Profile Text
Birth Name: Paul Leonard Newman
Date of Birth: January 26, 1925
Place of Birth: Shaker Heights, Ohio, U.S.
Date of Death: September 26, 2008
Place of Death: Westport, Connecticut, U.S.
Ethnicity: * father – Ashkenazi Jewish * mother – Slovak
Paul Newman was an American actor, film director, businessperson, racing driver and team owner, environmentalist, activist, and philanthropist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Color of Money (1986). His roles also included the films The Silver Chalice , Somebody Up There Likes Me , The Rack , The Helen Morgan Story , Until They Sail , The Long, Hot Summer ; The Left Handed Gun , Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , Rally Round the Flag, Boys! ; The Young Philadelphians , From the Terrace , Exodus (1960); The Hustler (1961), Paris Blues , Sweet Bird of Youth , Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man , Hud , A New Kind of Love , The Prize (1963), What a Way to Go! , The Outrage (1964), Lady L , Harper (1966), Torn Curtain , Hombre , Cool Hand Luke , The Secret War of Harry Frigg , Winning , Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), WUSA , Sometimes a Great Notion , which he directed; Pocket Money (1972), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean , The Mackintosh Man , The Sting (1973), The Towering Inferno , The Drowning Pool , Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson ; Slap Shot (1977), Quintet , When Time Ran Out… , Fort Apache, The Bronx ; Absence of Malice , The Verdict , Harry & Son , which he directed and co-wrote; Fat Man and Little Boy , Blaze (1989), Mr. & Mrs. Bridge , The Hudsucker Proxy , Nobody’s Fool (1994), Twilight (1998), Message in a Bottle (1999), Where the Money Is , Road to Perdition , Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D , Cars (2006), Dale , and The Meerkats (2008); the made-for-tv movie Our Town (2003); and the mini-series Empire Falls . He also directed the films Rachel, Rachel ; The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds , and The Glass Menagerie (1987), and the made-for-tv movie The Shadow Box .
Paul was the son of Theresa (Fetsko, later Fetzer) and Arthur Sigmund Newman, who ran a sporting goods store. His father was Ashkenazi Jewish, from a family from Hungary and Poland. Paul’s mother, who practiced Christian Science, was born to a Slovak Roman Catholic family at Homonna, Ptičie, formerly Pticsie, in the former Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Humenné in Slovakia. He was not religious for most of his life. He had said , “I’ve always thought of myself as a Jew because it is harder.”
Paul was married to actress Joanne Woodward , until his death. Paul had three children, including actor Scott Newman, with his former wife, Jackie Witte; and three children, including actresses Nell Newman and Melissa Newman, with Joanne.
Paul’s paternal grandfather was named Simon Wolf Newman (the son of Joseph Newman and Hannah or Adel Edlisz/Roth). Simon was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant.
Paul’s paternal grandmother was named Hannah Cohn (the daughter of Selig Lazarus Israel Cohn and Bena). Hannah was a Polish Jewish immigrant.
Paul’s maternal grandfather was Štefan/Stephen Fecko/Fetsko (the son of George Fetsko and Mary Orgvanyi). Štefan was an ethnic Slovak. He born in either Hungary or Bohemia.
Paul’s maternal grandmother was Mária/Mary Polinak/Polenak or Hoczman. Mária/Mary was Slovak. She born in either Hungary or Bohemia. Mary Polinak was the daughter of Stephen Polinak and Mary Urban. Mária Hoczman was the daughter of Michael Holzman and Catharina Vojtun.
Sources: Genealogy of Paul Newman – http://www.geni.com
Pictures and genealogy of Paul’s family – http://www.findagrave.com
Genealogy of Paul Newman (focusing on his father’s side) – http://www.wikitree.com
Death record of Paul’s father – https://www.familysearch.org