Scott Newman (actor)
| Scott Newman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Alan Scott Newman September 23, 1950 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | November 20, 1978 (aged 28) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Barbiturate overdose |
| Occupation | Actor, stuntman |
| Years active | 1973–77 |
| Parent(s) | Paul Newman and Jackie Witte |
Alan Scott Newman (September 23, 1950 – November 20, 1978) was an American film and television actor and stuntman, whose most prominent roles were in The Towering Inferno and Breakheart Pass. He was the only son of Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman. After Scott Newman's death in 1978 from a drug overdose, his father established the Scott Newman Center in his honor, dedicated to preventing drug abuse through education.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Paul Newman and his first wife, Jackie Witte, Scott Newman was a year old when the family moved to New York City.
When Scott was still a young boy with two younger sisters, Susan and Stephanie, his father moved to California to further his career, leaving his family in New York. By 1958, his parents had divorced and his father had married Joanne Woodward, who settled in Westport, Connecticut during the late 1960s, where Scott attended Staples High School briefly. In a later interview, Paul Newman said of his children, "When they were growing up I wasn't there much, and when I was there I was very inconsistent with them. It was hard for them to get a balance." Scott attended expensive private schools but was dismissed from some of them for bad behavior. He came to resent the absence of his father, blaming Woodward and refusing to speak to her.
By the late 1960s, Scott had dropped out of college and started to take jobs as a stuntman in his father's films, making over 500 parachute jumps to become a certified instructor. He also took on menial jobs and refused to ask his father for financial help. In the early 1970s, his father decided to use his influence to try to initiate an acting career for his son, and arranged a part for him in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), starring Robert Redford. At the time, Scott stated, "I'm not taking any acting help from my father. I want my work to stand on its own merit." He had started to drink heavily, and was arrested for minor alcohol-related offences. He also assaulted a police officer, kicking him in the head in a squad car after being arrested for vandalizing a school bus while drunk. Newman's father paid the resulting $1000 fine.
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