Paul Newman on screen and stage

This article is the filmography of Paul Newman

Newman (right) as "Brick", next to "Big Daddy" (Burl Ives), in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

This article is part of a series about Paul Newman
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Newman had an inauspicious debut in film with The Silver Chalice (1954), but his performance in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) garnered praise and a positive career trajectory. Serious roles in films such as The Helen Morgan Story (1957), The Young Philadelphians (1959), and Exodus (1960) followed soon after. It was around this time he also met the love of his life, Joanne Woodward, whom he would marry and remain with for the rest of his life.

After their first pairing in The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Newman & Woodward became a frequent on-screen team. Their other on-screen collaborations were Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), From the Terrace (1960), Paris Blues (1961), A New Kind of Love (1963), Winning (1969), WUSA (1970), The Drowning Pool (1975), Harry & Son (1984), and Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990). He remained behind the camera on three further pairings: Rachel, Rachel (1968), his directorial debut, earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Picture plus a Golden Globe win for Best Director; The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972); The Glass Menagerie (1987); and The Shadow Box (1980), which aired on TV. He also produced, but did not direct, her film, They Might Be Giants (1971). They united once on the small screen, for Empire Falls (2005) on HBO, which won Newman an Emmy and another Golden Globe. Finally, they both participated in the Martin Luther King Jr. documentary, King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis (1970).

His career breakthrough occurred with his performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), which earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Subsequent nominations would follow via the films The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), and Cool Hand Luke (1967). In between those, he starred in several other notable titles, such as Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Torn Curtain (1966), Hombre (1967); and in one of his signature roles, as the former titular character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).

Newman next starred in such 1970s films as Sometimes a Great Notion (1971), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), The Sting (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), and Slap Shot (1977). The 1980s brought two consecutive Oscar nominations along, from Absence of Malice (1981) and The Verdict, followed by an Academy Honorary Award presented in 1986. But it would be the sequel to Hustler featuring the return of "Fast Eddie" Felson, The Color of Money (1986), that would finally see Paul Newman voted the Best Actor Oscar winner at the 1987 awards ceremony.

Over the next two decades, Newman received one more honorary Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In addition, he garnered two final nominations: one more in lead, for Nobody's Fool (1994); and his only one for Best Supporting Actor, for Road to Perdition (2002). He was featured in a few other occasional films, such as The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), and the only voice acting he ever did, in Pixar's Cars (2006). (Perhaps due to his being a noted auto racing enthusiast.)

And even though his stage career was brief, he had some noted success there as well. He made his Broadway stage debut in Picnic, and also did stints in the 1950s in The Desperate Hours and Sweet Bird of Youth, the latter of which led to him being cast in the film role. Finally, his last big stage role in Our Town earned him his only Tony Award nomination.

Here is a complete list of Paul Newman's known acting credentials.