Paul Newman Says He's Given Up Acting for Good

Friday, May 25, 2007

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Paul Newman says he's given up acting.

"I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to," Newman, 82, 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, star of films such as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," added: "I've been doing it for 50 years. That's enough."

He has other plates spinning. Newman plans to focus on the Dressing Room, his new organic restaurant in Westport, Conn., and his Hole in the Wall Gang camps for critically ill children.

His Newman's Own brand of dressings, pasta sauces, popcorn and salsa has raised more than $200 million for charities.

Newman, who won an Oscar for his leading role in 1986's "The Color of Money," was last seen -- or heard, rather -- as the voice of Doc Hudson in the 2006 animated feature "Cars."