Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood in 1965
Born	Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko July 20, 1938 San Francisco, California, United States
Died	November 29, 1981(1981-11-29) (aged 43) Santa Catalina Island, California, United States
Other names	Natasha Gurdin Natalie Wood Wagner
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1943–1981
Spouse	Robert Wagner (m. 1957–1962) «start: (1957)–end+1: (1963)»"Marriage: Robert Wagner to Natalie Wood" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Natalie_Wood) Richard Gregson (m. 1969–1972) «start: (1969)–end+1: (1973)»"Marriage: Richard Gregson to Natalie Wood" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Natalie_Wood) Robert Wagner (m. 1972–1981) «start: (1972)–end+1: (1982)»"Marriage: Robert Wagner to Natalie Wood" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Natalie_Wood)(her death)
Children	Natasha Gregson (b. 1970) Courtney Wagner (b. 1974)
Relatives	Lana Wood (sister)

Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko; Russian: Наталья Николаевна Захаренко;^[1] July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American film and television actress best known for her screen roles in Miracle on 34th Street, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause, and West Side Story. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.

Wood began acting in movies at the age of four and at age eight was given a co-starring role in the classic Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street.^[2] As a teenager, her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She starred in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962), and received Academy Award for Best Actress nominations for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963).

Her career continued with films such as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). After this she took a break from acting and had two children, appearing in only two theatrical films during the 1970s. She was married to actor Robert Wagner twice, and to producer Richard Gregson in between the marriages to Wagner. She had one daughter by each: Natasha Gregson and Courtney Wagner. Her younger sister, Lana Wood, is also an actress.

Wood starred in several television productions, including a remake of the film From Here to Eternity (1979) for which she won a Golden Globe Award. During her career, from child actress to adult star, her films represented a "coming of age" for both her and Hollywood films in general.^[3]

At age 43, Wood drowned near Santa Catalina Island, California at the time her last film, Brainstorm (1983), was in production with co-star Christopher Walken. Her death was declared an accident. Although the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reopened the case in late 2011 based on new witness statements, no evidence to contradict that original conclusion was found.^[4]

Early years[link]

Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents Nikolai Stepanovich Zakharenko and Maria Stepanovna (née Zudilova; 1912–1998). As an adult, she stated, "I'm very Russian, you know."^[5] She spoke both Russian and English.^[6] Her father was born in Vladivostok and he, his mother, and two brothers, immigrated to Montreal, Quebec, and later to San Francisco. There, he worked as a day laborer and carpenter.^[7][8] Her paternal grandfather Stepan worked in a chocolate factory in Russia and was killed in street fighting between Red and White Russian soldiers in 1918.^[7] Natalie's mother originally came from Barnaul, southern Siberia, but grew up in the Chinese city of Harbin.^[7] She described her family by weaving mysterious tales of being either gypsies or landowning aristocrats.^[9] In her youth, her mother dreamed of becoming an actress or ballet dancer. She was raised as a Russian Orthodox Christian and remained in the church.

Biographer Warren Harris writes that under the family's "needy circumstances", her mother may have transferred those ambitions to her middle daughter, Natalie. Her mother would take Natalie to the movies as often as she could: "Natalie's only professional training was watching Hollywood child stars from her mother's lap," notes Harris.^[10] Wood would later recall this time period:

My mother used to tell me that the cameraman who pointed his lens out at the audience at the end of the Paramount newsreel was taking my picture. I'd pose and smile like he was going to make me famous or something. I believed everything my mother told me.^[10]

Shortly after Wood's birth in San Francisco, her family moved to nearby Sonoma County, and lived in Santa Rosa, California, where Wood was noticed during a film shoot in downtown Santa Rosa. Her mother soon moved the family to Los Angeles and pursued a career for her daughter. Wood's younger sister, Svetlana Zacharenko — now known as Lana Wood — also became an actress and later a Bond girl. She and Lana have an older half sister, Olga Viriapaeff. Though Natalie had been born "Natalia Zacharenko", her father later changed the family name to "Gurdin" and Natalie was often known as "Natasha", the diminutive of Natalia. The studio executives at RKO Radio Pictures later changed her name to "Natalie Wood", a name she never liked.

Child actress[link]

Wood made her film début a few weeks before turning five during a fifteen-second scene in the 1943 film Happy Land. Despite the brief part, she attracted the notice of the director, Irving Pichel, who remained in contact with Wood's family for two years when another role came up. The director telephoned Wood's mother and asked her to bring her daughter to Los Angeles for a screen test. Wood's mother became so excited at the possibilities, she overreacted and "packed the whole family off to Los Angeles to live," writes Harris. Wood's father opposed the idea, but his wife's "overpowering ambition to make Natalie a star" took priority.^[11] According to Wood's sister, Lana Wood, Pichel "discovered her and wanted to adopt her."^[12]

Wood, then seven years old, got the part and played a German orphan opposite Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert in Tomorrow Is Forever. Welles later said that Wood was a born professional, "so good, she was terrifying."^[13] After Wood acted in another film directed by Pichel, her mother signed her up with 20th Century Fox studio for her first major role, the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street; the film made her one of the top child stars in Hollywood. Within a few months after the film's release, Wood was so popular that Macy's invited her to appear in the store's annual Thanksgiving Day parade.^[11]

Film historian John C. Tibbetts writes that for the next few years following her success in Miracle, Wood played roles as a daughter in a series of family films: Fred MacMurray's daughter in Father Was a Fullback and Dear Brat, Margaret Sullavan's daughter in No Sad Songs for Me; James Stewart's daughter in The Jackpot; Joan Blondell's neglected daughter in The Blue Veil; and daughter of Bette Davis' character in The Star.^[3] In all, Wood appeared in over 20 films as a child.

Because she was a minor, Wood's formal education took place on the studio lots wherever she was contracted. California law required that until age 18, actors had to spend at least three hours per day in the classroom, notes Harris. "She was a straight A student," and one of the few child actors to excel at arithmetic. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who directed her in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), said that "In all my years in the business, I never met a smarter moppet."^[11] Wood remembered that period in her life:

I always felt guilty when I knew the crew was sitting around waiting for me to finish my three hours. As soon as the teacher let us go, I ran to the set as fast as I could.^[11]

As a child actress, Wood received media attention. By age nine, she had been named the "most exciting juvenile motion picture star of the year" by Parents. At age twelve, Wood was judged Child Star of the Year by the Children's Day National Council of New York.

Teen stardom[link]

With James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

In the 1953-1954 television season, Wood played Ann Morrison, the teenage daughter in the ABC situation comedy, The Pride of the Family, with Paul Hartman cast as her father, Albie Morrison; Fay Wray, as her mother, Catherine; and Robert Hyatt, as her brother, Junior Morrison.^[14]

Wood successfully made the transition from child star to ingenue at age 16 when she co-starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray's film about teenage rebellion. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with a small but crucial role in John Ford's western The Searchers which starred John Wayne and also featured Wood's sister, Lana, who played a younger version of her character in the film's earlier scenes.

Wood graduated in 1956 from Van Nuys High School.^[6]

Signed to Warner Brothers, Wood was kept busy during the remainder of the decade in many 'girlfriend' roles that she found unsatisfying. The studio cast her in two films opposite Tab Hunter, hoping to turn the duo into a box office draw that never materialized. Among the other films made at this time were 1958's Kings Go Forth and Marjorie Morningstar. As Marjorie Morningstar, Wood played the role of a young Jewish girl in New York City who has to deal with the social and religious expectations of her family, as she tries to forge her own path and separate identity.

However, she had her detractors. The film critic Pauline Kael referred to her as "clever little Natalie Wood" the "most machine-tooled of Hollywood ingenues.^[3]

Adult career[link]

Wood's characters in Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers (a classic western directed by John Ford) and Marjorie Morningstar began to show her range of acting style widening considerably, observes Tibbetts.^[3] Her former "childlike sweetness" was now being combined with a noticeable "restlessness that was characteristic of the youth of the 1950s." After Wood appeared in the box office flop All the Fine Young Cannibals, her career was salvaged by her casting in director Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961) opposite Warren Beatty, which earned Wood Best Actress Nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.

[edit] Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Wood's career was in a transition period, having until then been cast primarily in roles as a child or teenager. She was now hoping to be cast in adult roles. Biographer Suzanne Finstad notes that a "turning point" in her life as an actress took place upon seeing the film A Streetcar Named Desire: "She was transformed, in awe of director Elia Kazan and of Vivien Leigh's performance... [who] became a role model for Natalie."^[15] "Her roles raised the possibility that one's sensitivity could mark a person as a kind of victim," noted Tibbetts.^[3]

In 1961, after a "series of bad films, her career was already in decline," notes Rathgeb.^[16] Kazan himself writes that the "sages" of the film community declared her as "washed up" as an actress, although he still wanted to interview her for his next film:

When I saw her, I detected behind the well-mannered 'young wife' front a desperate twinkle in her eyes... I talked with her more quietly then and more personally. I wanted to find out what human material was there, what her inner life was... Then she told me she was being psychoanalyzed. That did it. Poor R.J., I said to myself. I liked Bob Wagner, I still do.^[17]

Kazan cast Wood as the female lead in Splendor in the Grass, and her career rebounded. He felt that despite her earlier, innocent roles, she had the talent and maturity to go beyond. In the film, Warren Beatty's character was deprived of sexual love with Natalie, and as a result turns to a prostitute; Natalie likewise couldn't handle the issue, but ended up in a mental institution. Kazan writes that he cast her in the role partly because he saw in Wood's personality a "true-blue quality with a wanton side that is held down by social pressure," adding that "she clings to things with her eyes," a quality he found especially "appealing."^[3]

Finstad feels that despite Wood's never receiving training in Method acting techniques, "working with Kazan brought her to the greatest emotional heights of her career. The experience was exhilarating but wrenching for Natalie, who faced her demons on Splendor."^[18] She adds that a scene in the film, as a result of "Kazan's wizardry ... produced a hysteria in Natalie that may be her most powerful moment as an actress."^[19] Actor Gary Lockwood, who also acted in the film, felt that "Kazan and Natalie were a terrific marriage, because you had this beautiful girl, and you had somebody that could get things out of her." Kazan's favorite scene in the movie was the last one, when Wood goes back to see her lost first love, Bud (Beatty). "It's terribly touching to me. I still like it when I see it," writes Kazan.^[20]

[edit] West Side Story (1961)

In 1961 Wood played Maria in the Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise musical West Side Story which was a major box office and critical success.

Tibbetts notes similarities in her role in this film and the earlier Rebel Without a Cause. Here, she also plays the role of a restless adolescent which reflected the "restlessness of American youth in the 1950s," expressed by youth gangs and juvenile delinquency, along with early Rock and Roll. Both films, he observes, were "modern allegories based on the 'Romeo and Juliet' theme, including private restlessness and public alienation. Where in Rebel she falls in love with the character played by James Dean, whose gang-like friends and violent temper alienated him from his family, in West Side Story she also enters into a romance with a gang member and his threatening world of outcasts, also alienated from their families and the law.^[3]

Although the singing parts were sung by Marni Nixon, West Side Story is still regarded as one of Wood's best films. Wood did sing when she starred in the 1962 film, Gypsy. She co-starred in the slapstick comedy The Great Race (1965), with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Peter Falk. Her ability to speak Russian was an asset given to her character "Maggie DuBois", justifying the character to record the progress of the race across Siberia, and entering the race at the beginning as a contestant. Wood then received her third Academy Award nomination and another Golden Globe award in 1964 for Love with the Proper Stranger, opposite Steve McQueen.

Although many of Wood's films were commercially profitable, her acting was criticized at times. In 1966 she won the Harvard Lampoon Worst Actress of the Year Award. She was the first performer in the award's history to accept it in person and the Harvard Crimson wrote she was "quite a good sport."^[21] Director Sydney Pollack was quoted as saying about Wood, "When she was right for the part, there was no one better. She was a damn good actress." Other notable films starring Wood were Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and This Property Is Condemned (1966), both of which co-starred Robert Redford and brought subsequent Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In both films, which were set during the Great Depression, Wood played small-town teens with big dreams. After the release of the films, Wood suffered emotionally and sought professional therapy.^[22] During this time, she turned down the Faye Dunaway role in Bonnie and Clyde because she did not want to be separated from her analyst.^[22]

After three years away from acting, Wood played a swinger in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), a comedy about sexual liberation. The film was one of the top ten box-office hits of the year, and Wood received ten percent of the film's profits.^[22] According to Tibbets, this was the first film in which "the saving leavening of humor was brought to bear upon the many painful dilemmas portrayed in her adult films."^[3]

After becoming pregnant with her first child, Natasha Gregson, in 1970, Wood went into semi-retirement and acted in only four more theatrical films during the remainder of her life. She made a very brief cameo appearance as herself in The Candidate (1972), reuniting her for a third time with Robert Redford. She also reunited on the screen with Robert Wagner in the television movie of the week The Affair (1973) and with Laurence Olivier and husband Wagner in an adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) broadcast as a special by NBC. She made cameo appearances on Wagner's prime-time detective series Switch in 1978 as "Bubble Bath Girl" and Hart to Hart in 1979 as "Movie Star." During the last two years of her life, Wood began to work more frequently as her daughters reached school age.

Wood in 1981

Film roles Wood turned down during her career hiatus went to Ali MacGraw in Goodbye, Columbus; Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby; and Faye Dunaway in The Towering Inferno.^[22] Later, Wood chose to star in misfires like the disaster film Meteor (1979) with Sean Connery and the sex comedy The Last Married Couple in America (1980), although her own performance in the latter was praised, and considered reminiscent of her performance in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. It was also in Last Married Couple that Wood broke ground by being an actress with a clean, middle class image, yet using the 'F' word in a frank, marital discussion with her husband (George Segal). She found more success in television, receiving high ratings and critical acclaim in 1979 for The Cracker Factory and especially the miniseries film Here to Eternity with Kim Basinger and William Devane. Wood's performance in the latter won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1980. Later that year, she starred in The Memory of Eva Ryker which proved to be her last completed production.

At the time of her death, Wood was filming the science fiction film Brainstorm (1983), co-starring Christopher Walken and directed by Douglas Trumbull. She was also scheduled to star in a theatrical production of Anastasia with Wendy Hiller and in a film called Country of the Heart, playing a terminally ill writer who has an affair with a teenager, to be played by Timothy Hutton.^[22] Due to her untimely death, both of the latter projects were canceled and the ending of Brainstorm had to be re-written. A stand-in and sound-alikes were used to replace Wood for some of her critical scenes. The film was released posthumously on September 30, 1983, and was dedicated to her in the closing credits.

Wood appeared in 56 films for cinema and television. Following her death, Time magazine noted that although critical praise for Wood had been sparse throughout her career, "she always had work."^[23]

Personal life[link]

Marriages[link]

Natalie Wood's two marriages to actor Robert Wagner were highly publicized. Wood said she had had a crush on Wagner since she was a child,^[2] and on her 18th birthday she went on a studio-arranged date with the 26-year-old actor. They married a year later on December 28, 1957, a marriage which met with great protest from Wood's mother. In an article in February 2009, Wagner recalled their early romance:

I saw Natalie around town but she never seemed interested. She was making Rebel Without a Cause and hanging out with James Dean; I was with an older crowd. The first time I remember really talking to her was at a fashion show in 1956. She was beautiful, but still gave no hint about the mad crush she had on me. I later found out she had signed with my agent simply because he was my agent. A month later, I invited Natalie to a premiere on what turned out to be her 18th birthday. At dinner, we both sensed things were different. I sent her flowers and the dates continued. I remember the instant I fell in love with her. One night on board a small boat I owned, she looked at me with love, her dark brown eyes lit by a table lantern. That moment changed my life.^[24]

A year after their wedding, Wood expressed her feelings in a letter to her new husband:

"You are my husband, my child, my strength, my weakness, my lover, my life."^[25]

Wood and Wagner separated in June 1961 and divorced in April 1962.

On May 30, 1969, Wood married British producer Richard Gregson. The couple dated for two and a half years prior to their marriage, while Gregson waited for his divorce to be finalized.^[22] They had a daughter, Natasha Gregson (born September 29, 1970). They separated in August 1971 after Wood overheard an inappropriate telephone conversation between her secretary and Gregson.^[22] The split also marked a brief estrangement between Wood and her family, when mother Maria and sister Lana told her to reconcile with Gregson for the sake of her newborn child. She filed for divorce, and it was finalized in April 1972.

In early 1972, Wood resumed her relationship with Wagner. The couple remarried on July 16, 1972, just five months after reconciling and only three months after she divorced Gregson. Their daughter, Courtney Wagner, was born on March 9, 1974. They remained married until Wood's death seven years later on November 29, 1981.

Other relationships[link]

Biographer Suzanne Finstad writes that Wood had a relationship with director Nicholas Ray, director of Rebel Without a Cause, when she was 16 and he was 43.^[22] During her teens, Wood went on studio-arranged dates with older men, including actors Tab Hunter and Nick Adams,^[22] and dated actor Raymond Burr, when she was 17 and he was 38.^[26] Wood also dated actors Michael Caine, Steve McQueen, Tony Curtis, Warren Beatty, Dennis Hopper, singer Elvis Presley, director Henry Jaglom, and politician Jerry Brown.^[22][27]

Among her celebrity friends were fellow child performers Margaret O'Brien, Carol Lynley and Stefanie Powers.^[22][28][29]

Death[link]

Natalie Wood's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Wood died by accidental drowning while on a weekend trip to Santa Catalina Island with her husband, Robert Wagner, actor Christopher Walken, and the boat's captain, Dennis Davern. Many facts surrounding her drowning are unknown, as no one saw how she entered the water. Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled her death an accident by drowning and hypothermia following his investigation.^[30] According to the autopsy report, Wood had dozens of bruises on her body, including injuries to her face and arms. The autopsy found that her blood alcohol level was .14, and an examining doctor stated that it was higher when she went overboard. They also found two types of medication in her bloodstream: Cyclivine, a sea-sickness pill, and Darvon, a painkiller, which they believed caused a "much more drunken state" when combined with alcohol.^[31] The case was reopened in late 2011 based on new witness statements, and after nearly two months of further investigation, no new evidence to contradict the original conclusion and cause of death was found.^[4]

Natalie Wood was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. Scores of international media and photographers as well as the public tried to attend Wood's funeral at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery; however, all were required to remain outside the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery walls. Among the celebrity attendees were Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Elia Kazan and Sir Laurence Olivier. Olivier, who had worked with Wood and Wagner in their 1976 television production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, flew from London to Los Angeles to attend the service.^[32]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Other awards[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Finstad, Suzanne (2001). Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood (Biography). Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-60-980957-0. http://books.google.com/?id=wU0uhbkAK2AC&dq=isbn=9780609809570. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
• Frascella, Lawrence and Al Weisel. Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause. Touchstone, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-6082-1.
• Lambert, Gavin (2004). Natalie Wood: A Life (Biography). London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-57-122197-4. http://books.google.com/?id=9nqgPwAACAAJ&dq=isbn=9780571221974. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
• Harris, Warren G. (1988). Hollywood's Star-Crossed Lovers "Natalie and R.J." (Biography) (First ed.). Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-38-523691-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=iW-fQAAACAAJ&dq=isbn=0385236913&cd=1. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
• Nickens, Christopher. Natalie Wood: A Biography in Photographs. Doubleday, 1986. ISBN 0-385-23307-8.
• Noguchi, Thomas T. Coroner. Simon & Schuster (October 1983). ISBN 0671467727.
• Rulli, Marti and Dennis Davern. Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour. Medallion, 2009. ISBN 1597776394.
• Tibetts, John C. and James M. Welsh (eds.). American Classic Screen Profiles, Scarecrow Press, 2010. ISBN 0810876760.
• Wood, Lana. Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister. Putnam Pub Group, 1984. ISBN 0-399-12903-0.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Natalie Wood

• Natalie Wood at the Internet Movie Database

• Natalie Wood Style and Beauty
• Natalie Wood at Who2

Robert Wagner
Wagner in 1969
Born	Robert John Wagner (1930-02-10) February 10, 1930 (age 82) Detroit, Michigan, United States
Occupation	Actor, producer
Years active	1950–present
Spouse	Natalie Wood (1957–62) (divorced); (1972–81) (her death) Marion Marshall (1963–71) (divorced) Jill St. John (1990–present)
Children	Katie Wagner (with Marion Marshall) Courtney Wagner (with Natalie Wood)
Awards	Best Ensemble – Method Fest Film Festival (2007) Man in the Chair

Robert John Wagner (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor of stage, screen, and television, best known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief (1968–70), Switch (1975–78), and Hart to Hart (1979–84). In movies, Wagner is known for his role as Number Two in the Austin Powers films (1997, 1999, 2002). He also had a recurring role as Teddy Leopold on the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men.

Wagner's autobiography, Pieces of My Heart: A Life, written with author Scott Eyman, was published on September 23, 2008.

Early life and career[link]

Jean Peters with Wagner in Broken Lance (1954)

Wagner was born in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of Hazel Alvera (née Boe), a telephone operator, and Robert John Wagner Sr., a traveling salesman who worked for the Ford Motor Company. His paternal grandparents were born in Germany.^[1][2] Wagner has a sister, Mary. He graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1949.^[3]

He made his film debut in The Happy Years (1950). He was signed by agent Henry Willson and put under contract with 20th Century-Fox, where he gained attention with a small but showy part as a shellshocked soldier in With a Song in My Heart (1952). This led to star roles in a series of films including Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) and Prince Valiant (1954), and White Feather (1955, with Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter), A Kiss Before Dying (1956, a rare villainous role) and Between Heaven and Hell (1956).

Wagner appeared with veteran actor Clifton Webb in Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) and Titanic (1953). Wagner starred opposite Steve McQueen in The War Lover (1962). Roles soon followed in The Condemned of Altona and The Pink Panther.

Career rise[link]

In 1967, Wagner signed with Universal Studios. In 1968, Lew Wasserman convinced Wagner to make his television series debut in It Takes a Thief. While the success of The Pink Panther and Harper began Wagner's comeback, the successful two and a half seasons of his first TV series completed it. In this series, he acted with Fred Astaire, who played his father. Wagner was a long-time friend of Astaire's, having gone to school with Astaire's eldest son, Peter. Wagner was suggested to play James Bond after On Her Majesty's Secret Service was released.^[4]

In 1972, he produced and cast himself opposite Bette Davis in the television movie Madame Sin, which was released in foreign markets as a feature film.^[5] and was a regular in the BBC/Universal World War II prisoner-of-war drama Colditz until its end in 1974. He reunited with McQueen, along with Paul Newman and Faye Dunaway, in the disaster film The Towering Inferno released in the same year.

By the mid-1970s, Wagner's television career was at its peak with the television series Switch opposite Eddie Albert, after re-signing a contract with Universal Studios in 1974. Before Switch, Albert was a childhood hero of Wagner's, after he watched the movie Brother Rat along with a few others. The friendship started in the early 1960s, where he also co-starred in a couple of Albert's movies. After the series' end, the two remained friends until Albert's death on May 26, 2005. Wagner spoke at his funeral, and gave a testimonial about his longtime friendship with him.

In part payment for starring together in the Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg production of the TV movie The Affair, Wagner and Natalie Wood were given a share in three TV series that the producers were developing for ABC.^[6] Only one reached the screen, the very successful TV series Charlie's Angels, for which Wagner and Wood had a 50% share, though Wagner was to spend many years in court arguing with Spelling and Goldberg over what was defined as profit.^[7]

Wagner and Wood acted with Laurence Olivier in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (as part of Olivier's UK television series Laurence Olivier Presents). Wood also made a small cameo appearance in the pilot episode of Wagner's own television series, Hart to Hart.

His third successful series was Hart to Hart, which co-starred Stefanie Powers. Before those roles, Wagner also made guest appearances in the pilot episode of The Streets of San Francisco. He would later be nominated for an Emmy Award for Best TV Actor for his performance in It Takes a Thief and for four Golden Globe awards for his role as Jonathan Hart in Hart to Hart.

Return to film and television[link]

Wagner's film career received a revival after his role in the Austin Powers series of spy spoofs starring Mike Myers. Wagner played Dr. Evil's henchman Number 2 in all three films: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).

He also became the host of Fox Movie Channel's Hour of Stars, featuring original television episodes of The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955), a series which Wagner had appeared on in his early days with the studio.

In 2005, Wagner became the television spokesman for the Senior Lending Network, a reverse mortgage lender and in 2010 began as a spokesman for the Guardian First Funding Group, also a reverse mortgage lender. As of June 2011, Guardian First Funding was acquired by Urban Financial Group, who continue to use Mr. Wagner as their spokesperson.^[8][9]

In 2007, Wagner had a role in the BBC/AMC series Hustle. In season four's premiere, Wagner played a crooked Texan being taken for half a million dollars. As Wagner is considered "a suave icon of American caper television, including It Takes a Thief and Hart to Hart", Robert Glenister (Hustle's fixer, Ash Morgan) commented that "to have one of the icons of that period involved is a great bonus for all of us".^[10]

Wagner also played the pivotal role of President James Garfield in the comedy/horror film Netherbeast Incorporated (2007). The role was written with Wagner in mind. He had a recurring role of a rich suitor to the main characters' mother on the sitcom Two and a Half Men. His most recent appearances on the show were in May 2008.

Wagner's radio and television career was recognized by the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters on January 30, 2009, when they presented him with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award.

Wagner has guest-starred as Tony's father, Anthony DiNozzo Sr., in three episodes of NCIS: "Flesh and Blood" (2010), "Broken Arrow" (2010), and "Sins of the Father" (2011). He was set to star as Charlie in the 2011 reboot of Charlie's Angels, but due to scheduling conflicts, had to exit the project.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Wagner at age 23

In his memoirs, Wagner claims to have had affairs with Yvonne de Carlo, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Anita Ekberg, Shirley Ann Field and Joan Collins.^[12] He had a four-year romantic relationship with Barbara Stanwyck after they acted together in the movie Titanic (1953).^[13] Because of the age difference – he was 22, she was 45 – they kept the affair secret to avoid damage to their careers.^[14]

On December 28, 1957, Wagner married Natalie Wood when he was 27 and she was 18. They separated in June 1961 and divorced on April 27, 1962.

While working on location in Europe, Wagner reconnected with an old acquaintance, actress Marion Marshall. In the spring of 1963, after a brief courtship, Wagner, Marshall, and her two children from her marriage to Stanley Donen moved back to America.^[4] Wagner and Marshall married on July 22, 1963, in the Bronx Courthouse. Soon after, they had a daughter, Katie Wagner (born May 11, 1964). The two were together for nearly nine years before they separated in late 1970. They were divorced on April 26, 1971. Wagner's only grandchild is Katie's son, Riley John Wagner-Lewis (born 21 September 2006).

In 1971, Wagner was briefly engaged to Tina Sinatra.^[4]

Wagner kept in contact with Natalie Wood, whose short-lived marriage to Richard Gregson ended in early 1972. Wagner remarried her on July 16, 1972. Their only child, Courtney Wagner, was born on March 9, 1974. On November 29, 1981, Natalie Wood drowned near their yacht Splendour while it was moored near Catalina Island; also on board were Wagner and Christopher Walken, who was co-starring with her in the motion picture Brainstorm. Wagner subsequently became the legal guardian of Wood's daughter Natasha Gregson. He is estranged from Natalie Wood's sister Lana Wood,^[15] who claims Wagner refused to let her see her nieces after Natalie Wood's death.^[16] In November 2011, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reopened its investigation into Wood's death.^[17][18] Wagner is not considered a suspect.^[19]

In early 1982, Wagner began a relationship with actress Jill St. John, who coincidentally was a childhood acquaintance of Natalie Wood and Wagner's Hart to Hart co-star Stefanie Powers, as well as starring alongside Natalie's sister Lana Wood in Diamonds Are Forever. The couple had first met in the late 1950s when Wagner was an up-and-coming actor and St. John was a teenage starlet. After an eight-year courtship, they were married on May 26, 1990.

Filmography[link]

Movies[link]

• 1951: Halls of Montezuma as Pvt. Coffman
• 1951: Let's Make It Legal as Jerry Denham
• 1952: With a Song in My Heart as GI Paratrooper
• 1952: Stars and Stripes Forever as Willie Little
• 1952: What Price Glory? as Private Lewisohn
• 1953: Beneath the 12-Mile Reef as Tony Petrakis
• 1953: Titanic as Gifford "Giff" Rogers
• 1954: Broken Lance as Joe Devereaux
• 1954: Prince Valiant as Prince Valiant
• 1955: White Feather as Josh Tanner
• 1956: A Kiss Before Dying as Bud Corliss
• 1956: Between Heaven and Hell as Sam Gifford
• 1956: The Mountain as Christopher Teller
• 1957: The True Story of Jesse James, directed by Nicholas Ray as Jesse James
• 1958: The Hunters as Lt. Pell
• 1958: In Love and War as Frank "Frankie" O'Neill
• 1958: Mardi Gras (cameo)
• 1959: Say One for Me as Tony Vincent
• 1960: All the Fine Young Cannibals as Chad Bixby (based on Chet Baker)
• 1961: Sail a Crooked Ship as Gilbert Barrows
• 1962: The War Lover as Lt Ed Boland
• 1963: The Pink Panther as George Lytton
• 1966: Harper as Allan Taggert
• 1967: Banning as Mike Banning
• 1969: Winning as Luther Erding
• 1974: The Towering Inferno as Dan Bigelow
• 1976: Laurence Olivier Presents: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Brick Pollitt (with then wife Natalie Wood and Laurence Olivier)
• 1976: Midway as Lieutenant Commander Ernest L. Blake
• 1979: The Concorde ... Airport '79 as Kevin Harrison
• 1983: Curse of the Pink Panther as George Lytton
• 1987: Love Among Thieves as Mike Chambers
• 1988: Windmills of the Gods as Mike Slade
• 1991: Delirious as Jack Gates (uncredited)
• 1993: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story as Bill Krieger
• 1997, 1999, 2002: the Austin Powers movies as Number Two
• 1998: Wild Things as Tom Baxter
• 1999: Fatal Error as Albert Teal
• 2001: Sol Goode as Sol's Dad
• 2005: Man of Faith as Amos
• 2007: Netherbeast Incorporated as President James Garfield
• 2007: Man in the Chair as Taylor Moss
• 2007: A Dennis the Menace Christmas as Mr. Wilson
• 2009: The Wild Stallion as Novak, the illegal mustang-buyer

Selected television appearances[link]

• 1953: Jukebox Jury as himself
• 1963: The Eleventh Hour, episode: "And God Created Vanity" as Kenny Walsh
• 1968–70: It Takes a Thief as Alexander Mundy
• 1970–71: The Name of the Game as David Corey
• 1971: City Beneath the Sea as Brett Matthews (movie)
• 1972–74: Colditz as Flight Lieutenant Phil Carrington
• 1975–78: Switch as Pete T. Ryan
• 1979–84: Hart to Hart as Jonathan Hart
• 1980: The Jacques Cousteau Odyssey narrator (2 episodes)
• 1994: Parallel Lives as the sheriff
• 1997: Seinfeld, episode: "The Yada Yada" as Mr. Abbot
• 2003: Hope & Faith as Jack Fairfield (7 episodes)
• 2006: Las Vegas, episode: "Cash Springs Eternal" as Alex Avery
• 2006: Boston Legal as Barry Gold (2 episodes)
• 2007: Two and a Half Men as Teddy Leopold (5 episodes)
• 2010: NCIS as Anthony DiNozzo Sr. (3 episodes)

Books[link]

• Wagner, Robert (2008). Pieces of My Heart - A Life. New York: Harper Collins. pp. 324. ISBN 978-0-06-137331-2. 

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Wagner

External links[link]

• Official website
• Robert Wagner at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Wagner on Yahoo! Movies
• Robert Wagner on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Robert Wagner in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Articles about Robert Wagner, a Malibu resident, can be found at The Malibu Times

Paul Newman
Circa 1950s
Born	Paul Leonard Newman (1925-01-26)January 26, 1925 Shaker Heights, Ohio
Died	September 26, 2008(2008-09-26) (aged 83) Westport, Connecticut
Cause of death	Lung cancer
Residence	Westport, Connecticut
Education	Shaker Heights High School
Alma mater	Kenyon College (B.A.), Ohio University
Occupation	Actor, director, entrepreneur
Years active	1951-2008
Known for	Founder of Newman's Own
Home town	Shaker Heights, Ohio
Political party	Democrat
Spouse	Jackie Witte (1949-1958; divorced) Joanne Woodward (1958-2008; his death)
Children	Scott Newman (1950–1978) Shauna Newman (b.1951) Jack Newman (b.1953) Nell Newman (b.1959) Melanie Newman (b.1960) Melissa Newman (b.1961)
Awards	Academy Award in 1986 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Golden Globe Award BAFTA Award Screen Actors Guild Award Cannes Film Festival Award Emmy Award

Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008)^[1] was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver, auto racing team owner, and auto racing enthusiast. He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money and eight other nominations,^[2] three Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, an Emmy award, and many honorary awards. He also won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing.

Newman was a co-founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which Newman donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity.^[3] As of July 2011, these donations exceeded $300 million.^[3]

Early life[link]

Newman was born in Shaker Heights (a suburb of Cleveland). He was the son of Theresa (née Fetzer or Fetsko; Slovak: Terézia Fecková)^[4][5] and Arthur Sigmund Newman, who ran a profitable sporting goods store.^[6][7][8] His father was Jewish (Paul's paternal grandparents, Simon Newman and Hannah Cohn, were immigrants from Hungary and Poland).^[7][9] His mother, who practiced Christian Science, was born to a Slovak Roman Catholic family at Humenné, Ptičie (formerly Pticsie) in the former Kingdom of Hungary, Austria–Hungary (now Humenné in Slovakia).^[5][10] Newman had no religion as an adult, but described himself as a Jew, stating that "it's more of a challenge".^[11] Newman's mother worked in his father's store, while raising Paul and his brother, Arthur, who later became a producer and production manager.^[12]

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.^[12]

Military service[link]

Navy portrait of Newman

Newman served in the United States Navy in World War II in the Pacific theater.^[12] Newman enrolled in the Navy V-12 program at Ohio University, hoping to be accepted for pilot training, but was dropped when it was discovered he was color blind.^[12][13] He was sent instead to boot camp and then received further training as a radioman and gunner. Qualifying as a rear-seat radioman and gunner in torpedo bombers, in 1944, Aviation Radioman Third Class Newman was sent to Barber's Point, Hawaii. He was subsequently assigned to Pacific-based replacement torpedo squadrons (VT-98, VT-99, and VT-100). These torpedo squadrons were responsible primarily for training replacement pilots and combat air crewmen, placing particular importance on carrier landings.^[13]

He later flew from aircraft carriers as a turret gunner in an Avenger torpedo bomber. As a radioman-gunner, he served aboard the USS Bunker Hill during the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945. He was ordered to the ship with a draft of replacements shortly before the Okinawa campaign, but his life was spared because he was held back after his pilot developed an ear infection. The men who remained in his detail were killed in action.^[14]

After the war, he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Speech at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio in 1949.^[12][15] Newman later attended the Yale School of Drama for one year before moving to New York City to study under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.^[12]

Oscar Levant wrote that Newman initially was hesitant to leave New York for Hollywood: "Too close to the cake," he reported him saying, "Also, no place to study."^[16]

Career[link]

Early work and mainstream success[link]

Newman arrived in New York City in 1951 with his first wife Jackie Witte, taking up residence in the St. George section of Staten Island.^[17] He made his Broadway theater debut in the original production of William Inge's Picnic with Kim Stanley in 1953 and appeared in the original Broadway production of The Desperate Hours in 1955. In 1959, he was in the original Broadway production of Sweet Bird of Youth with Geraldine Page and three years later starred with Page in the film version.

During this time Newman started acting in television. He had his first credited TV or film appearance with a small but notable part in a 1952 episode of the science fiction TV series Tales of Tomorrow entitled "Ice from Space".^[18] In the mid-1950s, he appeared twice on CBS's Appointment with Adventure anthology series.

In February 1954, Newman appeared in a screen test with James Dean, directed by Gjon Mili, for East of Eden (1955). Newman was testing for the role of Aron Trask, Dean for the role of Aron's fraternal twin brother Cal. Dean won his part, but Newman lost out to Richard Davalos. In the same year, Newman co-starred with Eva Marie Saint and Frank Sinatra in a live —and color —television broadcast of Our Town, a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's stage play. Newman was a last-minute replacement for James Dean.^[19] In 2003, Newman acted in a remake of Our Town, this time in the role of the stage manager.

His first movie for Hollywood was The Silver Chalice (1954). The film was a box office failure and the actor would later acknowledge his disdain for it.^[20] In 1956, Newman garnered much attention and acclaim with Somebody Up There Likes Me as boxer Rocky Graziano. By 1958, he was one of the hottest new stars in Hollywood. Later that year, he starred in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), opposite Elizabeth Taylor. The film was a box office smash and Newman garnered his first Academy Award nomination. Also in 1958, Newman starred in The Long, Hot Summer with Joanne Woodward, whom he met on the set. He won best actor at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival for this film.

Major films[link]

Newman was one of the few actors who successfully made the transition from 1950s cinema to that of the 1960s and 1970s. His rebellious persona translated well to a subsequent generation. Newman starred in Exodus (1960), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Harper (1966), Hombre (1967), Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977), and The Verdict (1982). He teamed with fellow actor Robert Redford and director George Roy Hill for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).

He appeared with his wife, Joanne Woodward, in the feature films The Long, Hot Summer (1958), 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. and Mrs. Bridge (1990). They both also starred in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls, but did not have any scenes together.

in The Hustler with Piper Laurie

In addition to starring in and directing Harry & Son, Newman also directed four feature films (in which he did not act) starring Woodward. They were Rachel, Rachel (1968), based on Margaret Laurence's A Jest of God, the screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), the television screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box (1980), and a screen version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1987).

Twenty-five years after The Hustler, Newman reprised his role of "Fast" Eddie Felson in the Martin Scorsese-directed The Color of Money (1986), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He told a television interviewer that winning an Oscar at the age of 62 deprived him of his fantasy of formally being presented with it in extreme old age.^{[citation needed]}

Last works[link]

In 2003, he appeared in a Broadway revival of Wilder's Our Town, receiving his first Tony Award nomination for his performance. PBS and the cable network Showtime aired a taping of the production, and Newman was nominated for an Emmy Award^[21] for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie.

His last screen appearance was as a conflicted mob boss in the 2002 film Road to Perdition opposite Tom Hanks, although he continued to provide voice work for films.

In 2005 at age 80, Newman was profiled alongside Robert Redford as part of the Sundance Channel's TV series Iconoclasts.^[22]

In 2006, in keeping with his strong interest in car racing, he provided the voice of Doc Hudson, a retired anthropomorphic race car in Disney/Pixar's Cars - this was his final performance for a major feature film.

Similarly, he served as narrator for the 2007 film Dale, about the life of the legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, which turned out to be Newman's final film performance in any form. Newman also provided the narration for the film documentary The Meerkats, which was released in 2008.

Retirement from acting[link]

Newman announced that he would entirely retire from acting on May 25, 2007. He stated that he did not feel he could continue acting at the level he wanted to. "You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention. So I think that's pretty much a closed book for me."^[23]

Philanthropy[link]

Newman in 2007

With writer A. E. Hotchner, Newman founded Newman's Own, a line of food products, in 1982. The brand started with salad dressing, and has expanded to include pasta sauce, lemonade, popcorn, salsa, and wine, among other things. Newman established a policy that all proceeds, after taxes, would be donated to charity. As of 2010, the franchise has donated in excess of $300 million.^[3] He co-wrote a memoir about the subject with Hotchner, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good. Among other awards, Newman's Own co-sponsors the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, a $25,000 reward designed to recognize those who protect the First Amendment as it applies to the written word.^[24]

One beneficiary of his philanthropy is the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a residential summer camp for seriously ill children, which is located in Ashford, Connecticut. Newman co-founded the camp in 1988; it was named after the gang in his film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Newman's college fraternity, Phi Kappa Tau, adopted Hole in the Wall as their "national philanthropy" in 1995. One camp has expanded to become several Hole in the Wall Camps in the U.S., Ireland, France, and Israel. The camps serve 13,000 children every year, free of charge.^[3]

In June 1999, Newman donated $250,000 to Catholic Relief Services to aid refugees in Kosovo.^[25]

On June 1, 2007, Kenyon College announced that Newman had donated $10 million to the school to establish a scholarship fund as part of the college's current $230 million fund-raising campaign. Newman and Woodward were honorary co-chairs of a previous campaign.^[26]

Newman was one of the founders of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), a membership organization of CEOs and corporate chairpersons committed to raising the level and quality of global corporate philanthropy. Founded in 1999 by Newman and a few leading CEOs, CECP has grown to include more than 175 members and, through annual executive convenings, extensive benchmarking research, and best practice publications, leads the business community in developing sustainable and strategic community partnerships through philanthropy.^[27]

Newman was named the Most Generous Celebrity of 2008 by Givingback.org. He contributed $20,857,000 for the year of 2008 to the Newman's Own Foundation, which distributes funds to a variety of charities.^[28]

Upon Newman's death, the Italian newspaper (a "semi-official" paper of the Holy See) L'Osservatore Romano published a notice lauding Newman's philanthropy. It also commented that "Newman was a generous heart, an actor of a dignity and style rare in Hollywood quarters."^[29]

Marriages and family[link]

Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward in 1960

Newman was married to Jackie Witte^[12] from 1949 to 1958. They had two daughters (Susan Kendall born in 1953 and Stephanie)^[12] and a son, Scott, who died in November 1978 from a drug overdose.^[30] He appeared in films including Breakheart Pass, The Towering Inferno and the 1977 film Fraternity Row. Paul Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son.^[31] Susan is a documentary filmmaker and philanthropist and has Broadway and screen credits, including a starring role as one of four Beatles fans in I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), and also a small role opposite her father in Slap Shot. She also received an Emmy nomination as co-producer of his telefilm, The Shadow Box.

Newman met actress Joanne Woodward in 1953. Shortly after filming The Long, Hot Summer, in 1957 he divorced Witte. He married Woodward early in 1958. They remained married for fifty years until his death in 2008.^[32] They had three daughters: Elinor "Nell" Teresa (b. 1959), Melissa "Lissy" Stewart (b. 1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (b. 1965). Newman directed Nell (using the stage name Nell Potts) alongside her mother in the films Rachel, Rachel and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.

The Newmans lived away from the Hollywood environment, making their home in Westport, Connecticut. Newman was well known for his devotion to his wife and family. When asked once about infidelity, he famously quipped, "Why go out for a hamburger when you have steak at home?"^[33]

Political activism[link]

Newman at a political rally for Eugene McCarthy in 1968

For his support of Eugene McCarthy in 1968 (and effective use of television commercials in California) and his opposition to the War in Vietnam, Newman was placed nineteenth on Richard Nixon's enemies list,^[34] which Newman claimed was his greatest accomplishment.

Consistent with his work for liberal causes, Newman publicly supported Ned Lamont's candidacy in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Primary against Senator Joe Lieberman, and was even rumored as a candidate himself, until Lamont emerged as a credible alternative. He donated to Chris Dodd's presidential campaign.^[35]

He attended the first Earth Day event in Manhattan on April 22, 1970. Newman was also a vocal supporter of gay rights.^[36]

Newman was concerned over global warming and supported nuclear energy development as a solution.^[37]

Auto racing[link]

A Newman Lola race car

Newman was an avid auto racing enthusiast, and first became interested in motorsports ("the first thing that I ever found I had any grace in") while training at the Watkins Glen Racing School for the filming of Winning, a 1969 film. Because of his love and passion for racing, Newman agreed in 1971 to star in and to host his first television special, Once Upon a Wheel, on the history of auto racing. It was produced and directed by David Winters, who co-owned a number of racing cars with Newman.^[38][39] Newman's first professional event as a racer was in 1972, in Thompson, Connecticut, and he was a frequent competitor in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events for the rest of the decade, eventually winning four national championships. He later drove in the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans in Dick Barbour's Porsche 935 and finished in second place.^[40] Newman reunited with Barbour in 2000 to compete in the Petit Le Mans.^[41]

From the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, he drove for the Bob Sharp Racing team, racing mainly Datsuns (later rebranded as Nissans) in the Trans-Am Series. He became closely associated with the brand during the 1980s, even appearing in commercials for them. At the age of 70 years and 8 days, he became the oldest driver to be part of a winning team in a major sanctioned race,^[42] winning in his class at the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona.^[43] Among his last races were the Baja 1000 in 2004 and the 24 Hours of Daytona once again in 2005.^[44]

Newman initially owned his own racing team, which competed in the Can-Am series, but later co-founded Newman/Haas Racing with Carl Haas, a Champ Car team, in 1983. The 1996 racing season was chronicled in the IMAX film Super Speedway, which Newman narrated. He was also a partner in the Atlantic Championship team Newman Wachs Racing. Newman owned a NASCAR Winston Cup car, before selling it to Penske Racing, where it now serves as the #12 car.

Newman was posthumously inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame at the national convention in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 21, 2009.^[45]

Illness and death[link]

Newman was scheduled to make his professional stage directing debut with the Westport Country Playhouse's 2008 production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, but he stepped down on May 23, 2008, citing health issues.^[46]

In June 2008, it was widely reported that Newman, a former chain smoker, had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was receiving treatment at Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York City.^[47] Photographs taken of Newman in May and June showed him looking gaunt.^{[citation needed]} Writer A. E. Hotchner, who partnered with Newman to start the Newman's Own company in the 1980s, told the Associated Press that Newman told him about the disease about eighteen months prior to the interview.^[48] Newman's spokesman told the press that the star was "doing nicely," but neither confirmed nor denied that he had cancer.^[49] In August, after reportedly finishing chemotherapy, Newman told his family he wished to die at home.

Newman died on September 26, 2008, aged 83, surrounded by his family and close friends.^[50][51] His remains were cremated after a private funeral service near his home in Westport.^[52]

Filmography, awards, and nominations[link]

As actor[link]