Paul Newman

About Paul Newman

Paul Leonard Newman (born January 26, 1925) is an American actor and a film director. He has won numerous awards, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an Emmy award. He is also the founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which Newman donates all profits and royalties to charity. As of May 2007, these donations have exceeded US$220 million.

Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland), the son of Theresa (née Fetzer or Fetsko) and Arthur S. Newman, who ran a profitable sporting goods store. His father was Jewish and his mother was born to a Slovak Catholic family at Ptičie (formerly Peticse) in the former Kingdom of Hungary, now in Slovakia, and converted to Christian Science when Paul was five. Newman has described himself as Jewish, stating that, "it's more of a challenge." Newman's mother worked in his father's store, while raising Paul and his brother Arthur (who later became a producer and production manager).

Newman showed an early interest in the theater, which his mother encouraged. At the age of seven, he made his acting debut, playing the court jester in a school production of Robin Hood. Graduating from Shaker Heights High School in 1943, he briefly attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he was initiated into the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.