Life outside the cinema

Personal life

Detached from Hollywood, Newman makes his home in Westport, Connecticut with his wife Joanne Woodward.

He has married twice. His first marriage was to Jackie Witte, and lasted from 1949 to 1958. Together they had a son, Scott, who was born in 1950 and two daughters, Susan Kendall (1953) and Stephanie. Scott died in 1978 from an accidental drug overdose. Scott had appeared in such films as The Towering Inferno as a firefighter, and in the 1977 film Fraternity Row. Newman started the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in memory of his son. Susan is a stage actress and philanthropist. She also produced his telefilm The Shadow Box.

Newman married Joanne Woodward on January 29, 1958. They have three daughters — Elinor Teresa (1959), Melissa Steward (1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (1965). Newman directed his daughter Elinor (stage name Nell Potts) in the central role alongside her mother in the film The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Newman has been married to Woodward now for almost 50 years and when asked why he never committed adultery by Empire magazine he famously replied "Why fool around with hamburgers when you have steak at home?"

For his strong support of Eugene McCarthy in 1968 (and effective use of television commercials in California), Newman was 19th on Richard Nixon's enemies list. He has said that this is one of his life's proudest achievements.
Consistent with his work for liberal causes, Newman publicly supported Ned Lamont's candidacy in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic Primary against Senator Joe Lieberman. He has donated to Chris Dodd's presidential campaign.

Auto racing

He first became interested in the motorsport ("the first thing that I ever found I had any grace in") while training for, and filming, Winning, a 1968 film, despite being color-blind.

Newman's first professional event was in 1972, in Thompson, Connecticut. He ran the 24 hours of Le Mans once in 1979 and finished second in a Porsche 935 of Dick Barbour, mainly due to the driving skills of German team mate Rolf Stommelen.

From the mid seventies to the early nineties, he drove for the Bob Sharp Racing team, racing mainly Nissans. He became heavily associated with the brand during the eighties, even appearing in commercials for them. Although they named a Skyline model after him, calling it the "Newman", he was most closely associated with the Z series, which he used for most of his race victories and championship titles.

At the age of 70, he became the oldest driver to be part of a winning team in a major sanctioned race, the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1995. Newman told an Associated Press journalist in March 2005 that he'll "probably race for another year".

Newman co-founded Newman/Haas Racing with Carl Haas, a Champ Car auto racing team, in 1983. He is also a partner in the Champ Car Atlantics team Newman-Wachs racing. The 1996 racing season was chronicled in the IMAX film Super Speedway, which Newman narrates.

Later in his career, he voiced the Hudson Hornet "Doc Hudson", a former racecar in silent retirement in the little town of Radiator Springs, in the 2006 Disney/Pixar animated release Cars. In 2007 the movie "Dale" about the life of the legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt will be released featuring Paul Newman as the narrator.