Fearing that such similar films might cancel each other out at the box office, the studios took producer Irwin Allen up on his idea to combine the two scripts, split the costs, and share in the profits. The two studios had purchased almost identical disaster-story properties: Fox had The Glass Inferno, Warner Bros owned The Tower. Such a hefty price tag was manageable because it was a joint production between Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers, the first of its kind for a major film effort like this. The film was the top grosser of the year - a good thing, considering the fact that it cost $14 million or more to make. Everything about the production was larger-than-life, from the astronomical budget, the powerhouse studio effort, the top stars, the fantastical storyline, massive sets, and the booming box office receipts. If there was one common denominator for the 1974 disaster flick The Towering Inferno, it was: BIG. Off-screen, Newman 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. He remained active as an actor in his later years, playing the Stage Manager in Our Town on both stage and television, lending his voice to the animated features Cars (2006) and Mater and the Ghostlight (2006). A producer and director as well as an actor, Newman has directed his wife (and frequent costar) Joanne Woodward through some of her most effective screen performances. He also received an honorary Oscar® in 1986 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1994. Newman's superstar status - he was the top-ranking box office star in 19 - 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.Īfter coming close to winning an Oscar® for Absence of Malice (1981), Newman finally won the award itself for The Color of Money (1986). 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 political activism also came to the forefront during the sixties, through tireless campaigning for Eugene McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign. The 1960s was a fruitful decade for Newman, who starred in such hits as Exodus (1960), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and scored Oscar® nominations for The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963) and Cool Hand Luke (1967). The couple appeared in numerous films together and had three daughters, which they raised far from Hollywood in the affluent neighborhood of Westport, CT. The two soon fell in love, and after divorcing Jackie, Newman and Woodward were married in Las Vegas in 1958. 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. He quickly reinforced his reputation in such vehicles as The Rack (1956) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), for which he won the first of nine Oscar® nominations as an actor. Newman's breakthrough in films came in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), in which he played boxer Rocky Graziano. Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in 1925, Newman studied at the Yale Drama School and New York's Actors Studio before making his Broadway debut in Picnic. Paul Newman, with his electric blue eyes and gutsy willingness to play anti-heroes, established himself as one of the movies' great leading men before settling into his latter-day career of flinty character acting. In Honor of Paul Newman, who died on September 26, TCM will air a tribute to the actor on Sunday, October 12th, replacing the current scheduled programming with the following movies: