Paul Newman in the context of "Silent Movie"

Torn Curtain is a 1966 American spy political thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. Written by Brian Moore, the film is set in the Cold War and concerns an American scientist who appears to defect behind the Iron Curtain to East Germany. While Hitchcock's long-time collaborator Bernard Herrmann composed a score for the film, it was ultimately rejected, marking the end of their working relationship which had spanned eight films. The film's final score was composed by John Addison.

Torn Curtain premiered in the United States on 14 July 1966. Upon its release, the film was not well received by critics, who derided the plot and the pacing. The film was a financial success though, grossing $13 million worldwide over its $3 million budget.

Harold "Hal" Jordan, one of the characters known as Green Lantern, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created in 1959 by writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane, and first appeared in Showcase #22 (October 1959). Hal Jordan is a reinvention of the previous Green Lantern, who appeared in 1940s comic books as the character Alan Scott. While Alan Scott had been designed after characters from folklore and mythology, Kane instead drew visual inspiration for Hal from Hollywood actor Paul Newman.

Hal Jordan is a former fighter pilot who works for Ferris Aircraft as a test pilot, a member and occasionally leader of an intergalactic police force called the Green Lantern Corps, as well as a founding member of the Justice League, DC's flagship superhero team, alongside well-known heroes such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. He fights evil across the universe with a power ring that channels willpower into energy constructs. As Green Lantern, Hal is the assigned protector of Sector 2814, which includes Earth, on behalf of the Guardians of the Universe. His ring grants him powers of flight, space travel, and the ability to create shields, weapons, and even his uniform. Hal's on-again off-again love interest is Carol Ferris, who has also at times served as his enemy Star Sapphire. Other villains in Hal's stories include the psychic mutant Hector Hammond, avatar of death Nekron, and his archenemy, Sinestro, Hal's corrupt former Green Lantern mentor.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his personal favorite, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. Set in the "plantation home in the Mississippi Delta" of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon, the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Maggie "the Cat", Brick's wife.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features motifs such as social mores, greed, superficiality, mendacity, decay, sexual desire, repression, and death. The dialogue throughout is often written using nonstandard spelling intended to represent accents of the Southern United States. The original production starred Barbara Bel Geddes, Burl Ives, and Ben Gazzara. The play was adapted as a film of the same name in 1958, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman as Maggie and Brick, with Ives and Madeleine Sherwood recreating their stage roles. Williams made substantial excisions and alterations to the play for a revival in 1974. This has been the version used for most subsequent revivals, which have been numerous.

The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. In addition to McQueen and Newman, the cast includes William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra, Dabney Coleman and Jennifer Jones in her final role.

The Towering Inferno premiered on December 16, 1974. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and earned around $203.3 million, making it the highest-grossing film of 1974. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning three: Best Song, Best Cinematography and Best Editing.

Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer who made his film debut with a minor role in the 1981 romantic drama Endless Love. Two years later, he made his breakthrough by starring in the romantic comedy Risky Business (1983), which garnered his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1986, Cruise played a naval aviator in the Tony Scott-directed action drama Top Gun which was the highest-grossing film of the year, and also appeared with Paul Newman in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama The Color of Money. Two years later, he starred with Dustin Hoffman in the drama Rain Man (1988). His next role was as anti-war activist Ron Kovic in the film adaptation of Kovic's memoir of the same name, Born on the Fourth of July (1989), for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.

In 1992, he starred opposite Jack Nicholson in the legal drama A Few Good Men, an adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name also written by Aaron Sorkin. Cruise next appeared in The Firm (1993), a film adaptation of the John Grisham legal thriller of the same name, and in the same year, also made his directorial debut by directing an episode of the anthology television series Fallen Angels. Cruise starred as spy Ethan Hunt in the action film Mission: Impossible (1996), the first project of his production company Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he had co-founded with Paula Wagner in 1993. As of 2025, Cruise has appeared in seven more films in the Mission: Impossible franchise: Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025).

The Color of Money is a 1986 American sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is the sequel to the 1961 film The Hustler. Like the previous film, The Color of Money is based on a novel by Walter Tevis.

The film stars Paul Newman reprising his role as "Fast Eddie" Felson, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film also stars Tom Cruise playing a pool hustler, and features Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as the girlfriend of Cruise's character. The plot follows the trio as they hustle pool halls and make their way to a nine-ball tournament in Atlantic City. It received positive reviews from critics, though some considered it inferior as a sequel to The Hustler.

The Hudsucker Proxy is a 1994 screwball comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by the Coen brothers. Sam Raimi co-wrote the script and served as second unit director. The film stars Tim Robbins as a naïve but ambitious business school graduate who is installed as president of a manufacturing company, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a newspaper reporter, and Paul Newman as a company director who hires the graduate as part of a stock scam.

The script was finished in 1985, but production did not start until 1991, when Joel Silver acquired the script for Silver Pictures. Warner Bros. subsequently agreed to distribute the film, with further financing from PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Working Title Films. Filming at Carolco Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, lasted from November 1992 to March 1993. The New York City scale model set was designed by Michael J. McAlister and Mark Stetson, with further effects provided by The Computer Film Company.

The Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award is presented by the Screen Actors Guild's National Honors and Tributes Committee for "outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession." It predates the 1st Screen Actors Guild Awards by over thirty years. The award's first recipient was performer and comedian Eddie Cantor, in 1962. Since then, it has been presented every year except 1963, 1981 and 2021. On two occasions, two people received the award the same year: in 1985, when it was presented to actor Paul Newman and actress Joanne Woodward, and in 2000, when it was presented to civil rights activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. The award was not given in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2024, 62 people have received the award, of whom 39 are men and 23 women.