Cannes IFF, famous for visually impressive posters with strong contents, chose for its 66th edition a photograph featuring Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward, taken during the shooting of M. Shavelson's A New Kind of Love (1963).

Paul Newman's name and face resonate with cinema lovers, not only for his roles in major films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (R. Brooks, 1958), The Hustler (R. Rossen, 1961) or The Color of Money (M. Scorsese, 1986) for which he won an Oscar, but also for his incredible charisma, big heart and philanthropy.

Not everybody, however, is familiar Paul Newman´s Slovak roots. His mother, Terézia Fecková, came from a small village called Ptíčie, close to Humenné in Eastern Slovakia. The actor’s grandmother is buried there and some of his relatives still live in the region. Paul´s grandfather travelled across the Atlantic to work in the "new land". After the early death of her mother, Terézia, as an eight-year-old girl, moved to live with her father in the United States. She stayed in contact with her relatives throughout the years by letters. She strongly encouraged Paul´s early interest in the theater.

“His Slovak relatives 'met' (Newman, through his films) in 1965 for the first time,” Slovak film historian Richard Blech said. “By then, Newman’s film Sweet Bird of Youth had been shown in Humenné.” Newman never personally visited the town, but knew he had roots in this part of Europe. It was Paul Newman himself who, in a letter, informed his relatives about the death of his mother. 

(Source: Slovak Spectator)

published: 09.05.2013
updated: 13.05.2013