Paul Newman Retires from Acting

Paul Newman has decided to bring his 50 year acting career to an end. "I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to" Newman told ABC's "Good Morning America." on Thursday "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."

Newman landed his first acting role way back in 1952 as "Sergeant Wilson" on one episode of the television series "Tales of Tomorrow" Although Tales of Tomorrow was most likely forgotten by most of America, Paul Newman was certainly not. Staring in such films as "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" He quickly made a name for himself in Hollywood. He is one of the few actors who has managed to keep a successful and respected film career from the 1950's till now, making the transition from different generations and remaining popular.

His work has been appreciated for its greatness many times as he has received nine Academy Award nominations, of which he won once for "The Color Of Money" in 1986. He was nominated for five BAFTA awards, one Emmy nomination and one Emmy win for "Empire Falls" and a Golden Globe award for directing. Newman also won the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984.

Beyond acting, Newman became interested in auto racing, and from the mid seventies through the early nineties he raced for the "Bob Sharp Racing Team". He raced mainly Nissan's during his career, and they even named a Skyline model after him, which they dubbed "The Newman" although most of his races and championships were won while driving Nissan's Z-series. He eventually co-founded Newman/Haas Racing with Carl Haas 1983.

Don't count Newman down and out just yet though, he plans to focus more time to his organic restaurant in Westport, the Dressing Room, and his "Hole in the Wall Gang" camps for critically ill children. Newman has already raised over $200 million for charities with his own brand of dressings, lemonades, popcorn, pasta sauces, and salsa.