Paul Newman's Acting Career Took An Unexpected Turn That Made Millions

Most famous actors have stories about movies that gave them big paydays or breaks into the industry. For Oscar-winning actor Paul Newman, one of his biggest breaks as an actor came when he made $17,000 for the movie "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in 1958. Although that amount pales in comparison to the seven-figure salaries he received for several movies later in his career, the 1958 film led to his first Oscar nomination and was a springboard to his tremendous success.

Newman, who died in 2008 at age 83 from cancer, was estimated to have an impressive net worth of $80 million at the time of his death. However, even with so much success as an actor, his surprising foray into selling salad dressing in the middle of his acting career generated an incredible amount of money. In the early 1980s, he launched Newman's Own salad dressing, and the company eventually enjoyed significant profits, all of which went to charity. The New Yorker estimates his charitable giving from Newman's Own and other endeavors could have surpassed $500 million.

Despite his commitments at Newman's Own, the actor's career in film continued to flourish. One of his most successful box office movies, "The Color of Money," debuted in 1986. The film generated $52.3 million in box office revenue, ranking 13th among all 1986 movies. Newman won the only Oscar of his career for the movie, clinching the Best Actor award.

Just before Christmas 1980, Paul Newman called a writer friend, A. E. Hotchner, whom he had known for decades. Hotchner had no idea what Newman had in mind, but the two ended up spending the day mixing salad dressing and pouring it in old wine bottles. The two gave the bottles away to family and friends as holiday gifts.

At the time, it may have seemed like an eccentric hobby. "It was ridiculous, but it was fun. We drank beer and mixed up the stuff," Hotchner told Vanity Fair in an interview decades after the launch. Little did they know that their product would become popular enough to start a business venture. By 1982, Newman's Own salad dressing was available in stores with the actor's face on the label. Nobody, including Newman himself, expected the venture to have much success. In a 2013 interview with CBS News MoneyWatch, Newman's Own then-CEO, Bob Forrester, said the actor often called it "the practical joke that got out of hand." The fact that Newman chose to give all the profits to charity also made the venture unusual, especially since he continued to focus on his successful acting career while Newman's Own grew.

Newman's Own products continue to be sold today, and the brand now includes frozen pizza, cookies, pasta sauce, pet food, lemonade, coffee, and more. Although most people focus on grocery shopping strategies that save money, some shoppers stay loyal to Newman's Own brand because of its commitment to charitable giving.

Considering Newman was one of the world's most famous actors in the 1980s, his decision to start selling salad dressing probably caught his fans by surprise. However, Newman was passionate about charitable giving throughout his life. He said in interviews late in his life that he enjoyed the idea of making and selling salad dressing and other food products to benefit children who need help.

A devastating event in Newman's life, which took place just before he launched the company, may have played a role in his commitment to charity. In 1978, Newman's only son, Scott, died at age 28 of an overdose in a hotel room in Los Angeles. In his memoir, which was published after the actor's death, Paul Newman spoke about how he often struggled to forgive himself for the role he felt his famous life played in his son's death.

Newman decided to expand his philanthropic efforts after his son's passing, including opening the Scott Newman Center to provide drug-prevention educational materials. The success of Newman's Own gave him a significant stream of revenue to use for charitable giving. Newman's Own didn't rank among America's biggest donors for charities among corporations in 2025, but its donations, which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars over multiple decades, remain impactful.