source
Kenyon College, Gambier (1946-1949; 1978-1979)
BA in drama and economics, 1949; honorary Doctor of Letters, 1961; returned to direct and helped found the Kenyon Festival Theater Knox County · source
Mount Vernon (1946)
spent a night in the city jail after a brawl at the Bluebird Club Knox County · source
Cleveland (Newman-Stern Co.) (1950-1951)
ran the family sporting goods store for about 18 months after his father's death Cuyahoga County · source

Timeline

1925 Born on 26 January in Cleveland Heights to Arthur S. Newman Sr. and Theresa Fetzer Newman. source
1927 The family moved to Shaker Heights. source
1935 At ten performed in Saint George and the Dragon with the Cleveland Play House children's theatre. source
1943 Graduated from Shaker Heights High School and spent the spring semester at Ohio University before the Navy called him up. source
1944 Qualified in torpedo bombers as an Aviation Radioman Third Class and was sent to Barbers Point, Hawaii. source
1945 His Avenger crew was grounded when the pilot had an earache, days before a kamikaze attack on USS Bunker Hill killed members of his unit. source
1946 Applied to Kenyon College on 2 May and entered its summer session for discharged servicemen on 8 July. source
1946 After a fight at the Bluebird Club near Mount Vernon on 26 October he spent a night in jail, was put on academic probation and was dropped from the football team. source
1947 Made his Kenyon stage debut as Hildy Johnson in The Front Page. source
1949 Graduated from Kenyon with a BA in drama and economics. source
1950 After his father died, moved back to Cleveland for about 18 months to run the Newman-Stern store. source
1961 Kenyon awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters on 3 June. source
1978 Spent two months at Kenyon directing C.C. Pyle and the Bunion Derby in the new Bolton Theater. source
1979 Helped found the Kenyon Festival Theater, which ran for five years. source
1982 Co-founded Newman's Own with A. E. Hotchner, giving all after-tax profits to charity. source
1993 Received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. source
2008 Died of lung cancer on 26 September at his home in Westport, Connecticut, aged 83. source

What Paul is known for

Best Actor Academy Award for The Color of Money (1986 film; ceremony March 1987)
Co-founded Newman's Own, 1982
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
The Sting (1973)
Newman's Own, 1982
Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, 1988

Stories

One night in the Mount Vernon jail

On 26 October 1946 Kenyon football players fought local men at the Bluebird Club, a bar south of Mount Vernon. Police were called, and quarterback Bert Forman hit one of the officers. Newman, not one of the ringleaders, was taken in; at the station an officer asked to see his knuckles, and he spent the night in the Mount Vernon jail. Coach Pat Pasini threw the players involved off the team and four students were expelled, while Newman got academic probation. His father bailed him out and warned that more trouble would mean leaving college to sell bowling balls at the family store. Looking for something to fill his time, Newman auditioned for a play, and his director James Michael encouraged him to keep acting.

Source

Kenyon's leading man

Newman applied to Kenyon on 2 May 1946 and arrived that July for a summer session for discharged GIs. Off the football team, he joined the Kenyon College Dramatic Club, debuting as Hildy Johnson in The Front Page in 1947 and later playing Petruchio and, in drag, the title role of Charley's Aunt, which opened less than a week after the Old Kenyon fire of 1949. He also ran a campus laundry out of the T-Barracks and a corsage service, and wrote and starred in a satirical 1949 revue in which he played the dean. He came back in 1978 to direct a play in the new Bolton Theater, helped found the Kenyon Festival Theater in 1979, endowed acting awards and made a $10 million leadership gift to the college's financial aid campaign.

Source

From radio parts to sporting goods

The Newman family business began in 1915 as the Electro-Set Co., started by brothers Arthur S. and Joseph S. Newman with Arnold L. Stern to sell radio parts and electrical toys for boys, with a national mail-order trade. It became Newman-Stern Co. in 1917, and when the federal wireless ban of World War I hit the radio trade it turned to sporting goods. From 1921 it occupied a building at East 12th Street and Walnut Avenue in Cleveland. After Arthur Newman died in 1950, Joseph Newman sold the family's interest; the firm passed to Gateway Sporting Goods of Kansas City in 1963, and its last stores closed in 1973.

Source

Honors and things named for them

Academy Award, Best Actor, 1986
Nine Oscar nominations
Honorary Academy Awards

Family

wife: Joanne Woodward
wife: Jackie Witte
son: Scott Newman

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Shaker Heights High School (class of 1943)
15911 Aldersyde Drive, Shaker Heights Cuyahoga County · source
2 Kenyon College (BA 1949; honorary degree 1961)
Gambier Knox County · source
3 Ohio University (one semester, 1943)
Athens Athens County · source
Former Cleveland Play House complex, East 86th Street and Euclid Avenue (sold to Cleveland Clinic in 2009) (unknown)
Cleveland Cuyahoga County · source
Newman-Stern Co. building (from 1921) (unknown)
East 12th Street and Walnut Avenue, Cleveland Cuyahoga County · source

Ohio places

Where Paul Newman was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga County ZIP 44118 · Cleveland Heights · Cuyahoga County
Lived: Shaker Heights, Cuyahoga County ZIP 44120 · Shaker Heights · Cuyahoga County
School: Gambier (Kenyon College), Knox County ZIP 43022 · Gambier · Knox County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Paul Newman, and what the record shows.

Often said Paul Newman was born in Shaker Heights.

The record He was born in Cleveland Heights and raised in Shaker Heights. EBSCO's biography dates the family's move to Shaker Heights to 1927, two years after his birth. Britannica and some film references say only 'Cleveland'. source

Often said Ohio University expelled Newman after he rolled a beer keg down Jeff Hill into the president's (or dean's) car.

The record The story has circulated for decades without a source. University archivist Bill Kimok found no disciplinary record, and Newman's posthumous memoir says he spent only the spring 1943 semester in Athens, which he remembered as 'a lot of beer drinking and dating', before leaving for the Navy. Asked about it in 1994, Newman seemed amused but did not confirm it. source

Often said Newman was thrown out of Kenyon after the 1946 bar fight.

The record Four students were expelled, but Newman, who was not a ringleader, received academic probation and was dropped from the football team. He stayed and graduated in 1949. source

Disputed: Wikipedia gives Cleveland Heights as his birthplace, while Biography.com says only Cleveland. He grew up in Shaker Heights.

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Harbor Drive-In theater advertisement for the American drama film, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 27 November 1958.
Public domain
AP Laserphoto of Tom Cruise and Paul Newman testing a NASCAR Busch Grand National Series car for Hendrick Moto...
Public domain
Signature Paul Newman (autograph) American actor
Public domain
United States Navy portrait of Paul Newman.
Public domain
Original studio publicity photo of Paul Newman. See also: film still article.
Public domain
Photo of Edward Andrews and Paul Newman from the Kaiser Aluminum Hour presentation of "Army Game'.
Public domain
L. to R.: Paul Newman, Sammy White & Everett Sloane in Somebody Up There Likes Me - publicity still (cropp...
Public domain
Theatre advertisement for the film, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 23 August, 1958.
Public domain
Screenshot of Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman from the trailer for the film w:en:Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film)
Public domain
Screenshot of Paul Newman from the trailer for the film w:en:Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film)
Public domain
Screenshot of Paul Newman from the trailer for the film w:en:Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film)
Public domain
Screenshot of Paul Newman from the trailer for the film w:en:Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (film)
Public domain