Look up Joanne in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Joanne (alternate spellings Joann, JoAnn, Johann, Johanne, Jo-Ann, Jo-Anne) is a common given name for females, being a variant of Joanna, the feminine form of John; derived from the Latin name Johanna with the meaning in Hebrew of "God is gracious". In Northern Ireland of 1975, "Joanne" was the most frequently used name for female newborns, though by the early years of the 21st Century, the name had declined in popularity so that it could not be counted among the twenty most frequently used.^[1]

Sometimes in modern English Joanne is reinterpreted as a compound of the two names Jo and Anne, and therefore given a spelling like JoAnne, Jo-Anne, or Jo Anne. However, the original name Joanna in ancient Greek and Latin is a single unit, not a compound. The names Hannah, Anna, Anne, Ann are etymologically related to Joanne just the same: they are derived from Hebrew חַנָּה Ḥannāh 'grace' from the same verbal root meaning 'to be gracious'.

In the United Kingdom, its popularity peaked during the 1970s, when it was frequently among the 10 most popular female names. However, by the 1980s it had fallen out of the top 10 and by 1994 it wasn't even in the top 100.^[2]

People with the given name Joanne[link]

• Joanne Accom, pop singer from Melbourne, Australia
• Joanne Banning, Australian field hockey player
• Joanne Brackeen, American jazz pianist
• Joanne Campbell, British actress
• Joanne Colan, video blogger
• Joanne Deakins, British backstroke swimmer
• Joanne Dru, American actress
• Joanne Durant, Barbadian track and field sprinter
• Joanne Ellis, English field hockey player
• Joanne Fluke, American mystery novelist
• Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, singer Lady Gaga
• Joanne Herring, American political activist
• Joanne Kelly, Canadian actress
• Johann Lamont, Scottish politician
• J. K. Rowling, British author, whose given name is Joanne Rowling
• Joanne Peh, Singaporean actress
• Joanne Shenandoah, singer and acoustic guitarist
• Joanne Whalley, British actress
• Joanne Woodward, American actress, Academy Award winner in 1957, for The Three Faces of Eve; Wife of Paul Newman, American Actor
• Jo Anne Worley, American actress
• Jo Anne, American Slave referred to only by her first name in all documents found. Recently discovered historical documents found on the property of what was formally known as The Loyola plantation in southern Florida show she was the "House Negro" of "Master Anthony". Her personal diary was recently discovered in which it gives an fascinating portrayal by her own account of the subservient yet extremely loyal house slaves towards their master. Uniquely this diary also details the divisions between slaves in the house and in the fields and the betrayal of Joanne to her fellow slaves even those in her own family. The diary is currently in the process of being bid upon by various auction houses.
• Joanne Tu, A Australian weirdo who died in 2012

Songs containing references to 'Joanne'[link]

• "Joanne" by Michael Nesmith & The First National Band

Companies[link]

• Jo-Ann Stores, a specialty retailer of crafts and fabrics in the United States
• Joanne's Bed and Back, a retailer of specialty furniture in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Joanna" at Edgar's Name Pages - with history, naming frequency statistics, related names, and famous namebearers
• Icons of St. Joanna the Myrrh-Bearer here and here

This page or section lists people that share the same given name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article.

Robert Michael Nesmith (born December 30, 1942) is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name. Nesmith is notable as a songwriter, including "Different Drum" sung by Linda Ronstadt with the Stone Poneys, and as executive producer of the cult film Repo Man. In 1981, Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for Video of the Year for his hour-long Elephant Parts.

Biography[link]

Nesmith was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston, in 1942.^[1] He was an only child; his parents, Warren Audrey Nesmith and Bette Nesmith Graham, divorced when their son was four. He and his mother moved to Dallas, to be closer to her parents, sister, aunts and grandmother. Bette took temporary jobs ranging from clerical work to graphics design, and developed very good secretarial skills, including shorthand, and, auspiciously, touch typing. When Nesmith was 13 his mother invented a typewriter correction fluid later known commercially as Liquid Paper. Over the next 25 years she built the Liquid Paper Corporation into a multimillion dollar international company which she finally sold to Gillette in 1980 for US$48 million. She died a few months later at age 56.^[2]

In 1949, Nesmith, at the age of six, was enrolled in the Dallas public school system. An indifferent student, he nevertheless participated in choral and drama activities during his years at Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas.^[3] He began to write verse poetry. When he was 15 he enrolled in the Dallas Theater Center teen program, where he featured in several plays.^{[citation needed]}

Before graduating from high school, Nesmith enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1960. He completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, was trained as an aircraft mechanic at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, and then permanently stationed at a Strategic Air Command base near Elk City, Oklahoma. While in the Air Force, Nesmith obtained a G.E.D. and was discharged under honorable conditions in 1962. He enrolled in San Antonio College, a community college in San Antonio where he met John Kuehne (later to be known as John London) and began a musical collaboration. The duo won the first San Antonio College talent award performing a mixture of standard folk songs and a few of Nesmith's original songs. He met another SAC student, Phyllis Ann Barbour, whom he later married.^[4]

While in college Nesmith began to write more songs and poetry and after his marriage to Phyllis in 1963 the two of them decided to move to Los Angeles so Nesmith could pursue his songwriting and singing career. At the time Phyllis was pregnant with their first child Christian DuVal. Nesmith began singing in folk clubs around Los Angeles and had one notable job as the "Hootmaster" for the Monday night hootenannies at The Troubadour, a West Hollywood night club that featured new artists. Here Nesmith met, socialized, and performed with many different members of the burgeoning new music scene in Los Angeles. Randy Sparks of the New Christy Minstrels fame offered Nesmith a publishing deal for his songs. It was while working at this publishing house that Barry Friedman, also known as the Rev. Frazier Mohawk, brought the ad for Monkees auditions to Nesmith's attention. In 1965, Nesmith landed the role in the Monkees pilot, which was filmed in October 1965.^[5]

When the Monkees show ended in 1968, Nesmith enrolled part time in UCLA and studied American History and Music History. Michael and Phyllis's second son, Jonathan, was born in February 1968. Nesmith's third son, Jason, was born in August 1968 to Nurit Wilde, whom he met while working on the Monkees.^[6] In 1969, Nesmith formed the group First National Band with Kuehne, John Ware and Red Rhodes. Nesmith wrote most of the songs for the band including a single titled "Joanne" that received some airplay and was a mild chart hit for seven weeks during 1970, rising to number 21 on the Billboard Top 40.^[7] The First National Band has been credited with being among the pioneers of country-rock music.^[8]

Phyllis's third child, and Nesmith's fourth, daughter Jessica, was born in September 1970. Circa 1972, Nesmith started the record label Countryside Records with Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra Records. Also, in 1972, Nesmith and Phyllis were divorced and he moved to Carmel, California. In 1974, Nesmith started Pacific Arts Records and released what he called "a book with a soundtrack" entitled "The Prison" as the company's first release. In 1976, he married Kathryn Bild. In 1988, following the ending of this second marriage, he returned to Los Angeles where he had met Victoria Kennedy. They moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1992 and then returned to Carmel, California, in 2000. They were married in April 2000 in Monterey, California. In 2011, they separated and Kennedy filed for divorce.^[9]

Early career[link]

After a tour of duty in the Air Force, he was given a guitar as a Christmas present from his mother and stepfather. Learning as he went, he played solo and in a series of working bands, performing folk, country, and occasionally rock and roll. His verse poems became the basis for song lyrics, and after moving to Los Angeles with Phyllis and friend John London, he signed a publishing deal for his songs. Nesmith's "Mary, Mary" was recorded by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, while "Different Drum" was recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys. "Pretty Little Princess", written in 1965, was recorded by Frankie Laine and released as a single in 1968 on ABC Records. Later, "Some Of Shelly's Blues" and "Propinquity (I've Just Begun To Care)" were made popular by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1970 album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy.

Nesmith began his recording career in 1963 by releasing a single on the Highness label. Later, in 1965 with a one-off single released on Edan Records before he followed with two singles recorded—one titled "The New Recruit" under the name "Michael Blessing", released on Colpix Records—coincidentally also the label of Davy Jones, though they had not met until The Monkees.

The Monkees[link]

Nesmith (center) with The Monkees in 1967

From 1965 to early 1970, Nesmith was a member of the television pop-rock band The Monkees, created for the television situation comedy of the same name. The only Monkee to learn of the audition from the famous press advertisement asking for "four insane boys", Nesmith won his role largely by appearing blasé when he auditioned. He further distinguished himself by carrying a bag of laundry to be done on the way home, and wearing a wool cap to keep his hair out of his eyes, riding his motorcycle to the audition. Producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider remembered "Wool Hat", and called Nesmith back.

Once he was cast, Screen Gems bought his songs so they could be used in the show. Many of the songs Nesmith wrote for The Monkees, such as "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", "Mary, Mary", and "Listen to the Band" became minor hits. One song he wrote, "You Just May Be The One", is in mixed meter, interspersing 2/4 bars into an otherwise 4/4 structure.

The Gretsch guitar company built a one-off natural finish 12-string electric guitar for Nesmith when he was performing with The Monkees (Gretsch had a promotional deal with the group).^[10] He earlier played a customized Gretsch twelve-string, which had originally been a six-string model. Nesmith used this guitar for his appearances on the television series, as well as The Monkees live appearances in 1966 and 1967. Beginning in 1968, Nesmith used a white 6-string Gibson SG for his live appearances with The Monkees. He would use the guitar in their motion picture Head for the live version of "Circle Sky" and also for the final original Monkees tour in 1969 with Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz.

As with the other Monkees, Nesmith came to be frustrated by the manufactured image of the whole project. Although he was permitted to write and produce two songs per album and his music was frequently featured in episodes of the series, Nesmith was the most publically vocal about the Monkees prefabricated image.

The Monkees succeeded in ousting supervisor Don Kirshner (with Nesmith punching a hole in a wall, to make a point with Kirshner and attorney Herb Moelis), and took control of their records and song choices, but they worked as a four-man group on only one album. The band never overcame the credibility problems they faced when word spread that they had not played on their first records (at Nesmith's instigation, calling the band's first non-studio press conference, where he called More of The Monkees "probably the worst record in the history of the world"). However, their singles and albums continued to sell well, until the disastrous release of "Head".

Nesmith's last Monkees commitment was a commercial for Kool-Aid and Nerf balls, in April 1970 (fittingly, the spot ends with Nesmith frowning and saying, "Enerf's enerf!"). With the band's fortunes continuing to fall, Nesmith asked to be released from his contract, and had to pay a default: "I had three years left... at $150,000 a year", which he had to pay back. He continued to feel the financial bite for years afterwards, until his inheritance from his mother's Liquid Paper fortune in 1980 eased those concerns. In a 1980 interview with Playboy he said of that time, "I had to start telling little tales to the tax man while they were putting tags on the furniture". Indeed, while Nesmith had continued to produce his compositions with the Monkees, he withheld many of the songs from the final Monkees' albums, only to release them on his post-Monkees solo records.

Return to the Monkees[link]

For the Monkees 20th anniversary in 1986, Nesmith did not participate in the reunion. However, he did appear during an encore with the other three members at the Greek Theatre on September 7, 1986. In a 1987 interview for Nick Rocks, Nesmith stated, “When Peter called up and said we’re going to go out, do you want to go? I was booked. But, if you get to L.A….I’ll play.”^[11]

Nesmith would appear again in 1989 with Micky, Peter, and Davy when the Monkees received a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star.

In 1995, Nesmith was again reunited with the Monkees to record their last studio album (and first to feature all four since Head) titled Justus, released in 1996. He also wrote and directed a Monkees television special entitled Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees. To support the reunion, Nesmith, along with Jones, Dolenz, and Tork, briefly toured the UK in 1997.

Solo career[link]

As he prepared for his exit from The Monkees in 1970, Nesmith was approached by John Ware of The Corvettes, a band that featured Nesmith's friend John London (who played on some of the earliest pre-Monkees Nesmith 45s as well as numerous Monkees sessions) and had 45s produced by Nesmith for the Dot label in 1969. Ware wanted Nesmith to put together a band. Nesmith said he would be interested only if noted pedal steel player Orville "Red" Rhodes would be a part of the project, and a long musical partnership was born that would continue until Rhodes' untimely death in 1995. The new band was christened Michael Nesmith and the First National Band and went on to record three albums for RCA Records in 1970.

Nesmith has been considered one of the pioneers of country rock.^[12] He also had moderate commercial success with the First National Band. Their second single, Joanne hit No. 21 on the Billboard chart & No. 17 on Cashbox, with the follow-up "Silver Moon" making No. 42 Billboard/#28 Cashbox. Two more singles charted ("Nevada Fighter" No. 70 Billboard/#73 Cashbox & "Propinquity" No. 95 Cashbox) and the first two LP's charted in the lower regions of the Billboard album chart. No clear answer has ever been given for the band's breakup.

Nesmith followed up with The Second National Band, a band that besides Nesmith, consisted of Michael Cohen (keyboards and Moog), Johnny Meeks (bass), jazzer Jack Ranelli (drums) and the always present Orville Rhodes (pedal steel), as well as an appearance by singer, musician, and songwriter José Feliciano on congas. The album, Tantamount to Treason Vol. 1, was a commercial and critical disaster. Nesmith then recorded And the Hits Just Keep On Comin', featuring only him on guitar and Red Rhodes on pedal steel.

Nesmith got more heavily involved in producing, working with Iain Matthews on his "Valley Hi" album as well as Bert Jansch's "L.A. Turnaround." Nesmith was given a label of his own through Elektra Records, Countryside, as Elektra's Jac Holzman was a fan of Nesmith's. It featured a number of artists that were produced by Nesmith, including Garland Frady and Red Rhodes. The staff band at Countryside also helped Nesmith on his next, and last, RCA album, Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash. Countryside folded when David Geffen replaced Holzman, rendering Countryside unnecessary in Geffen's eyes.

In the mid-1970s, Nesmith briefly collaborated as a songwriter with Linda Hargrove, resulting in the tune "I've Never Loved Anyone More", a hit for Lynn Anderson and recorded by many others, as well as the songs "Winonah" and "If You Will Walk With Me" which were both recorded by Hargrove. Of all three songs, only "Winonah" was recorded by Nesmith himself. During this same period, Nesmith started his multimedia company Pacific Arts, which initially put out audio records, 8-tracks and cassettes, followed in 1981 with "video records." Nesmith recorded a number of LPs for his label, and had a moderate worldwide hit in 1977 with his song "Rio", the single taken from the album From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing. In 1983, Nesmith produced the music video for Lionel Richie's single All Night Long. In 1987, he produced the music video for Michael Jackson's single The Way You Make Me Feel.

Pop clips and MTV, Elephant Parts and Television Parts[link]

During this time, Nesmith created a video-clip for "Rio" which, in a roundabout way, helped spur Nesmith's creation of a television program called Pop Clips for the Nickelodeon cable network. In 1980, Nesmith's Pop Clips was sold to Time Warner/Amex consortium. Time Warner/Amex developed Pop Clips into the MTV network. Nesmith won the first-ever Grammy Award given for (Long-form) Music-Video in 1982, for his hour-long Elephant Parts and also had a short-lived series on NBC inspired by the video called "Michael Nesmith in Television Parts". Television Parts concept however included many other artists who were unknown at the time but who went on to become major stars in their own right. Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Whoopi Goldberg, Arsenio Hall all became well known artists after their appearances on Nesmith's show. The basic concept of the show was to have comics render their stand-up routines into short comedy films much like the ones in Elephant Parts. Nesmith assembled writers Jack Handey, William Martin, John Levenstein, and Michael Kaplan; Directors William Dear (who had directed Elephant Parts) and Alan Myerson, and Producer Ward Sylvester to create the show. The half hour show show ran for 8 episodes in the summer of 1985 on NBC Thursday nights in prime time.

Pacific Arts and legal dispute[link]

Pacific Arts Video became a pioneer in the home video market, producing and distributing a wide variety of videotaped programs. Pacific Arts Video eventually ceased operations after an acrimonious contract dispute with PBS over home video licensing rights and payments for several series, including Ken Burns' The Civil War. The dispute escalated into a law suit that went to jury trial in Federal Court in Los Angeles. On February 3, 1999, a jury awarded Nesmith and his company Pacific Arts $48.875 million in compensatory and punitive damages, prompting his widely-quoted comment, "It's like finding your grandmother stealing your stereo. You're happy to get your stereo back, but it's sad to find out your grandmother is a thief." PBS appealed the ruling, but the appeal never reached the court, and a settlement was reached with the amount paid to Pacific Arts and Nesmith results kept confidential.

Nesmith's current Pacific Arts project is Videoranch 3D, a virtual environment on the internet that hosts live performances at various virtual venues inside the Ranch. He performed live inside Videoranch 3D on May 25, 2009.

Movies and books[link]

Nesmith was the executive producer for the films Repo Man, Tapeheads, and Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, as well as his own solo recording and film projects.

In 1998, Nesmith published his first novel, The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora. It was developed originally as an online project and was later published as a hard cover book by St Martin's Press. Nesmith's second novel The America Gene was released in July, 2009 as an online download from Videoranch.com.

Recent history[link]

In the early 1980s, Nesmith teamed up with satirist P.J. O'Rourke to ride his vehicle Timerider in the annual Baja 1000 roadrace. This is chronicled in O'Rourke's 2009 book Driving Like Crazy.

During the 1990s, Nesmith, as Trustee and President of the Gihon foundation, hosted the Council on Ideas, a gathering of intellectuals from different fields who were asked to identify the most important issues of their day and publish the result. The Gihon ceased the program in 2000 and started a new Program for the Performing Arts. Nesmith also spent a decade as a board of trustees member, nominating member and vice-chair of the American Film Institute.

In 1992, Nesmith undertook a concert tour of North America to promote the CD release of his RCA solo albums (although he included the song "Rio", from the album From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing). The concert tour ended at the Britt Festival in Oregon. A video, Live at the Britt Festival, and a CD, Live at the Britt Festival were released capturing the 1992 concert.^[13]

Nesmith continued to record and release his own music. His last album, Rays, was released on April 4, 2006. In 2011, Nesmith returned to producing, working with blues singer/guitarist Carolyn Wonderland. Nesmith produced Wonderland's version of Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" on her album "Peace Meal." Wonderland married writer-comedian A. Whitney Brown on March 4, 2011, in a ceremony officiated by Nesmith.

Other appearances[link]

Nesmith had a cameo appearance as a taxi driver in the Whoopi Goldberg film Burglar.

Nesmith had cameo appearances in his own films including Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (Race Official) and Tapeheads (Water Man).

In a promotional video to support Pacific Arts' video release of Tapeheads, Nesmith was introduced with a voice-over making fun of his Monkees persona. The narration teases Nesmith, who approaches the camera to speak, poking fun at his "missing hat".

An opportunistic lookalike from the US cashed in on his similarity to Nesmith by appearing on talk shows and doing interviews in Australia during the 1980s. The scam was successful, the lookalike being far enough from America to avoid detection as a fraud (which is less likely in the US, where the real Nesmith has made many media and show-business acquaintances). An entertaining interviewee, the impersonator's charade was not discovered until after he had vanished from the public eye. The imposter, Barry Faulkner, who had pulled various fraudulent scams for 40 years, was finally apprehended and sent to jail in 2009.^[14][15]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Albums[link]

Live albums[link]

Compilation albums[link]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Films[link]

Home Video[link]

Books[link]

(n.b. books proper – not including The Prison and The Garden)

• The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora (1998)
• The America Gene (2009)

Audio books[link]

• The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora (2004) (with Michael reading the story)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Nesmith

• Videoranch, a Michael Nesmith company
• Michael Nesmith at the Internet Movie Database
• Article in Wired magazine about Michael Nesmith and the Council on Ideas
• Michael Nesmith biography
• (Unofficial) Michael Nesmith Home Page
• SWINDLE Magazine Interview
• Michael Nesmith interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969).
• Michael Nesmith: Overcoming The Monkees at NPR.com
• Nesmith at Allmusic.com

Joanne Accom (born Joanne Ruth Charlotte Accom on 13 November 1978) is a dance, pop singer-songwriter from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Joanne was born in London, but is South African by descent. She moved to Australia at age 10.

Career[link]

Joanne's first single Jackie, was released in late 1998. It reached No. 3 on the ARIA Charts, and became the highest selling single in Australia in 1999, earning her an ARIA award.

For Jackie, Joanne was credited as "B.Z. featuring Joanne" or "Joanne/BZ", referring to the original performers of the song, Blue Zone.

She released the singles Pack Your Bags and Are You Ready in 1999.

Her next release was featuring on the track Breakin' There's No Stoppin' Us by Ilanda for The Wog Boy Movie in 2000.

Her solo album, Do Not Disturb, was released in 2001 after being a work in progress for 2 and a half years.^[1] It features a remix of Jackie, her 2 singles released in 1999 and 3 new singles, So Damn Fine, I Don't Know, and Busted. It was produced and recorded in Dance World Studios, South Melbourne.

Joanne has since stopped recording, and performs weekly on a Sunday afternoon at the George Hotel in Melbourne with group Ilanda.

Performances[link]

She performed a number of her hits at Melbourne's Rumba along with other artists on Saturday 17 November 2001 at the Docklands Stadium.

She performed her hit So Damn Fine in front of a live audience all over Australia at one of the Big Brother Australia 2002 live eviction shows during the closing credits.

Discography[link]

Studio Albums[link]

Singles[link]

B-Sides[link]

• 1998 All Of Me by XL Connection (Jackie B-Side)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Joanne Accom profile at discogs.com

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]