Scott Newman

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 and the eldest child of actor Paul Newman. After Scott Newman's death from a drug overdose in 1978, his father established the Scott Newman Center, which is dedicated to preventing drug abuse through education. Early life and career Newman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Paul Newman and his first wife, Jackie Witte. 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 City. By 1958, his parents had divorced and his father had married Joanne Woodward. They settled in Westport, Connecticut, during the late 1960s, where Scott attended Staples High School briefly. Scott attended expensive private schools from some of which he was expelled for bad behavior. 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 five hundred 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 used his influence 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 offenses. 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 $1,000 fine. Newman later played an acrophobic firefighter in The Towering Inferno (1974), in which his father co-starred. Although they had no dialog together because Scott's scenes were with Steve McQueen, both Newmans can be seen in the film's finale. Paul's character is on the steps with Faye Dunaway, while Scott is one of the two firemen carrying a man on a stretcher down the plaza steps to California Street at the Bank of America building in San Francisco. Newman also played small parts in TV series during 1975, such as Marcus Welby, M.D., Harry O., and S.W.A.T.. During the same year, he also appeared in the Charles Bronson film Breakheart Pass.