Paul Newman was an awesome human being. He was an actor, director, entrepreneur, professional race car driver and team owner, environmentalist, activist, and philanthropist.
He has been in so many block buster movies including: The Color of Money, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Towering Inferno, and The Verdict. His first real breaks came when James Dean died in an automobile accident and Newman was given Dean’s two upcoming movie roles which included playing Billy the Kid and Rocky Graziano.
Newman was nominated for more than 28 awards winning various Emmy’s and Golden Globe’s. He’s one of only three actors (one is Jack Nicholson), to receive acting awards over four decades; Cher accomplished the same thing in the music industry.
Newman was a huge race car fan and won several national championships as a driver in The Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel Indy Car racing.
It would be difficult to find someone as charitable and kind-hearted as both Paul and his wife Joanne Woodward the famous actress, who he had been married to for 58 years! They had six children many also involved in philanthropy along with their kids (he left an amazing legacy). His food company was called Newman's Own and he donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. His daughter was instrumental in starting an organic division of products for the company. As of 2016, these donations have totaled over $460 million.
He was also a co-founder of Safe Water Network, a nonprofit that develops sustainable drinking water solutions around the world. In 1988, Newman founded the Serious Fun Children's Network, a global family of summer camps and programs for children with serious illnesses; it has served 290,076 children since its inception. He and Joanne have also given tens of millions of dollars in college scholarships for people in need. Good luck finding someone who cared so much about other people. He wasn’t a religious man per se but he sure lived a life every Christian should want to immolate.
Not widely known, Paul Newman served in the Air Force during WWII. He wanted to be a fighter pilot but they found out he was color blind in one eye so he couldn’t do it. He ended up becoming a crewmember on Torpedo Bombers firing the machine guns at enemy planes. The pilot of his crew got an ear infection at one point during the war and their plane was grounded for a few days while the rest of their squadron flew to an aircraft carrier. The Japanese attacked the ship and all of their friends died. Not long after this draft replacements came and Newman received an honorable discharge.
Now I wrote a lot of nice things about Paul Newman but here’s the bad part, and when I say (or write), bad, I mean it. Are you ready? He was a life-long active Democrat. Yikes! J So in some ways, ideologically, we had our differences but he walked the talk on the most important thing of all and that is to take care of our fellow man. Hollywood is filled with people who focus on self-gratification. Paul Newman was a tremendous example of how to be an extremely successful person without being self-absorbed. How many of us can say we’ve had a positive impact on millions of people? We lost a really good one!
He has been in so many block buster movies including: The Color of Money, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Towering Inferno, and The Verdict. His first real breaks came when James Dean died in an automobile accident and Newman was given Dean’s two upcoming movie roles which included playing Billy the Kid and Rocky Graziano.
Newman was nominated for more than 28 awards winning various Emmy’s and Golden Globe’s. He’s one of only three actors (one is Jack Nicholson), to receive acting awards over four decades; Cher accomplished the same thing in the music industry.
Newman was a huge race car fan and won several national championships as a driver in The Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel Indy Car racing.
It would be difficult to find someone as charitable and kind-hearted as both Paul and his wife Joanne Woodward the famous actress, who he had been married to for 58 years! They had six children many also involved in philanthropy along with their kids (he left an amazing legacy). His food company was called Newman's Own and he donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. His daughter was instrumental in starting an organic division of products for the company. As of 2016, these donations have totaled over $460 million.
He was also a co-founder of Safe Water Network, a nonprofit that develops sustainable drinking water solutions around the world. In 1988, Newman founded the Serious Fun Children's Network, a global family of summer camps and programs for children with serious illnesses; it has served 290,076 children since its inception. He and Joanne have also given tens of millions of dollars in college scholarships for people in need. Good luck finding someone who cared so much about other people. He wasn’t a religious man per se but he sure lived a life every Christian should want to immolate.
Not widely known, Paul Newman served in the Air Force during WWII. He wanted to be a fighter pilot but they found out he was color blind in one eye so he couldn’t do it. He ended up becoming a crewmember on Torpedo Bombers firing the machine guns at enemy planes. The pilot of his crew got an ear infection at one point during the war and their plane was grounded for a few days while the rest of their squadron flew to an aircraft carrier. The Japanese attacked the ship and all of their friends died. Not long after this draft replacements came and Newman received an honorable discharge.
Now I wrote a lot of nice things about Paul Newman but here’s the bad part, and when I say (or write), bad, I mean it. Are you ready? He was a life-long active Democrat. Yikes! J So in some ways, ideologically, we had our differences but he walked the talk on the most important thing of all and that is to take care of our fellow man. Hollywood is filled with people who focus on self-gratification. Paul Newman was a tremendous example of how to be an extremely successful person without being self-absorbed. How many of us can say we’ve had a positive impact on millions of people? We lost a really good one!
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