Actor, director. Born January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio. The youngest child of Theresa and Arthur Newman, who was the owner of a successful sporting goods store, Newman was raised in Cleveland’s affluent suburb of Shaker Heights. As a teenager, he performed in local high school productions and developed an affinity for acting. Newman graduated high school in 1943, and immediately enlisted in the U.S. Navy in hopes of pursuing a career in aviation. While awaiting duty, he briefly attended Ohio University but was expelled for misconduct. His naval application was denied when doctors confirmed that he was color-blind, and subsequently he spent the duration of World War II as a radio operator stationed in the South Pacific. Newman was discharged from the Navy in 1946 and enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he received a B.A. degree in English. Although he excelled in sports, he was thrown off the football team for misbehavior. He chose the college’s drama program as his new extracurricular activity and began acting in a number of student productions. In 1949, he met and married Jackie Witte, with whom he had his first child, Scott. The following year, Newman’s father died, causing Paul to temporarily shelve his acting career. For a year he maintained his father’s prosperous business, but later he abandoned retail to wholeheartedly pursue an acting career. He joined the Woodstock Players company of Chicago and performed in summer stock productions. Newman then moved his family to New Haven, Connecticut, where he enrolled at Yale University's graduate drama program. He spent a year at Yale, after which he headed to New York City. He continued his education by attending the famed New York Actors Studio, studying under Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan. After a brief stint in television, he added Broadway to his resume, appearing in the 1953 production of Picnic. Warner Bros. executives recognized Newman’s strong stage presence and immediately offered the newcomer a film contract. In 1954, he made his feature film debut in the poorly received costume epic The Silver Chalice. Aware of his unpromising screen debut, he took out a full-page ad in Variety urging audiences not to watch the embarrassing film. In 1956, Newman redeemed his career by portraying heavyweight champion Rocky Graziano in the biopic Somebody Up There Likes Me. His performance met with critical acclaim and turned Newman into an overnight sensation.