Illness and death
Newman was scheduled to make his professional stage directing debut with the Westport Country Playhouse’s 2008 production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, but he stepped down on May 23, 2008, citing health issues.
In June 2008 it was widely reported that Newman, a former chain smoker, had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was receiving treatment at Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York City. Photographs taken of Newman in May and June showed him looking gaunt. Writer A.E. Hotchner, who partnered with Newman to start Newman’s Own salad dressing company in the 1980s, told the Associated Press that Newman told him about the disease about 18 months ago. Newman’s spokesman told the press that the star is “doing nicely,” but neither confirmed nor denied that he had cancer. In August, Newman reportedly had finished chemotherapy and told his family he wished to die at home. He did so on September 26, 2008, aged 83, surrounded by his family and close friends. His remains were subsequently cremated after a private funeral service near his home in Westport.
