The Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, is visiting his friend, U.S. President George Bush, in Washington, DC.
The U.S. President offers a gift to his guest. "Here you go, Mush" says Bush. "Try out this shiny new Cadillac. It's their finest model."
"Thank you, Mr. President, but I cannot accept this magnificent gift," replies the Musharraf.
"Oh. I understand about gift limits. I understand the problems you are having in Pakistan with your non-profit associations. Ok then ... give me a half dollar for it. Then it won't be a gift," replies Bush. Musharraf gives Bush a dollar.
"I don't have any change ... too bad," says the President.
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"No big deal... you'll just give me two Cadillacs" retorts Musharraf.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Russell Crowe
Profession(s):
Actor, singer, musician, songwriter, producer, director, screenwriter, street performer, bingo-number caller, waiter, bartender
Sometimes Credited As:
Rus Le Roq
Russell Ira Crowe
Full Biography
A galvanizing presence whose prodigious talents earned him Hollywood's highest acting accolades, but whose mercurial – and occasionally violent – temperament put him in hot water publicly, actor Russell Crowe ultimately built a reputation as an A-list leading man, whose electric performances well overshadowed his so-called bad boy nature. With an intense breakout performance as a racist skinhead in the Australian-made “Romper Stomper” (1992), Crowe established himself as an actor on the rise. Crossing the Pacific, he exploded off the screen as a violent 1950s police detective in “L.A. Confidential” (1997), announcing loudly to American audiences that he had arrived on U.S. shores. Two years later, Crowe earned his first Academy Award nomination with a sterling performance as a tobacco executive trapped between telling the truth and protecting his family in “The Insider” (1999). But it was his turn as a Roman general-turned -professional fighter in “Gladiator” (2000) that brought home Oscar glory and cemented Crowe’s status as one of the truly gifted actors of his generation.
Born on Apr. 7, 1964 in Wellington, New Zealand, Crowe grew up in and around show business. His grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer whose footage of World War II earned him the title of Member of the Order of the British Empire. His parents, Alex and Jocelyn, were both film set caterers who moved the family to Australia because of better job opportunities, providing Crowe ready access when he began acting at age six. His first onscreen role was in an episode of the Australian TV series "Spyforce,” starring Jack Thompson – a part he landed thanks to his mother, who worked on the show. When Crowe was 14, the family moved back to their native New Zealand where his father took over managing a pub called The Flying Jug. About this time, Crowe began performing in rock bands under the name Rus Le Roq, though much of his early music was not especially well-received.
Determined to pursue a career in show business, Crowe returned to Australia when he was 18. Within a year of his return, Crowe landed a role singing and dancing on stage in an Australian production of "Grease.” While he spent two years (1986-88) touring as Dr Frank N Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show,” it was his turn in Willy Russell's "Blood Brothers" (1989) that caught the attention of director George Ogilvie, who cast him in a leading role the triangular drama "The Crossing" (1990). It was on the set of this film that he met his longtime girlfriend and later wife, actress-singer, Danielle Spencer. Playing a dishwasher who befriends a blind photographer in Jocelyn Moorhouse's "Proof" (1991) earned Crowe strong reviews, as well as the Best Supporting Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute. He copped a Best Actor trophy and international fame the following year for a blistering, yet nuanced performance as the vicious leader of a skinhead gang lashing out against a growing number of Asian immigrants in the controversial "Romper Stomper.” That same year, Crowe – who had been a musician since he was a teenager – formed the rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts with his old mates from Australia. Over the years, the band recorded several albums, none of which achieved any notable recognition or success.
With several films achieving success on the art house circuit, Crowe was established internationally and began to invoke comparisons with another transplanted Aussie, Mel Gibson. He followed up with an intriguing variety of offbeat projects, ranging from the historical drama "Hammers Over the Anvil" to the children's film "The Silver Stallion King of the Wild Brumbies" (both 1993). Crowe gave another splendid performance as a virginal Welsh Baptist in "Love in Limbo" (1993) and shone as a gay plumber living with his middle-aged father (Jack Thompson) as both search for love in "The Sum of Us" (1994). It was inevitable for Hollywood to woo him with roles like his gunslinger-turned-preacher in the punchy Sharon Stone-produced western, "The Quick and the Dead" and as the malevolent computer-generated serial killer in Denzel Washington’s star vehicle, "Virtuosity" (both 1995).
Thanks to Crowe’s brooding onscreen intensity, director Curtis Hanson offered him the plum role of Officer Bud White, a quick-tempered, brutal homicide detective in the superb adaptation of James Ellroy’s noir thriller "L.A. Confidential" (1997). Paired with fellow Aussie mate Guy Pearce and Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey, the actor completed a trio of detectives who investigate a web of police corruption and public scandal in 1950s Los Angeles. With a higher profile and an armload of good notices, Crowe next played a hockey player who gets the chance to play against a professional team in the David E. Kelley-scripted "Mystery, Alaska" before landing the choice role of tobacco industry whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand in Michael Mann's fictional take on a true story, "The Insider" (both 1999). Crowe won particular acclaim – including a Best Actor Oscar nomination – for his characterization of a family man who risks his life and reputation to refute public testimony given by cigarette manufacturers. The fact the he was able to morph into a paunchy, balding middle-aged man believably, also added to the growing comparisons to Brando and DeNiro.
As a follow-up, Crowe buffed up and undertook the title role in Ridley Scott's big-budgeted summer release "Gladiator.” Playing Maximus, a fallen Roman general-turned-professional fighter, the actor more than dominated the film – he tore a hole in the big screen with his intensity – earning rave notices and a Best Actor Academy Award for his efforts. The role solidified Crowe as one of Hollywood's top actors and most bankable male movie stars. He rounded out the year playing a professional negotiator in kidnapping cases who comes to the aid of an American woman in a fictional South American country in "Proof of Life." The movie, however, was overshadowed by the media’s reporting of his brief fling with co-star Meg Ryan, whose then-marriage to Dennis Quaid was falling apart. A critical drubbing coupled with audience indifference – and some disgust over Crowe’s assumed corrupting of “America’s Sweetheart” by the press – put a final stake into the film, making it one of Crowe’s least memorable.
The disappointing box office and domestic scandal notwithstanding, Crowe emerged unscathed. He next portrayed John Nash, a real-life mathematician who descended into schizophrenia only to overcome his illness and go on to win a Nobel Prize in Ron Howard’s biopic "A Beautiful Mind" (2001). His beautifully realized, nuanced performance ranked as one of his best to date and earned the actor his third consecutive Best Actor Academy Award nomination, as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Unfortunately, the well-earned Oscar slipped through his fingers following the first of a series of public altercations which cast a temporary shadow over his onscreen accomplishments. During Crowe’s acceptance of a BAFTA for Best Actor for “A Beautiful Mind,” the BAFTA show’s producer cut him off mid-speech and mid-poem, causing a fracas backstage when Crowe reportedly pinned the producer against the wall, threatening him and hurling obscenities. Feeling put upon by the media's excessive attention to his personal life – especially his reputation as a brawler – Crowe retreated from the limelight for a spell, emerging only to marry longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Danielle Spencer and to subsequently announce his impending fatherhood in 2003.
At the end of that year, however, Crowe's name was again on the lips of filmgoers, critics and the Hollywood elite following his much-praised performance in director Peter Weir's "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." In the rollicking, harrowing high-seas adventure based on the series of 20 historical novels by Patrick O'Brien, Crowe made for a perfect screen incarnation of Capt. "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, the skipper of the beleaguered British naval vessel the H.M.S. Surprise during the Napoleonic Wars, who wrestles with his conscience as he forces his crew to embark on a perilous pursuit of their enemy. Crowe's turn was immediately hailed as award-worthy, and the actor yet again demonstrated his lack of vanity and commitment to his craft when he physically bulked up to match the heavyset literary description of Lucky Jack. Though no Oscar nod was forthcoming, Crowe did receive a nomination for Best Actor in a dramatic role at the 2003 Golden Globes.
After a yearlong absence from the big screen, Crowe reunited for the third time with director Ron Howard for "Cinderella Man" (2005) and received yet another round of glowing reviews – and another Golden Globe nod – for his effective, charming turn as Depression-era fighter and folk hero Jim Braddock, who defeated heavyweight champ Max Baer in a 15-round slugfest in 1935. In his initial public appearances to promote the film, Crowe seemed more relaxed and at peace with himself than ever before. So it came as a bit of a shock when, in an even more publicized smackdown, the actor was arrested for assault in New York City the week of the film's debut after he allegedly threw a telephone at a hotel concierge in a fit of pique when he could not reach his wife in Australia. The actor subsequently appeared on “The Late Show” (CBS, 1993- ) alongside host David Letterman to publicly apologize for his by-then infamous short fuse, while pleading guilty in November 2005 to third-degree assault in a court of law. He paid $160 in court fees and was told to behave himself for a year, avoiding a more serious charge that could have landed him in prison and cost him his U.S. work visa.
With the ugliness of the assault behind him – at least legally – Crowe went back to work, starring in a couple of small budget films – perhaps, in part, to maintain a low profile. In “A Good Year” (2006), his second collaboration with Ridley Scott, Crowe played an investment banker operating in the cutthroat world of London finance who reluctantly agrees to take over a small vineyard after the death of his uncle (Albert Finney). It is in the open French countryside where he eventually learns – thanks in part to a local café owner (Marion Cotillard) – that life is meant to be savored. After providing the narration for “Bra Boys” (2007), an Australian documentary about a much-maligned surfer community living near the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, Crowe returned to high profile features with the gritty western “3:10 to Yuma” (2007). In it, he played an imprisoned desperado who convinces a desperate rancher (Christian Bale) to help him escape in exchange for a share of hidden loot. Also in 2007, Crowe played a detective who teams up with a former drug kingpin (Denzel Washington) in order to expose corrupt cops and foreign nationals profiting from smuggling heroin in the true-to-life drama, “American Gangster.”
Family
brother:Terry Crowe (older)
cousin:Martin Crowe
cousin:Jeff Crowe
father:Alex Crowe (married Crowe's mother in 1961)
grandfather:Stan Wemyss (named an MBE for his work shooting footage during WWII; Crowe wore the MBE to the 2001 Academy Awards)
mother:Jocelyn Crowe (married Crowe's father in 1961)
son:Charles Spencer Crowe (born December 21, 2003; mother, Danielle Spencer)
son:Tennyson Crowe (born July 7, 2006; mother is Danielle Spencer)
uncle:David Crowe (father of Jeff and Martin)
wife:Danielle Spencer (met while filming the "Crossing"; the pair had a lengthy on-again, off-again romance; engaged December 2002; married April 7, 2003)
Companion(s)
Jamie O'Neal , Companion , ```..dated in 1988
Meg Ryan , Companion , ```..began highly publicized relationship during filming of "Proof of Life" in 2000; separated in December 2000
Nicole Kidman , Companion , ```..rumored to have dated in 2002; a report was later released that the source who claimed to have witnessed them kissing, dancing, etc in Mexico had lied
Awards
BAFTA Award Best Actor "A Beautiful Mind" 2002 Australian Film Institute Global Achievement Award 2001 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "A Beautiful Mind" 2001 Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "A Beautiful Mind" 2001 Golden Globe Award Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) "A Beautiful Mind" 2001 ShoWest Male Star of the Year 2001 The Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role "A Beautiful Mind" 2001 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 London Film Critics' Circle Award Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 Oscar Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 San Diego Film Critics Award Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "The Insider" 1999 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "The Insider" 1999 National Board of Review Award Best Actor "The Insider" 1999 National Society of Film Critics Award Best Actor "The Insider" 1999 Australian Film Institute Award Best Actor "Romper Stomper" 1992 Australian Film Institute Award Best Supporting Actor "Proof" 19
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Jokes
Actor, singer, musician, songwriter, producer, director, screenwriter, street performer, bingo-number caller, waiter, bartender
Sometimes Credited As:
Rus Le Roq
Russell Ira Crowe
Full Biography
A galvanizing presence whose prodigious talents earned him Hollywood's highest acting accolades, but whose mercurial – and occasionally violent – temperament put him in hot water publicly, actor Russell Crowe ultimately built a reputation as an A-list leading man, whose electric performances well overshadowed his so-called bad boy nature. With an intense breakout performance as a racist skinhead in the Australian-made “Romper Stomper” (1992), Crowe established himself as an actor on the rise. Crossing the Pacific, he exploded off the screen as a violent 1950s police detective in “L.A. Confidential” (1997), announcing loudly to American audiences that he had arrived on U.S. shores. Two years later, Crowe earned his first Academy Award nomination with a sterling performance as a tobacco executive trapped between telling the truth and protecting his family in “The Insider” (1999). But it was his turn as a Roman general-turned -professional fighter in “Gladiator” (2000) that brought home Oscar glory and cemented Crowe’s status as one of the truly gifted actors of his generation.
Born on Apr. 7, 1964 in Wellington, New Zealand, Crowe grew up in and around show business. His grandfather, Stan Wemyss, was a cinematographer whose footage of World War II earned him the title of Member of the Order of the British Empire. His parents, Alex and Jocelyn, were both film set caterers who moved the family to Australia because of better job opportunities, providing Crowe ready access when he began acting at age six. His first onscreen role was in an episode of the Australian TV series "Spyforce,” starring Jack Thompson – a part he landed thanks to his mother, who worked on the show. When Crowe was 14, the family moved back to their native New Zealand where his father took over managing a pub called The Flying Jug. About this time, Crowe began performing in rock bands under the name Rus Le Roq, though much of his early music was not especially well-received.
Determined to pursue a career in show business, Crowe returned to Australia when he was 18. Within a year of his return, Crowe landed a role singing and dancing on stage in an Australian production of "Grease.” While he spent two years (1986-88) touring as Dr Frank N Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show,” it was his turn in Willy Russell's "Blood Brothers" (1989) that caught the attention of director George Ogilvie, who cast him in a leading role the triangular drama "The Crossing" (1990). It was on the set of this film that he met his longtime girlfriend and later wife, actress-singer, Danielle Spencer. Playing a dishwasher who befriends a blind photographer in Jocelyn Moorhouse's "Proof" (1991) earned Crowe strong reviews, as well as the Best Supporting Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute. He copped a Best Actor trophy and international fame the following year for a blistering, yet nuanced performance as the vicious leader of a skinhead gang lashing out against a growing number of Asian immigrants in the controversial "Romper Stomper.” That same year, Crowe – who had been a musician since he was a teenager – formed the rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts with his old mates from Australia. Over the years, the band recorded several albums, none of which achieved any notable recognition or success.
With several films achieving success on the art house circuit, Crowe was established internationally and began to invoke comparisons with another transplanted Aussie, Mel Gibson. He followed up with an intriguing variety of offbeat projects, ranging from the historical drama "Hammers Over the Anvil" to the children's film "The Silver Stallion King of the Wild Brumbies" (both 1993). Crowe gave another splendid performance as a virginal Welsh Baptist in "Love in Limbo" (1993) and shone as a gay plumber living with his middle-aged father (Jack Thompson) as both search for love in "The Sum of Us" (1994). It was inevitable for Hollywood to woo him with roles like his gunslinger-turned-preacher in the punchy Sharon Stone-produced western, "The Quick and the Dead" and as the malevolent computer-generated serial killer in Denzel Washington’s star vehicle, "Virtuosity" (both 1995).
Thanks to Crowe’s brooding onscreen intensity, director Curtis Hanson offered him the plum role of Officer Bud White, a quick-tempered, brutal homicide detective in the superb adaptation of James Ellroy’s noir thriller "L.A. Confidential" (1997). Paired with fellow Aussie mate Guy Pearce and Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey, the actor completed a trio of detectives who investigate a web of police corruption and public scandal in 1950s Los Angeles. With a higher profile and an armload of good notices, Crowe next played a hockey player who gets the chance to play against a professional team in the David E. Kelley-scripted "Mystery, Alaska" before landing the choice role of tobacco industry whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand in Michael Mann's fictional take on a true story, "The Insider" (both 1999). Crowe won particular acclaim – including a Best Actor Oscar nomination – for his characterization of a family man who risks his life and reputation to refute public testimony given by cigarette manufacturers. The fact the he was able to morph into a paunchy, balding middle-aged man believably, also added to the growing comparisons to Brando and DeNiro.
As a follow-up, Crowe buffed up and undertook the title role in Ridley Scott's big-budgeted summer release "Gladiator.” Playing Maximus, a fallen Roman general-turned-professional fighter, the actor more than dominated the film – he tore a hole in the big screen with his intensity – earning rave notices and a Best Actor Academy Award for his efforts. The role solidified Crowe as one of Hollywood's top actors and most bankable male movie stars. He rounded out the year playing a professional negotiator in kidnapping cases who comes to the aid of an American woman in a fictional South American country in "Proof of Life." The movie, however, was overshadowed by the media’s reporting of his brief fling with co-star Meg Ryan, whose then-marriage to Dennis Quaid was falling apart. A critical drubbing coupled with audience indifference – and some disgust over Crowe’s assumed corrupting of “America’s Sweetheart” by the press – put a final stake into the film, making it one of Crowe’s least memorable.
The disappointing box office and domestic scandal notwithstanding, Crowe emerged unscathed. He next portrayed John Nash, a real-life mathematician who descended into schizophrenia only to overcome his illness and go on to win a Nobel Prize in Ron Howard’s biopic "A Beautiful Mind" (2001). His beautifully realized, nuanced performance ranked as one of his best to date and earned the actor his third consecutive Best Actor Academy Award nomination, as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Unfortunately, the well-earned Oscar slipped through his fingers following the first of a series of public altercations which cast a temporary shadow over his onscreen accomplishments. During Crowe’s acceptance of a BAFTA for Best Actor for “A Beautiful Mind,” the BAFTA show’s producer cut him off mid-speech and mid-poem, causing a fracas backstage when Crowe reportedly pinned the producer against the wall, threatening him and hurling obscenities. Feeling put upon by the media's excessive attention to his personal life – especially his reputation as a brawler – Crowe retreated from the limelight for a spell, emerging only to marry longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Danielle Spencer and to subsequently announce his impending fatherhood in 2003.
At the end of that year, however, Crowe's name was again on the lips of filmgoers, critics and the Hollywood elite following his much-praised performance in director Peter Weir's "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." In the rollicking, harrowing high-seas adventure based on the series of 20 historical novels by Patrick O'Brien, Crowe made for a perfect screen incarnation of Capt. "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, the skipper of the beleaguered British naval vessel the H.M.S. Surprise during the Napoleonic Wars, who wrestles with his conscience as he forces his crew to embark on a perilous pursuit of their enemy. Crowe's turn was immediately hailed as award-worthy, and the actor yet again demonstrated his lack of vanity and commitment to his craft when he physically bulked up to match the heavyset literary description of Lucky Jack. Though no Oscar nod was forthcoming, Crowe did receive a nomination for Best Actor in a dramatic role at the 2003 Golden Globes.
After a yearlong absence from the big screen, Crowe reunited for the third time with director Ron Howard for "Cinderella Man" (2005) and received yet another round of glowing reviews – and another Golden Globe nod – for his effective, charming turn as Depression-era fighter and folk hero Jim Braddock, who defeated heavyweight champ Max Baer in a 15-round slugfest in 1935. In his initial public appearances to promote the film, Crowe seemed more relaxed and at peace with himself than ever before. So it came as a bit of a shock when, in an even more publicized smackdown, the actor was arrested for assault in New York City the week of the film's debut after he allegedly threw a telephone at a hotel concierge in a fit of pique when he could not reach his wife in Australia. The actor subsequently appeared on “The Late Show” (CBS, 1993- ) alongside host David Letterman to publicly apologize for his by-then infamous short fuse, while pleading guilty in November 2005 to third-degree assault in a court of law. He paid $160 in court fees and was told to behave himself for a year, avoiding a more serious charge that could have landed him in prison and cost him his U.S. work visa.
With the ugliness of the assault behind him – at least legally – Crowe went back to work, starring in a couple of small budget films – perhaps, in part, to maintain a low profile. In “A Good Year” (2006), his second collaboration with Ridley Scott, Crowe played an investment banker operating in the cutthroat world of London finance who reluctantly agrees to take over a small vineyard after the death of his uncle (Albert Finney). It is in the open French countryside where he eventually learns – thanks in part to a local café owner (Marion Cotillard) – that life is meant to be savored. After providing the narration for “Bra Boys” (2007), an Australian documentary about a much-maligned surfer community living near the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, Crowe returned to high profile features with the gritty western “3:10 to Yuma” (2007). In it, he played an imprisoned desperado who convinces a desperate rancher (Christian Bale) to help him escape in exchange for a share of hidden loot. Also in 2007, Crowe played a detective who teams up with a former drug kingpin (Denzel Washington) in order to expose corrupt cops and foreign nationals profiting from smuggling heroin in the true-to-life drama, “American Gangster.”
Family
brother:Terry Crowe (older)
cousin:Martin Crowe
cousin:Jeff Crowe
father:Alex Crowe (married Crowe's mother in 1961)
grandfather:Stan Wemyss (named an MBE for his work shooting footage during WWII; Crowe wore the MBE to the 2001 Academy Awards)
mother:Jocelyn Crowe (married Crowe's father in 1961)
son:Charles Spencer Crowe (born December 21, 2003; mother, Danielle Spencer)
son:Tennyson Crowe (born July 7, 2006; mother is Danielle Spencer)
uncle:David Crowe (father of Jeff and Martin)
wife:Danielle Spencer (met while filming the "Crossing"; the pair had a lengthy on-again, off-again romance; engaged December 2002; married April 7, 2003)
Companion(s)
Jamie O'Neal , Companion , ```..dated in 1988
Meg Ryan , Companion , ```..began highly publicized relationship during filming of "Proof of Life" in 2000; separated in December 2000
Nicole Kidman , Companion , ```..rumored to have dated in 2002; a report was later released that the source who claimed to have witnessed them kissing, dancing, etc in Mexico had lied
Awards
BAFTA Award Best Actor "A Beautiful Mind" 2002 Australian Film Institute Global Achievement Award 2001 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "A Beautiful Mind" 2001 Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "A Beautiful Mind" 2001 Golden Globe Award Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) "A Beautiful Mind" 2001 ShoWest Male Star of the Year 2001 The Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role "A Beautiful Mind" 2001 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 London Film Critics' Circle Award Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 Oscar Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 San Diego Film Critics Award Best Actor "Gladiator" 2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "The Insider" 1999 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award Best Actor "The Insider" 1999 National Board of Review Award Best Actor "The Insider" 1999 National Society of Film Critics Award Best Actor "The Insider" 1999 Australian Film Institute Award Best Actor "Romper Stomper" 1992 Australian Film Institute Award Best Supporting Actor "Proof" 19
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
Secret of Success!!
A young reporter was given the opportunity to interview a very successful, very wealthy banker. The reporter asked him, "Sir, What is the secret of your success?"
He said "Two words, young man."
"And, Sir, what are they?"
"Right decisions."
"But how do you make right decisions?"
"One word." he responded.
"And, sir, What is that?"
"Experience."
"And how do you get Experience?"
"Two words"
"And, Sir, what are they?"
The banker replied with a wry smile, "Wrong decisions."
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Link2Me Link Exchange Directory - The Best Link Exchange for SEO Professionals
Quality directory of webmasters actively seeking link exchange. Improve your search engine rankings and link popularity the easy way. Work clever not hard.
He said "Two words, young man."
"And, Sir, what are they?"
"Right decisions."
"But how do you make right decisions?"
"One word." he responded.
"And, sir, What is that?"
"Experience."
"And how do you get Experience?"
"Two words"
"And, Sir, what are they?"
The banker replied with a wry smile, "Wrong decisions."
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Link2Me Link Exchange Directory - The Best Link Exchange for SEO Professionals
Quality directory of webmasters actively seeking link exchange. Improve your search engine rankings and link popularity the easy way. Work clever not hard.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Diwali Dhamaka Shopping Sale
Rumors of the sale and an advertisement on the web and newspaeres were the main reasons for the long line that formed in front of the store by 8:30, the store's opening time.
A small man pushed his way to the front of the line, only to be pushed back amid loud and colorful curses.
On the man's second attempt, he was punched square in the jaw and knocked around a bit, then thrown to the end of the line again.
As he got up the second time, he said to the person at the end of the line:
"That does it! If they hit me one more time, I won't open the store!"
It was the day of the big sale.
More Jokes
A small man pushed his way to the front of the line, only to be pushed back amid loud and colorful curses.
On the man's second attempt, he was punched square in the jaw and knocked around a bit, then thrown to the end of the line again.
As he got up the second time, he said to the person at the end of the line:
"That does it! If they hit me one more time, I won't open the store!"
It was the day of the big sale.
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Sunday, October 19, 2008
britenyney friends with ex-husband
Britney Spears has reignited a friendship with her ex- husband Jason Alexander -the man she married and diteched after a centroversia Las Vagas ceremony.
The pair tied the knot in a Sin City chapel on 3 January 2004- a union that was annulled just 55 hours later. the brief marriage appeared to have ended Spears and Alexander s romance and longterm frienship,but the 27-years -old clothing entrepreneur s manager Susan Ferris,four yeard on from the headline-grabbing weding.Ferris tells Us Weekly,"They are friend again and have been for six or eight month."
The pair tied the knot in a Sin City chapel on 3 January 2004- a union that was annulled just 55 hours later. the brief marriage appeared to have ended Spears and Alexander s romance and longterm frienship,but the 27-years -old clothing entrepreneur s manager Susan Ferris,four yeard on from the headline-grabbing weding.Ferris tells Us Weekly,"They are friend again and have been for six or eight month."
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Julia Roberts
Profession(s):
Actor, producer, model, salesperson Sometimes Credited As:
Julia Fiona Roberts
Sometimes Credited As:
Julia Fiona Roberts
Education
Campbell High School Smyrna, GA 1985
Full Biography
A winsome beauty with a large, incandescent smile and a mane of hair, Julia Roberts was one of the few bankable female stars of the 1990s whose love affair with the public and world's press continued into the next century. Critics have long speculated on the secret of her undeniable appeal, but it remained one of those enigmas of contemporary pop culture. Roberts lacked the technical polish of some of her contemporaries, but was able to command the screen like no one else, even while surrounded by heavy hitters like Sally Field, Denzel Washington and Susan Sarandon. Her public life was also key to her longevity. From the trail of broken-hearted beaus she left in her wake to her self-imposed post-"Pretty Woman" exile to getting pregnant with twins – the public ate it all up with a spoon.
Born Oct. 28, 1967 in Smyrna, GA, Roberts originally planned to be a veterinarian, but later studied journalism instead. She was introduced to performing at an early age by her theatrical parents, who ran the Atlanta-based Actors and Writers Workshop out of their home. She made her screen debut opposite her brother Eric in "Blood Red," although the 1986 film went unreleased for three years. Noticing that her old brother was scoring some success in Hollywood, Roberts decided to try acting as a career. She first gained notice starring in two youth-oriented movies in 1988 – "Mystic Pizza" and "Satisfaction" (1988). In the former, Roberts played a memorably fiery Portuguese waitress. Only a year or two into her new career, the young actress earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination as the doomed diabetic heroine, Shelby, of "Steel Magnolias" (1989).
With her performance as a warm-hearted prostitute who transforms cold executive Richard Gere in Garry Marshall's saccharine but immensely successful rags-to-riches saga, "Pretty Woman" (1990), Roberts became one of Hollywood's most popular and bankable stars – certainly its top female – and earned a surprise Best Actress Academy Award nomination. The iconic role would forever label her America's "pretty woman" – even over a decade later. While her contribution made the routine thrillers "Flatliners" (1990) and "Sleeping with the Enemy" (1991) popular successes, she faltered a bit at the box office in late 1991 with the weepie romance "Dying Young." She finished the year with the supporting role of Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's lavish but disappointing update of the Peter Pan myth, "Hook." Roberts' toothsome portrayal of the feisty fairy revealed no insights into the tiny winged character, and she struggled gamely with the physical and artistic rigors of doing most of her scenes alone on a special effects soundstage. Rumors of bad blood between Roberts and Spielberg cast a pall on the project, sending the increasingly reclusive star into a self-imposed exile, which only fueled the press more.
It was at the peak of her early '90s fame that Roberts took an unannounced break from acting to get her highly publicized personal life in order. Romances with co-stars Liam Neeson, Dylan McDermott and most notably Kiefer Sutherland – whom she reportedly left for his best friend Robert Patrick only days before the wedding – all petered out, though her romance with the odd-looking actor/singer Lyle Lovett ended in a brief bare-footed marriage in 1993. Roberts made a cameo appearance as herself in Robert Altman's "The Player" (1992) before making her much ballyhooed return to the screen after two years, reasserting her commercial magic opposite Denzel Washington in the political thriller, "The Pelican Brief" (1993), but lost a bit of ground opposite Nick Nolte in the middling romantic comedy, "I Love Trouble" (1994). Her next few film roles proved spotty: she was passable as a journalist in Robert Altman's high-fashion comedy "Ready to Wear/Pret-a-Porter" (1994), spunky as a woman coping with marital problems in the romantic comedy "Something to Talk About" (1995), and dour in the period horror film "Mary Reilly" (1996), all of which failed to find much audience favor. As Woody Allen's leading lady in his musical comedy "Everyone Says I Love You" (1996), she fared slightly better (and displayed a pleasant if not spectacular singing voice). Cast opposite old beau Neeson as his love interest in Neil Jordan's biopic of Irish revolutionary "Michael Collins" (also 1996), Roberts gave a gallant try but was hampered by a wavering Irish accent.
1997 saw the actress reassert her position as both America's sweetheart and a box-office performer with her starring role in the hit comedy, "My Best Friend's Wedding." Cast as a scheming restaurant critic who sets out to break up the wedding of the man she thinks she loves, Roberts turned what could have become an unsympathetic character into an audience favorite through the sheer force of her natural charm and vibrancy. She was abetted by Rupert Everett's scene-stealing supporting turn as her editor and a subtle script by Ron Bass that inverted many of the clichés of screwball comedy. Roberts' much-anticipated teaming with Mel Gibson in Richard Donner's "Conspiracy Theory" (also 1997), however, proved to be somewhat disappointing thanks to a muddled script. Ron Bass was one of several writers who worked on the script of "Stepmom" (1998), a comedy-drama that cast Roberts as the much younger girlfriend of a divorced man coping with his two children and his saintly ex-wife. Most critics dismissed the film as pap but audiences lapped it up and made it a modest box-office success. She followed with a turn as a world-famous movie star who falls in love with a bumbling British bookseller (Hugh Grant) in "Notting Hill", an uneven romantic comedy, which nevertheless, did well at the box office. The much ballyhooed reteaming with Gere under Garry Marshall's guidance in "Runaway Bride" (both 1999) brought out the crowds, but the film could in no way compete with the "Pretty Woman" legacy that came before. Together these films earned over $300 million domestically, justifying the actress' standing as the highest paid female actor.
Just as critics thought she was all charm and no real acting chops, Roberts took on the role of her life, essaying the real-life legal secretary who assisted in turning a water poisoning case into one of the largest class-action lawsuits in U.S. history, in "Erin Brockovich" (2000). Her stellar work under the direction of Stephen Soderbergh, earned her just about every accolade in 2001, including the Best Actress Oscar.
After such a heavy project, Roberts returned to comedy, playing the frustrated girlfriend of a low-level, somewhat bumbling gangster (Brad Pitt) in the "The Mexican" (2001). Although she and Pitt were not on screen together for very long, the pair shared a nice easy chemistry – but the actress had better rapport with James Gandolfini, as the hitman who kidnaps her as insurance. Despite fielding many offers and after already playing a movie star on screen, Roberts opted this time to play the personal assistant to the movie star (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in the disastrous, critically reviled comedy, "America's Sweethearts" (2001). To recover from that disaster, Roberts re-teamed with Soderbergh for a small role in his remake of "Ocean's Eleven" (2001). Playing Tess Ocean, George Clooney's perpetually disappointed wife, Roberts did her best to keep up with the hunky boys, including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Andy Garcia. Robert's next project was also with Soderbergh, in the non-narrative sequel to his 1989 film "Sex, Lies and Videotape" – "Full Frontal" (2002). Roberts' character, wearing an extremely unattractive hairdo, was shockingly uninteresting and unimportant to the story, such as it was. Worse was her limp turn in new buddy George Clooney's directorial debut, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (2002), the supposed life story of game show producer/host-turned-government agent Chuck Barris, in which she played a spy femme fatale in a performance so purposefully arch as to defy belief.
Roberts fared better in her next project, the harmless "Mona Lisa Smile" (2003), playing Katherine Watson, a liberal-minded educator who takes a feminist position at Wellesley in the 1950s and quickly comes under fire for teaching her female students to aspire to something other than marriage and kids. While the film's premise and storyline – a female spin on the familiar "Dead Poets' Society" model – was predictable, Roberts' delivered a mature and engaging performance that, in ways different from her previous efforts, had audiences once again rooting for her.
Just as Roberts began filming the anticipated sequel "Ocean's Twelve" (2004), the actress, who was by then onto her second marriage to cameraman Danny Moder, announced to the world that she was pregnant with twins. Perhaps due to the impending birth, Roberts appeared to be having more fun than in the first "Oceans," gamely playing off of her pregnancy and – in a harder-to-swallow plot spin – her character's uncanny resemblance to movie star Julia Roberts. Just prior to the release of that film, Roberts made international headlines when she gave birth to a boy and a girl, Phinnaeus and Hazel, in November, 2004. Hot on the heels of that arrival was the debut of the Mike Nichols-directed drama "Closer" (2004), in which she played an American photographer in London caught up in the heated, sometimes erotic, often cruel love/sex gender war amid two shifting sets of couples (Jude Law and Natalie Portman; Roberts and Clive Owen). The highly literate film received excellent reviews and brought Roberts' her best notice since "Erin Brockovich."
After taking time off to enjoy her twins and family time on her Taos, NM ranch, Roberts returned to work – this time, surprising many by accepting a role on Broadway. In April of 2006, Roberts headlined the Richard Greenberg drama, "Three Days of Rain," co-starring Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper. Although her reviews were lukewarm, the play sold out its 12-week run, proving Roberts' appeal extended beyond the big screen and various magazine covers.
Family
brother:Eric Roberts (Born April 18, 1956; older; stayed with father in Atlanta after parents' divorce; estranged from sisters)
daughter:Hazel Patricia Moder (Born Nov. 28, 2004; twin of Phinnaeus Walter; father, Daniel Moder)
father:Walter Roberts (Born in February 1930; wed Betty Motes in 1955 after touring military bases in a production of "George Washington Slept Here", directed by Ron Howard's father, Rance; co-founded Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop with wife in 1963; divorced from Roberts' mother in 1971; died of cancer in March 1977)
half-sister:Nancy Motes (Born c. 1976)
husband:Danny Moder (Met on the set of "The Mexican" in 2000 and they began an affair; Moder was married to Vera Steinberg Moder when their relationship began in summer 2001; he filed for divorce in October 2001; Roberts and Moder married July 4, 2002 in Taos, New Mexico; father of Roberts's three children)
husband:Lyle Lovett (Born on Nov. 1, 1957; introduced by Susan Sarandon during filming of "The Player" (1992); married on June 27, 1993 in Marion, Indiana; divorced in March 1995)
mother:Betty Motes (Divorced from Roberts' father in 1971)
niece:Emma Roberts (Daughter of actor Eric Roberts and Kelly Cunningham; played the lead in the series "Unfabulous" (Nickelodeon); known for her roles in the films "Aquamarine" (2006) and "Nancy Drew" (2007))
sister:Lisa Roberts (Born c. 1965; moved with her sister and mother to Smyrna, Georgia after her parents' divorce)
son:Phinnaeus Walter Moder (Born Nov. 28, 2004; twin of Hazel Patricia; father, Daniel Moder)
son:Henry Daniel Moder (Born June 18, 2007; father, Daniel Moder)
Companion(s)
Benjamin Bratt , Companion , ```..Born in 1963; began dating in November 1997; she made guest appearance on "Law & Order" in 1999; separated in spring 2001
Daniel Day-Lewis , Companion , ```..Together c. 1994-95
Dylan McDermott , Companion , ```..Briefly engaged; played her husband in "Steel Magnolias" (1989)
Jason Patric , Companion , ```..Involved right after her break-up with Sutherland in 1991
Kiefer Sutherland , Companion , ```..Met during the filming of "Flatliners" (1990); became engaged; their scheduled marriage on June 14, 1991 did not take place
Liam Neeson , Companion , ```..Co-starred in "Satisfaction" (1988); lived together in Venice, California
Matthew Perry , Companion , ```..Met while filming episode of "Friends" in 1995; briefly dated
Pat Mannochia , Companion , ```..Former hockey player; together c. 1995 to 1996
Ross Partridge , Companion , ```..Born c. 1967; dated in late 1996
BAFTA Award Best Actress "Erin Brockovich" 2001
MTV Movie Award Best Female Performance "Erin Brockovich" 2001
Screen Actors Guild Award Best Actress "Erin Brockovich" 2001
Academy Award Best Actress "Erin Brockovich" 2000
London Film Critics' Circle Award Best Actress "Erin Brockovich" 2000
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Hello Hello
Some stories are interesting to read. They may be bestsellers, no arguments on that. But cinema is a different medium altogether and not all stories are cut out for cinematic adaptations. That's the problem with Hello.
Wait, there's one more hiccup. The screenplay, credited to Atul Agnihotri and Chetan Bhagat, lacks the power to hold your attention from start to end, barring a few stray moments in the second hour.
Based on Chetan Bhagat's book 'One Night @ The Call Centre', Hello makes an attempt to peep into the lives of those working at call centres, but things are presented in such an amateurish manner that it fails to cut ice.
Perhaps director Atul Agnihotri wanted his second directorial venture to be a complete departure from stereotypical movies, but, believe it or not, there's hardly any story to tell in the first hour. Defining character sketches of the principal players should constitute maximum 15 odd minutes of the film. You don't devote your entire first hour to it.
Post interval, there's some movement in the story, but not enough to take the film to a different level. Even the culmination is so filmy. Suddenly, everything seems to be going right for the call centre personnel. It's a screenplay of convenience.
Hello talks of the events that happen in one night at a call centre. Shyam (Sharman Joshi) is losing his girlfriend because his career is going nowhere as he trudges his way around in a call centre. His girlfriend, Priyanka (Gul Panag), also works at the call centre, but her mother (Bharti Achrekar) wants her married to a wealthy NRI.
An aspiring model, Esha (Isha Koppikar), is hoping for the break that seems to be eluding her... Varun aka Vroom (Sohail Khan) loves Esha, but she's more focused on her career!
Radhika (Amrita Arora) is constantly at the receiving end of her mother-in-law. Even her husband (Arbaaz Khan) is having an affair... A beleaguered grandfather, Military Uncle (Sharat Saxena), has been barred from interacting with his grandchild!
The screenplay tends to get so amateurish at times that you actually want to ask the writers, Hello, do you know the basics of screenplay development? Also, the call centre personnel look more like a bunch of college kids, while the Americans, calling up call centre executives to sort out their problems, come across as nincompoops.
Saddled with a poor screenplay, there's not much that director Atul Agnihotri can do to salvage the show. Sajid-Wajid's music is pleasant. The Salman song at the very outset, 'Bang Bang', and 'Karle Baby Dance Dance' are energetic. Sanjay F. Gupta's cinematography is alright!
Salman Khan looks haggard, as if he has been woken up from his sleep. The eye bags and double chin are too evident.
Besides, the actor has been given main prominence in posters/billboards, but the fact remains that he's hardly there for a song and scene at the start, a brief scene at the interval and a scene and promotional video at the end. Katrina Kaif looks angelic, but even she has a 5-10 minute role.
More celebs HOT
Wait, there's one more hiccup. The screenplay, credited to Atul Agnihotri and Chetan Bhagat, lacks the power to hold your attention from start to end, barring a few stray moments in the second hour.
Based on Chetan Bhagat's book 'One Night @ The Call Centre', Hello makes an attempt to peep into the lives of those working at call centres, but things are presented in such an amateurish manner that it fails to cut ice.
Perhaps director Atul Agnihotri wanted his second directorial venture to be a complete departure from stereotypical movies, but, believe it or not, there's hardly any story to tell in the first hour. Defining character sketches of the principal players should constitute maximum 15 odd minutes of the film. You don't devote your entire first hour to it.
Post interval, there's some movement in the story, but not enough to take the film to a different level. Even the culmination is so filmy. Suddenly, everything seems to be going right for the call centre personnel. It's a screenplay of convenience.
Hello talks of the events that happen in one night at a call centre. Shyam (Sharman Joshi) is losing his girlfriend because his career is going nowhere as he trudges his way around in a call centre. His girlfriend, Priyanka (Gul Panag), also works at the call centre, but her mother (Bharti Achrekar) wants her married to a wealthy NRI.
An aspiring model, Esha (Isha Koppikar), is hoping for the break that seems to be eluding her... Varun aka Vroom (Sohail Khan) loves Esha, but she's more focused on her career!
Radhika (Amrita Arora) is constantly at the receiving end of her mother-in-law. Even her husband (Arbaaz Khan) is having an affair... A beleaguered grandfather, Military Uncle (Sharat Saxena), has been barred from interacting with his grandchild!
The screenplay tends to get so amateurish at times that you actually want to ask the writers, Hello, do you know the basics of screenplay development? Also, the call centre personnel look more like a bunch of college kids, while the Americans, calling up call centre executives to sort out their problems, come across as nincompoops.
Saddled with a poor screenplay, there's not much that director Atul Agnihotri can do to salvage the show. Sajid-Wajid's music is pleasant. The Salman song at the very outset, 'Bang Bang', and 'Karle Baby Dance Dance' are energetic. Sanjay F. Gupta's cinematography is alright!
Salman Khan looks haggard, as if he has been woken up from his sleep. The eye bags and double chin are too evident.
Besides, the actor has been given main prominence in posters/billboards, but the fact remains that he's hardly there for a song and scene at the start, a brief scene at the interval and a scene and promotional video at the end. Katrina Kaif looks angelic, but even she has a 5-10 minute role.
More celebs HOT
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Miley Cyrus
Full Biography
On the Disney Channel series “Hannah Montana” (2006- ), Miley Cyrus played a perky, charming middle-school student who just happened to lead a double life as the pop queen Hannah Montana, disguising her true identity by means of a wig. While the premise was the definition of hokey TV fabrications, it was actually not too far removed from Cyrus’ own life. The decidedly normal young girl from Nashville, TN, also happened to be the daughter of ‘90s country chart-topper-turned-actor Billy Ray Cyrus, and began launching her own singing career in addition to fronting “Hannah Montana.”
Born Nov. 23, 1992, Cyrus was the middle child of six, earning the name “Miley” due to her sunny outlook and beaming grin while still a baby. Dad Billy Ray dubbed her “Smiley,” which was later shortened to “Miley” (Cyrus’ birth name was Destiny Hope). Cyrus got an early taste of performing, thanks to her dad’s juggernaut music career, culminating in his best-selling (but since that time, much maligned) single, “My Achy-breaky heart.” As a toddler, she frequently appeared onstage at his concerts to perform a song or two with him. When the elder Cyrus moved into acting, his daughter caught the bug and wrangled a few appearances on his TV series “Doc” (PAX, 2001-04). This led to a small role in Tim Burton’s fantasy feature “Big Fish,” (2003) for which she was billed as Destiny Cyrus.
Bolstered by these appearances, Cyrus began pursuing an acting career in earnest, and at age 11, caught the eye of Disney Channel producers (including Michael Poryes, co-creator of the network’s biggest then hit, “That’s So Raven”) when they began casting for “Hannah Montana.” Concerns over her age and height (Cyrus is 5’ 4”) were dismissed once they saw her way with both a line and a song (Cyrus had a surprisingly mature voice for her age), and by the time she turned 13, the multi-talented girl was starring in her own Disney Channel series. Making it a true family affair, Dad Billy Ray joined her on the show to play her father-manager and dole out countrified advice (and to lend the exceptionally manic series a moment or two of quiet).
“Hannah Montana” debuted on The Disney Channel on March 26, 2004 to record ratings, solidifying the show as the network’s newest hit. The inevitable tie-in products soon followed – a soundtrack CD, with five songs crooned by Cyrus, including the title theme, “Best of Both Worlds,” which cracked the Billboard Top 100 singles charts; “Hannah”-related DVDs; video games; and other ephemera were snapped up to the delight of the young fans. Cyrus also contributed a version of “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” to the fourth volume of the phenomenally popular Disney Mania CD series in April of 2006 (she could also be heard on her father’s 2006 release, “Wanna Be Your Joe”). In June of that year, she performed as Hannah Montana live concert as Hannah Montana at Disney World, as well as signed a four-album deal with Disney’s Hollywood Records.
After an extremely lucrative and higher-profile 2007; one in which her "Hannah Montana" tour sold out astronomically – with parents desperate to appease their children by paying unreasonably high prices on E-bay or through scalpers. It was, simply, the tour of the year, dollar and hype-wise. However, the same week Cyrus graced the cover of People magazine in April of 2008, and only two weeks after performing two fan-friendly numbers on Fox's "American Idol Gives Back" charity special, Cyrus posed for a spread in Vanity Fair shot by legendary photographer, Annie Liebovitz, which erupted into a firestorm of controversy after the pictures were leaked onto the Internet. Posing semi-topless, with only a white sheet held in front, the backless photos of Disney's 15-year-old cash cow erupted into a mainstream media topic – the question of whether children, particularly young girls, were growing up too fast; too sexual, and whether the many outraged mothers who took to blogs or TV talk shows, were justified in their anger. Cyrus, herself, immediately issued an apology, proclaiming the shots were supposed to be "artistic," and that she never meant to offend the millions of tweens who looked up to her.
Profession(s):
actress, singer, musician
Sometimes Credited As:
Destiny Hope Cyrus
Hannah Montana
Miley Ray Cyrus
Family
brother:Braison Cyrus (Born c. 1994; mother, Leticia “Tish” Cyrus)
father:Billy Ray Cyrus (Born in 1961; best known for the 1992 hit single “Achy Breaky Heart”; co-starred in the Disney Channel series, "Hannah Montana" starring his daughter Miley Cyrus)
godmother:Dolly Parton (Appeared in an episode of “Hannah Montana”)
half-brother:Christopher Cody Cyrus (Born c. 1992; Billy's son from a previous relationship)
half-brother:Trace Cyrus (Born c. 1989; from mother’s previous relationship with Baxter Neal Helson; legally adopted by Billy Ray Cyrus)
half-sister:Brandi Cyrus (Born c. 1987; from mother’s previous relationship; legally adopted by Billy Ray Cyrus; guitarist in Miley’s band)
mother:Leticia Cyrus (Born c. 1967; AKA Tish; Miley’s manager; married Miley’s father Dec. 28, 1992)
sister:Noah Cyrus (Born c. 2000; mother, Leticia “Tish” Cyrus)
Companion(s)
Nicholas Jonas , Companion , ```..Born c. 1992; member of the rock trio The Jonas Brothers
Education
Heritage Middle School Franklin, TN
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Thursday, October 2, 2008
Paul Newman
Full Biography
An iconic figure in Hollywood history, Paul Newman was an Academy Award-winning actor, director, and noted philanthropist who helped define the male lead in motion pictures from the mid-1950s through the 21st century. A background in Method acting helped to deliver his enormous personal charm, intelligence and strength of character to a wide variety of roles – from underdog boxer Rocky Graziano in “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1955) and the damaged Brick in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), to roguish anti-heroes in “Harper” (1966), “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969). He continued to command audiences and critics in his sixth and seventh decade in films like “The Color of Money” (1986), which earned him an Oscar; “Nobody’s Fool” (1994); and “The Road to Perdition” (2004), while off-screen, he set the standard for celebrity-driven charities with his Newman’s Own brand of foods, which brought $200 million to causes, and the Hole in the Wall Gang camp for seriously ill children.
Born Paul Leonard Newman in the Shaker Heights suburb of Cleveland, OH, on Jan. 26, 1925, he was the son of an affluent Jewish family who owned a sporting goods store. His interest in acting bloomed at an early age, thanks to his mother and uncle. He made his debut in a school production of “Robin Hood” at the age of seven. He graduated from high school in 1943 and spent three years at Ohio University, but was expelled before serving in the Navy during World War II as a radio operator. He returned to civilian life and earned his degree from Kenyon College in Ohio, with his intention being to study economics, but drama exhibited a stronger pull. In 1949, he married Jackie Witte, with whom he had three children – son Scott and daughters Stephanie and Susan. A brief return to Shaker Heights to run his family’s store after his father’s death in 1950 lend to feelings of discontentment, so he packed up his wife and children and relocated to New Haven, CT, where he enrolled in the Yale Drama School. Agents caught wind of his talent at a production there, and invited him to join the teeming throngs of actors seeking work in New York City.
Supporting roles in live television and plays followed, which eventually led to his Broadway debut in William Inge’s “Picnic” in 1953. While there, he also continued his studies at the acclaimed Actor’s Studio, making the acquaintance of another up-and-coming actor, Joanne Woodward, who was serving as an understudy on “Picnic.” Based on the strength of his performance in the Inge play, he was offered a contract with Warner Bros. and a starring role in a historical epic called “The Silver Chalice” (1955). The picture was critically dismissed. Newman considered it such a personal embarrassment that he later took out a full page ad in the Hollywood trades apologizing for his participation. During this period, he also auditioned opposite James Dean for the film “East of Eden” (1955), but the part went to Richard Davalos.
He returned to the stage in “The Desperate Hours,” but earned a reprieve from the movies via “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1956) – an affecting biopic about fighter Rocky Graziano’s tenacious life and career from director Robert Wise. The film and Newman garnered praise from the press, leading him to launch into a string of commercially and critically successful pictures that highlighted his expansive range of talent. First, in Arthur Penn’s revisionist Western “The Left-Handed Gun” (1958), he was a imbecilic and murderous Billy the Kid, while he held his own as Tennessee Williams’s fallen football hero Brick opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Burl Ives in a somewhat truncated version of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), which earned him his first Academy Award nomination and the admiration of female fans the world over.
In 1958, while shooting “The Long Hot Summer” (1958) – which earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival – in Louisiana, he became re-acquainted with Joanne Woodward, who was the film’s female lead. The two soon fell in love, and after divorcing Jackie, Newman and Woodward were married in Las Vegas in 1958. The couple appeared in numerous films together and had three daughters, which they raised far from Hollywood in the affluent neighborhood of Westport, CT. Newman’s film career continued to burn white-hot throughout the early 1960s – he first landed on Quigley Publications’ list of top grossing stars in 1963 and would appear there 13 more times until 1986. His cheeky charm, good looks and magnetism made him a casting agent’s first choice for flawed heroes in films like “Paris Blues” (1961); “The Hustler” (1961), as pool shark Fast Eddie Felson; “Sweet Bird of Youth” (1962), after Newman had starred in the original Broadway run in 1960; and “Hud” (1963). The latter picture and “The Hustler” earned him two more Academy Award nominations and enduring status as an icon of cool among young acting aspirants and film buffs for decades to follow.
Newman’s star power carried him into the mid- and late 1960s with ease. He worked with Alfred Hitchcock on the thriller “Torn Curtain” (1966) and played some of his most memorable roles – including the detective Lew Archer, who was renamed for “Harper” (1966); an unbreakable Southern convict in “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), which brought him another Oscar nomination; and a charming version of the Western outlaw Butch Cassidy in the box office blockbuster “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), opposite his good friend Robert Redford. Newman also made his debut as a director in 1968 with “Rachel, Rachel,” starring Woodward. Both his lead and the film earned Oscar nods, but his directorial effort only yielded a Golden Globe. Newman’s political activism also came to the forefront during the late sixties, through tireless campaigning for Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential campaign. His association with McCarthy led to his being named on future President Richard Nixon’s infamous “Opponents List;” Newman, who ranked #19 out of 20, later commented that his inclusion was among the proudest achievements of his career.
Newman’s superstar status – he was the top-ranking box office star in 1969 and 1970 – allowed him to experiment with film roles during the 1970s, which led to quirky choices like “WUSA” (1970), “Sometimes a Great Notion” (1971), “Pocket Money” (1972), and “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” (1972) – all of which he also produced through First Artists, a company he established with fellow stars Sidney Poitier and Barbra Streisand. Newman also served as producer on the quirky drama “They Might Be Giants” (1969) starring his wife, Woodward, and directed her and their daughter Elinor in the 1972 film version of “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.” He also developed a passion for auto racing after training with professionals for the 1969 drama “Winning.” By 1972, he was racing professionally and completed Le Mans’ 24-hour competition in 1979. The love of the racetrack would never leave him.
The 1970s also yielded two of Newman’s biggest hits – “The Sting” (1973), which reunited him with Redford, and “The Towering Inferno” (1974), which paired him with Steve McQueen for the first and only time. Newman also starred in the outrageous cult hit “Slap Shot” (1976) as an aging hockey star who coaches a farm team of misfits, and made two films with Robert Altman – “Buffalo Bill and the Indians” (1976) and the bizarre apocalyptic drama “Quintet” (1979) – neither of which boosted the director’s fading career.
In 1978, Newman lost his son Scott to drug addiction. Due to his tragic lose, he curtailed his film career for much of the late ‘70s, establishing the Scott Newman Center for Drug Abuse Prevention, while joining Woodward in passionate anti-drug campaigning. But by the early 1980s, Newman returned to filmmaking in several well-chosen projects that showcased his matured but undiminished skills. He was a beat cop caught between street violence and corrupt fellow officers in the violent “Fort Apache The Bronx” (1981); the son of a deceased crime figure who finds himself the focus of a dogged journalist’s investigation in Sydney Pollack’s “Absence of Malice” (1981); and a down-and-out lawyer who earns a chance at redemption in Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict,” which brought another Academy Award nomination. The Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Hollywood Foreign Press followed in 1984.
With the help of writer A.E. Hotchner, in 1982, he launched Newman’s Own, a line of food products that donated all proceeds after taxes to charity. The brand bloomed largely with its first release – salad dressing – and eventually included everything from salsa and lemonade to popcorn. Four years later, he established the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang Camp –named after Butch and Sundance’s gang in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” – in his home state of Connecticut. The camp, which served as a year-round retreat and center for seriously ill children, operated entirely on outsider contributions and Newman’s own tireless campaigning. Less philanthropic but no less dear to the actor’s heart was the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing auto team, which he co-founded in 1983. For his charitable efforts, Newman was awarded the Jean Hersholt Award in 1994.
In 1986, Newman won a special Oscar for his numerous “compelling screen performances.” That same year, he returned to one of his most famous roles – Fast Eddie Felson from “The Hustler” – in a sequel by Martin Scorsese called “The Color of Money.” Newman’s performance all but eclipsed up-and-comer Tom Cruise, leading him to collect his second Oscar in 1987. A brief return to regular film appearances followed, including turns in the atomic war drama “Fat Man and Little Boy” (1989), as colorful Southern governor Earl Long in “Blaze” (1989), and a pairing with Woodward as the heads of a conservative family in “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge” (1990) for James Ivory and Ismail Merchant.
Newman announced that he would retire from acting in 1995, though that statement proved short-lived. His gruff humor enjoyed a fine spotlight in the Coen Brothers’ quirky ‘50s-era comedy “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994), and he earned another Oscar nomination as a likable if flawed small town handyman who gets a chance to rebuild a relationship with his son in “Nobody’s Fool” (1995). “Twilight” (1998) surrounded Newman with such stellar peers as Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, and James Garner, in a mystery-drama about infidelity and aging, while he provided much needed-gravity to the frothy romance “Message in a Bottle” (1999) and showed he had lost none of his sex appeal opposite Linda Fiorentino in the quirky comedy caper, “Where the Money Is” (2000). Two years later, he earned his first Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor as an Irish crime boss in “The Road to Perdition” (2002). Newman also became the oldest driver on a winning team when he participated in the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race in 1995.
In 2002, Newman returned to the stage after a 35-year absence to play the stage manager in a production of “Our Town” for the Westport Players (Woodward was the troupe’s artistic director). The show quickly transferred to Broadway, with Newman earning a Tony for his performance, as well as an Emmy for the 2003 broadcast of the show on PBS. Two years later, he took home the trophy – as well as a Golden Globe – for his turn as the cantankerous ne’er-do-well father of Ed Harris in the acclaimed HBO miniseries “Empire Falls” (2005). And he lent his gravely tones to the Pixar-animated feature “Cars” (2006), as Doc Hudson, the former racing champ who helps train Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), as well as the documentary “Dale” (2007), about the late racing champion Dale Earnhardt.
In 2007, Newman announced that he was retiring in May of that year, citing that he felt he was no longer able to perform at a level that pleased him. However, his charitable work continued unabated that year, with the actor donating $10 million to his alma mater, Kenyon College. It was later revealed that throughout 2005 and 2006, Newman quietly divested himself of his entire ownership in Newman’s Own, donating the money to his foundation, which totaled a whopping $120 million. Meanwhile, Newman expanded on his retirement when he stepped down as director of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” for the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, CT, citing unspecified health issues.
Profession(s):
Actor, producer, director, screenwriter, professional race car driver, food company executive
Sometimes Credited As:
Paul Leonard Newman
Family
brother:Arthur S Newman Jr (Production manager on "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) and "Winning" (1969); associate producer of "Rachel, Rachel" (1968))
daughter:Claire Olivia Newman (Born in 1965; mother, Joanne Woodward)
daughter:Elinor Teresa Newman (Born April 8, 1959; mother, Joanne Woodward; founded and runs Newman's Own Organics in 1993)
daughter:Melissa Steward Newman (Born in 1961; mother, Joanne Woodward)
daughter:Stephanie Newman (Born in 1954; mother, Jacqueline Witte)
daughter:Susan Newman (Born in 1953; mother, Jacqueline Witte; produced her father's telefilm "The Shadow Box" (1980))
father:Arthur S Newman (Jewish of German descent; ran a profitable sports goods store; died May 11, 1950 at age of 56)
mother:Theresa Newman (Catholic of Hungarian descent; converted to Christian Science; worked in her husbands shop)
son:Scott Newman (Born in 1950; mother, Jacqueline Witte; appeared in such films as "The Towering Inferno" (1974) and "Fraternity Row" (1977); died Nov. 11, 1978 from an accidental drug overdose at age 28; Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son)
wife:Jacqueline Witte (Married from 1949 to 1958; mother of son, Scott and daughters, Susan and Stephanie)
wife:Joanne Woodward (Met during the Broadway run of "Picnic" (c. 1953); Newman was starring in the play, Woodward was an understudy; married Jan. 28, 1958; Starred in many films together, such as "The Long, Hot Summer" (1958), "Winning" (1969) and "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge" (1990); Newman also dircted her in "Rachel, Rachel" (1968); together they have three daughters, Elinor Teresa, Melissa Steward and Claire "Clea" Olivia)
Education
Ohio University Athens, OH
Shaker Heights High School Shaker Heights, OH 1943
Kenyon College Gambier, OH BA economics 1949
Yale University New Haven, CT 1951
Actors' Studio New York, NY 1953
Awards
Golden Globe Award Best Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television "Empire Falls" 2006 Golden Globe Award Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made fo "Empire Falls" 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries "Empire Falls" 2006 Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie "Empire Falls" 2005 Berlin International Film Festival Award Best Actor "Nobody's Fool" 1995 National Society of Film Critics Award Best Actor "Nobody's Fool" 1995 New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Actor "Nobody's Fool" 1994 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award 1993 Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement 1992 Academy Award Best Actor in a Leading Role "The Color of Money" 1987 Honorary Academy Award 1986 National Board of Review Award Best Actor "The Color of Money" 1986 Screen Actors Guild Award Life Achievement 1986 Cecil B. DeMille Award Career Achievement 1984 Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture Director "Rachel, Rachel" 1969 New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Director "Rachel, Rachel" 1968 Producers Guild of America Award Producer of the Year in Theatrical Motion Pictures "Rachel, Rachel" 1968 Golden Globe Award World Film Favorite (Male) 1966 Golden Globe Award World Film Favorite (Male) 1964 BAFTA Film Award Best Foreign Actor "The Hustler" 1962 Cannes Film Festival Award Best Actor "The Long, Hot Summer" 1958 Golden Globe Award Most Promising Newcomer (Male) 1957 Theatre World Award 1953
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An iconic figure in Hollywood history, Paul Newman was an Academy Award-winning actor, director, and noted philanthropist who helped define the male lead in motion pictures from the mid-1950s through the 21st century. A background in Method acting helped to deliver his enormous personal charm, intelligence and strength of character to a wide variety of roles – from underdog boxer Rocky Graziano in “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1955) and the damaged Brick in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), to roguish anti-heroes in “Harper” (1966), “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969). He continued to command audiences and critics in his sixth and seventh decade in films like “The Color of Money” (1986), which earned him an Oscar; “Nobody’s Fool” (1994); and “The Road to Perdition” (2004), while off-screen, he set the standard for celebrity-driven charities with his Newman’s Own brand of foods, which brought $200 million to causes, and the Hole in the Wall Gang camp for seriously ill children.
Born Paul Leonard Newman in the Shaker Heights suburb of Cleveland, OH, on Jan. 26, 1925, he was the son of an affluent Jewish family who owned a sporting goods store. His interest in acting bloomed at an early age, thanks to his mother and uncle. He made his debut in a school production of “Robin Hood” at the age of seven. He graduated from high school in 1943 and spent three years at Ohio University, but was expelled before serving in the Navy during World War II as a radio operator. He returned to civilian life and earned his degree from Kenyon College in Ohio, with his intention being to study economics, but drama exhibited a stronger pull. In 1949, he married Jackie Witte, with whom he had three children – son Scott and daughters Stephanie and Susan. A brief return to Shaker Heights to run his family’s store after his father’s death in 1950 lend to feelings of discontentment, so he packed up his wife and children and relocated to New Haven, CT, where he enrolled in the Yale Drama School. Agents caught wind of his talent at a production there, and invited him to join the teeming throngs of actors seeking work in New York City.
Supporting roles in live television and plays followed, which eventually led to his Broadway debut in William Inge’s “Picnic” in 1953. While there, he also continued his studies at the acclaimed Actor’s Studio, making the acquaintance of another up-and-coming actor, Joanne Woodward, who was serving as an understudy on “Picnic.” Based on the strength of his performance in the Inge play, he was offered a contract with Warner Bros. and a starring role in a historical epic called “The Silver Chalice” (1955). The picture was critically dismissed. Newman considered it such a personal embarrassment that he later took out a full page ad in the Hollywood trades apologizing for his participation. During this period, he also auditioned opposite James Dean for the film “East of Eden” (1955), but the part went to Richard Davalos.
He returned to the stage in “The Desperate Hours,” but earned a reprieve from the movies via “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1956) – an affecting biopic about fighter Rocky Graziano’s tenacious life and career from director Robert Wise. The film and Newman garnered praise from the press, leading him to launch into a string of commercially and critically successful pictures that highlighted his expansive range of talent. First, in Arthur Penn’s revisionist Western “The Left-Handed Gun” (1958), he was a imbecilic and murderous Billy the Kid, while he held his own as Tennessee Williams’s fallen football hero Brick opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Burl Ives in a somewhat truncated version of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), which earned him his first Academy Award nomination and the admiration of female fans the world over.
In 1958, while shooting “The Long Hot Summer” (1958) – which earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival – in Louisiana, he became re-acquainted with Joanne Woodward, who was the film’s female lead. The two soon fell in love, and after divorcing Jackie, Newman and Woodward were married in Las Vegas in 1958. The couple appeared in numerous films together and had three daughters, which they raised far from Hollywood in the affluent neighborhood of Westport, CT. Newman’s film career continued to burn white-hot throughout the early 1960s – he first landed on Quigley Publications’ list of top grossing stars in 1963 and would appear there 13 more times until 1986. His cheeky charm, good looks and magnetism made him a casting agent’s first choice for flawed heroes in films like “Paris Blues” (1961); “The Hustler” (1961), as pool shark Fast Eddie Felson; “Sweet Bird of Youth” (1962), after Newman had starred in the original Broadway run in 1960; and “Hud” (1963). The latter picture and “The Hustler” earned him two more Academy Award nominations and enduring status as an icon of cool among young acting aspirants and film buffs for decades to follow.
Newman’s star power carried him into the mid- and late 1960s with ease. He worked with Alfred Hitchcock on the thriller “Torn Curtain” (1966) and played some of his most memorable roles – including the detective Lew Archer, who was renamed for “Harper” (1966); an unbreakable Southern convict in “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), which brought him another Oscar nomination; and a charming version of the Western outlaw Butch Cassidy in the box office blockbuster “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), opposite his good friend Robert Redford. Newman also made his debut as a director in 1968 with “Rachel, Rachel,” starring Woodward. Both his lead and the film earned Oscar nods, but his directorial effort only yielded a Golden Globe. Newman’s political activism also came to the forefront during the late sixties, through tireless campaigning for Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential campaign. His association with McCarthy led to his being named on future President Richard Nixon’s infamous “Opponents List;” Newman, who ranked #19 out of 20, later commented that his inclusion was among the proudest achievements of his career.
Newman’s superstar status – he was the top-ranking box office star in 1969 and 1970 – allowed him to experiment with film roles during the 1970s, which led to quirky choices like “WUSA” (1970), “Sometimes a Great Notion” (1971), “Pocket Money” (1972), and “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” (1972) – all of which he also produced through First Artists, a company he established with fellow stars Sidney Poitier and Barbra Streisand. Newman also served as producer on the quirky drama “They Might Be Giants” (1969) starring his wife, Woodward, and directed her and their daughter Elinor in the 1972 film version of “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.” He also developed a passion for auto racing after training with professionals for the 1969 drama “Winning.” By 1972, he was racing professionally and completed Le Mans’ 24-hour competition in 1979. The love of the racetrack would never leave him.
The 1970s also yielded two of Newman’s biggest hits – “The Sting” (1973), which reunited him with Redford, and “The Towering Inferno” (1974), which paired him with Steve McQueen for the first and only time. Newman also starred in the outrageous cult hit “Slap Shot” (1976) as an aging hockey star who coaches a farm team of misfits, and made two films with Robert Altman – “Buffalo Bill and the Indians” (1976) and the bizarre apocalyptic drama “Quintet” (1979) – neither of which boosted the director’s fading career.
In 1978, Newman lost his son Scott to drug addiction. Due to his tragic lose, he curtailed his film career for much of the late ‘70s, establishing the Scott Newman Center for Drug Abuse Prevention, while joining Woodward in passionate anti-drug campaigning. But by the early 1980s, Newman returned to filmmaking in several well-chosen projects that showcased his matured but undiminished skills. He was a beat cop caught between street violence and corrupt fellow officers in the violent “Fort Apache The Bronx” (1981); the son of a deceased crime figure who finds himself the focus of a dogged journalist’s investigation in Sydney Pollack’s “Absence of Malice” (1981); and a down-and-out lawyer who earns a chance at redemption in Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict,” which brought another Academy Award nomination. The Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Hollywood Foreign Press followed in 1984.
With the help of writer A.E. Hotchner, in 1982, he launched Newman’s Own, a line of food products that donated all proceeds after taxes to charity. The brand bloomed largely with its first release – salad dressing – and eventually included everything from salsa and lemonade to popcorn. Four years later, he established the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang Camp –named after Butch and Sundance’s gang in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” – in his home state of Connecticut. The camp, which served as a year-round retreat and center for seriously ill children, operated entirely on outsider contributions and Newman’s own tireless campaigning. Less philanthropic but no less dear to the actor’s heart was the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing auto team, which he co-founded in 1983. For his charitable efforts, Newman was awarded the Jean Hersholt Award in 1994.
In 1986, Newman won a special Oscar for his numerous “compelling screen performances.” That same year, he returned to one of his most famous roles – Fast Eddie Felson from “The Hustler” – in a sequel by Martin Scorsese called “The Color of Money.” Newman’s performance all but eclipsed up-and-comer Tom Cruise, leading him to collect his second Oscar in 1987. A brief return to regular film appearances followed, including turns in the atomic war drama “Fat Man and Little Boy” (1989), as colorful Southern governor Earl Long in “Blaze” (1989), and a pairing with Woodward as the heads of a conservative family in “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge” (1990) for James Ivory and Ismail Merchant.
Newman announced that he would retire from acting in 1995, though that statement proved short-lived. His gruff humor enjoyed a fine spotlight in the Coen Brothers’ quirky ‘50s-era comedy “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994), and he earned another Oscar nomination as a likable if flawed small town handyman who gets a chance to rebuild a relationship with his son in “Nobody’s Fool” (1995). “Twilight” (1998) surrounded Newman with such stellar peers as Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, and James Garner, in a mystery-drama about infidelity and aging, while he provided much needed-gravity to the frothy romance “Message in a Bottle” (1999) and showed he had lost none of his sex appeal opposite Linda Fiorentino in the quirky comedy caper, “Where the Money Is” (2000). Two years later, he earned his first Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor as an Irish crime boss in “The Road to Perdition” (2002). Newman also became the oldest driver on a winning team when he participated in the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race in 1995.
In 2002, Newman returned to the stage after a 35-year absence to play the stage manager in a production of “Our Town” for the Westport Players (Woodward was the troupe’s artistic director). The show quickly transferred to Broadway, with Newman earning a Tony for his performance, as well as an Emmy for the 2003 broadcast of the show on PBS. Two years later, he took home the trophy – as well as a Golden Globe – for his turn as the cantankerous ne’er-do-well father of Ed Harris in the acclaimed HBO miniseries “Empire Falls” (2005). And he lent his gravely tones to the Pixar-animated feature “Cars” (2006), as Doc Hudson, the former racing champ who helps train Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), as well as the documentary “Dale” (2007), about the late racing champion Dale Earnhardt.
In 2007, Newman announced that he was retiring in May of that year, citing that he felt he was no longer able to perform at a level that pleased him. However, his charitable work continued unabated that year, with the actor donating $10 million to his alma mater, Kenyon College. It was later revealed that throughout 2005 and 2006, Newman quietly divested himself of his entire ownership in Newman’s Own, donating the money to his foundation, which totaled a whopping $120 million. Meanwhile, Newman expanded on his retirement when he stepped down as director of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” for the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, CT, citing unspecified health issues.
Profession(s):
Actor, producer, director, screenwriter, professional race car driver, food company executive
Sometimes Credited As:
Paul Leonard Newman
Family
brother:Arthur S Newman Jr (Production manager on "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) and "Winning" (1969); associate producer of "Rachel, Rachel" (1968))
daughter:Claire Olivia Newman (Born in 1965; mother, Joanne Woodward)
daughter:Elinor Teresa Newman (Born April 8, 1959; mother, Joanne Woodward; founded and runs Newman's Own Organics in 1993)
daughter:Melissa Steward Newman (Born in 1961; mother, Joanne Woodward)
daughter:Stephanie Newman (Born in 1954; mother, Jacqueline Witte)
daughter:Susan Newman (Born in 1953; mother, Jacqueline Witte; produced her father's telefilm "The Shadow Box" (1980))
father:Arthur S Newman (Jewish of German descent; ran a profitable sports goods store; died May 11, 1950 at age of 56)
mother:Theresa Newman (Catholic of Hungarian descent; converted to Christian Science; worked in her husbands shop)
son:Scott Newman (Born in 1950; mother, Jacqueline Witte; appeared in such films as "The Towering Inferno" (1974) and "Fraternity Row" (1977); died Nov. 11, 1978 from an accidental drug overdose at age 28; Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son)
wife:Jacqueline Witte (Married from 1949 to 1958; mother of son, Scott and daughters, Susan and Stephanie)
wife:Joanne Woodward (Met during the Broadway run of "Picnic" (c. 1953); Newman was starring in the play, Woodward was an understudy; married Jan. 28, 1958; Starred in many films together, such as "The Long, Hot Summer" (1958), "Winning" (1969) and "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge" (1990); Newman also dircted her in "Rachel, Rachel" (1968); together they have three daughters, Elinor Teresa, Melissa Steward and Claire "Clea" Olivia)
Education
Ohio University Athens, OH
Shaker Heights High School Shaker Heights, OH 1943
Kenyon College Gambier, OH BA economics 1949
Yale University New Haven, CT 1951
Actors' Studio New York, NY 1953
Awards
Golden Globe Award Best Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television "Empire Falls" 2006 Golden Globe Award Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made fo "Empire Falls" 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries "Empire Falls" 2006 Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie "Empire Falls" 2005 Berlin International Film Festival Award Best Actor "Nobody's Fool" 1995 National Society of Film Critics Award Best Actor "Nobody's Fool" 1995 New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Actor "Nobody's Fool" 1994 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award 1993 Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement 1992 Academy Award Best Actor in a Leading Role "The Color of Money" 1987 Honorary Academy Award 1986 National Board of Review Award Best Actor "The Color of Money" 1986 Screen Actors Guild Award Life Achievement 1986 Cecil B. DeMille Award Career Achievement 1984 Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture Director "Rachel, Rachel" 1969 New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Director "Rachel, Rachel" 1968 Producers Guild of America Award Producer of the Year in Theatrical Motion Pictures "Rachel, Rachel" 1968 Golden Globe Award World Film Favorite (Male) 1966 Golden Globe Award World Film Favorite (Male) 1964 BAFTA Film Award Best Foreign Actor "The Hustler" 1962 Cannes Film Festival Award Best Actor "The Long, Hot Summer" 1958 Golden Globe Award Most Promising Newcomer (Male) 1957 Theatre World Award 1953
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