Paul Newman fighting cancer, business partner confirms
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 | 1:35 PM ET
CBC News
Actor Paul Newman, shown watching from the pit area during practice for the recent Indianapolis 500 auto race, is battling cancer, his business partner says. (Darron Cummings/Associated Press)Screen legend Paul Newman is battling cancer, writer A.E. Hotchner, the entertainer's business partner and longtime neighbour, has confirmed.
Hotchner, who partnered with the famed actor to start the Newman's Own salad dressing company in the 1980s, said Wednesday that Newman told him about the disease about 18 months ago.
"I know that it's a form of cancer," Hotchner said. "It's a form of cancer and he's dealing with it."
Hotchner added that Newman is "doing all the right stuff. Paul is a fighter. He seems to be going through a good period right now."
Amid a flurry of recent rumours about his declining health, the Hollywood legend and auto racing magnate issued a cryptic statement through a spokesperson late Tuesday.
"Newman says he's doing nicely," the actor's spokesman, Jeff Sanderson, told media outlets.
Backing out of projects
Concern about the Cool Hand Luke star's health ramped up about a year ago, when he revealed in an interview that he was basically retiring because of his advancing age. A year earlier, Newman said he felt he could probably do one more movie.
In May, Connecticut's Westport Country Playhouse — of which Newman's wife, actress Joanne Woodward, is a co-artistic director — announced that he had withdrawn from directing its upcoming production of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Unspecified health issues was the reason given.
Recent photos of Newman in public and at charity events showed the familiar blue-eyed star smiling but looking gaunt. Rumours swirled earlier this week that the 83-year-old is suffering from lung cancer specifically and undergoing outpatient treatment in New York.
Newman's long list of film credits include acclaimed performances in films like The Hustler, Hud, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and the 1986 film The Colour of Money, for which he won his only Oscar.
Outside the film industry, he has dabbled in theatre with Woodward at the Westport Country Playhouse, and given rare appearances on Broadway.
Aside from his namesake line of Newman's Own dressings and other food products (which donates its earnings to charity), Newman has also enjoyed success on the auto-racing circuit.
He has had a long career in auto racing, both in the cockpit and as a co-owner in open-wheel series, most recently Champ Car and, this year, the Indy Racing League.
With files from the Associated Press
