Paul Newman – Gentleman of Style

With an acting career that spanned six decades, Paul Newman was beloved by generations of admirers for his work on screen and stage. But besides his work as a thespian, Newman was also a family man, renowned philanthropist, race car driver–and style icon.

Paul Newman – Gentleman of Style

Paul Newman’s Early Years

Paul Newman was born in 1925, four years before the Great Depression, in Shaker Heights, Ohio. At a young age, he developed an interest in acting that would translate into a long and celebrated career. After serving in the military during World War II and seeing some action in the Pacific theater as an aircraft gunner and radioman, Newman moved to New York City with his first wife, Jackie Witte. There, he found roles on Broadway and television. In 1954, he made his first big-screen appearance in The Silver Chalice, a biblical epic, as the silversmith who made the Holy Grail, though the film was unsuccessful.

However, Newman’s failures would be few and far between; he would go on to rack up nine Academy Award nominations in his career, starting with his role as Brick Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) opposite Elizabeth Taylor. Newman enjoyed his greatest fame as a film actor in the 1960s and 70s, when he became known not only for his steely blue eyes and overall good looks but for the consistently high quality of his acting.

Many of his roles during this period were all-around tough guys who were also vulnerable and often tragic figures. Among his most memorable characters of this sort were “Fast” Eddie Felson, a pool shark looking to make it big in The Hustler (1961) and the title characters in films all coincidentally beginning with the letter H: the cattle rancher Hud (1963), Harper (1966), a hardboiled detective, and Cool Hand Luke (1967), in which he played a charismatic and inspiring prisoner with a spirit that refuses to be broken despite the degradation and abuses he faces at the hands of his captors. Newman received the Best Actor nomination for all of these roles with the exception of Harper.

Newman’s Later Career and Final Years

As Newman entered middle age, he began to be cast in the role of an older mentor for a younger leading man–which is to say, for characters played by Robert Redford–with the pair debuting in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) followed by a turn in The Sting (1973), which represented Newman’s first foray into comedy.

Newman’s career continued strong into the next decade when he was nominated for back-to-back Oscars—Absence of Malice (1981) and The Verdict (1982)–finally winning his first for Best Actor in The Color of Money (1986). In the movie, he reprised his role of “Fast” Eddie Felson 25 years after The Hustler. This is significant for showcasing Newman’s adaptability, going from playing the young upstart to the established veteran at age 61, this time opposite another newcomer destined for long-term Hollywood stardom: Tom Cruise. 

Though Paul Newman slowed down in terms of the volume of roles he undertook in his 60s and 70s, the quality of his work remained consistent and he earned yet another Academy Award nomination for Nobody’s Fool (1994), the last he would receive for Best Actor. Newman would go on to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Road to Perdition (2002), the last big-screen movie in which he would perform.

Newman voiced the character of Doc Hudson in Disney/Pixar’s animated Cars (2006), a nod to his lifelong interest in racing. Although he quit smoking in the late ’70s, Newman was a heavy smoker for many years, like many of his generation, and he eventually succumbed to lung cancer in 2008, age 83. In his lifetime, he won one Oscar for acting and received two additional honors from the Academy, and also won three Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an Emmy, leaving behind an estate worth $600 million and an enduring legacy as an actor and style icon.

Newman Outside Acting – His Personal Life, Hobbies, and Philanthropy

Throughout his life, Paul Newman was known as a family man–a father to six children and a devoted husband to fellow actor Joanne Woodward for fifty years until his death in 2008. He was also a philanthropist, founder of the Newman’s Own Foundation, which donated all after-tax profits from sales of Newman-branded food items to charity. The idea started because Newman would often bottle and give away his homemade olive oil and vinegar salad dressing to friends for Christmas. Just for fun, he decided to sell it in a local shop. When his dressing flew off the shelves, Newman eventually agreed to expand his line of products and market them more widely, including items like popcorn, fig bars (“Fig Newmans”), tomato sauce, and lemonade, with the stipulation that all proceeds be given away to various good causes. To date, the Newman’s Own organization has given away around half a billion dollars.

Ever fun loving, Paul Newman was also an automobile racing enthusiast, as both a race-car driver himself and the owner of a racing team. His interest in the sport began in 1969 when he participated in racing school to prepare for a film called Winning about competing Indy race car drivers. In the movie, Newman does much of the actual full-speed driving himself, and this experience marked the start of what would become a passion of his for the rest of his life.

A Guide to Paul Newman’s Style

1. Ivy and Trad

In terms of style, Newman represented the next generation of actors after the “Golden Age of Hollywood” represented by the likes of Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, and Humphrey Bogart. As such, his style during his prime years is less formal and traditional, in line with the fashions of the 1950s and ’60s. This comes across as a kind of effortless nonchalance, an authentic form of what we tout as sprezzatura today. Often this meant an American trad or aesthetic featuring a button-down collar, knitted tie, loafers, and sweaters. By dressing this way, Newman signaled he was indeed the American “New Man,” one who could remain stylish while also entirely modern. Indeed, he would continue in this style all of his life–more often than not, you’ll spot him wearing an OCBD in photos from his everyday life.

2. Sharp, but Dressed Down

Throughout his life, Newman would be remarkably consistent in defining his style as sharp yet dressed down. For instance, he’d roll up his sleeves, open his collar and keep his tie on–a knitted one–and managed to pull off the look without appearing sloppy. We see him wearing a polo shirt with a suit in the Color of Money image earlier on, or a turtleneck with a suit, a look that has become trendy again of late. Of course, it helped that he was fit and good looking, but we can still draw lessons from his approach.

3. Subdued Color Schemes

The capture from Harper earlier in the article hints at Newman’s penchant for monochrome, or at least more neutral, color schemes, even a black suit and tie. You’ll never see him wearing loud patterns, bright hues or anything over the top. The boldest he would go was the injection of bright blue–denim shirts or suits–because they accentuated his famous blue eyes. These can also go toward the monochrome as shown here and in the all-gray look from The Color of Money publicity photo. Clearly, Newman (and his stylists) knew how to coordinate his clothes to complement his physical features, including his eyes, and, as an older man, his gray hair.

4. Casual Wear

More often than not, Paul Newman wore casual clothes rather than suits or sport coats, but even casually dressed, he embodied effortlessness: he rarely, if ever, looked like he was trying. He might roll up the sleeves of his OCBD shirt or layer up with a sweater and always looked comfortable doing so; you’d be hard pressed to find a photo of him in his everyday life looking uneasy in whatever he was wearing. As such, Newman provides a model of how looking good doesn’t require you to be a dandy or sacrifice comfort.

5. Cool Sunglasses

Along with Steve McQueen, Newman pioneered the wearing of large-frame aviator sunglasses, a look he maintained throughout his life. He knew the shape suited his facial features and stuck with it. Today, the prevailing standard is to wear smaller, rounded tortoiseshell frames with tailored clothes, but Newman showed how a larger pair can make a statement and work well with suits. Perhaps it’s time for them to experience a resurgence in popularity.

6. “Statement” Wristwatches

To say Paul Newman was a “watch guy” is an understatement, as you will notice his Rolex in nearly every photo. In fact, Newman is sometimes said to be single-handedly (pun intended) responsible for the growth of vintage Rolex sales. The story goes that, in 1968, Newman’s wife, Joanne Woodward, was looking for a personal gift that would convey her feelings for him and chose a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, a race-car driver’s watch, engraved on the back with the words “Drive Carefully Me.” Newman wore the watch daily, including in the film Winning, until 1984 when he gave it to his daughter Nell’s boyfriend in a spur-of-the-moment gesture. The connection to racing, Newman and the well-known history of the watch added to its mystique and hyped the Daytona line, with this particular black-and-white dial becoming known as “The Paul Newman.” Today, these routinely sell for six figures and higher. In 2017, Newman’s actual personalized watch was auctioned off in 12 minutes at a record price of $17.8 million.

Conclusion – Paul Newman’s Ongoing Legacy

In 2019, there’s a generation of people who likely haven’t been introduced to Paul Newman and his works (yet!), but his legacy has endured more than a decade after his passing, not only in the films he left behind, but in his generous philanthropy and his influence on shaping men’s style through the late 20th century and beyond. Do you have a favorite Newman performance? Share with us in the comments below.