In 2025, the Hollywood heartthrob hall of fame is overflowing with Jewish men — and it has been for awhile. In the ’70s, Elliott Gould achieved dreamboat status after starring in “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.” “Clueless” and “Friends” put Paul Rudd on the map as an actor in the ’90s, and showed us all how attractive he is. Adam Brody, who once captured hearts as Seth Cohen in the early 2000s show “The O.C.,” once again has people fawning over him thanks to “Nobody Wants This.” Zac Efron and Daniel Radcliffe dominated the mid-2000s as the basketball player-turned-singer Troy Bolton and the boy who lived, respectively. “Percy Jackson” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” claimed the 2010s for Logan Lerman. And in recent years, fans have pined over Timothée Chalamet‘s boyish good looks and Andrew Garfield‘s unmistakable charm.
Before all these gorgeous, gorgeous Jewish men grabbed people’s attention for being hot, however, there was a time when there were no Jewish Hollywood heartthrobs; that status was reserved for WASPy, all-American types. But in honor of his 100th birthday, which was marked on Jan. 26, 2025, I think it’s time for us to give a little credit to the very first Jewish man to reach heartthrob status.
I am, of course, talking about Paul Newman.
Paul Leonard Newman was born on Jan. 26, 1925 in Ohio to Arthur and Theresa Newman. While his mother was raised Catholic and later practiced Christian Science, it seems that Paul was more drawn to his father’s Hungarian and Polish Jewish roots because, as he once sardonically said, “it’s more of a challenge.” It was also because of Jewish heritage that Paul dealt with his fair share of antisemitism growing up in Shaker Heights. In his posthumous memoir “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man,” Newman recounted that despite not practicing Judaism in his childhood home, he felt a sense of otherness. “If you were Jewish, some avenues were shut to you,” he wrote, expressing that this reality was painful for him and his brother, Arthur. It meant that he was excluded and othered, like when he was denied acceptance into a high school fraternity because of his heritage and when, years later, he got into a fight with a fellow sailor in the Navy because of the use of an antisemitic slur.
In spite of this othering, Paul finished his service in the Navy, graduated from Kenyon College with a B.A. in drama and economics, studied acting with Lee Strasberg and relatively quickly found success in his acting career. His first box office smash hit was in 1958’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” starring alongside Elizabeth Taylor. He would go on to star in his most Jewish film “Exodus” (1960), “The Hustler” (1961), “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “The Color of Money” (1986), to name a few of his most notable roles. Thus, a Jewish heartthrob was born.
It’s not hard to see why. Paul Newman had piercing, heart-melting blue eyes, a strong jawline, gorgeous full nose and lips, a dirty blonde tousle of hair (that stayed for most of his life), and, you know, abs. He looked good with a beard and without, whether he was wearing a suit and tie or a sweater and jeans or shorts and a t-shirt which reads “get really stoned.” As his posthumous memoir reveals, he wasn’t afraid to be “a sexual creature” in his personal life — he and his second wife Joanne Woodward had “a fuck hut.” Ooh la la! Plus, the man even had sexy hobbies! Paul Newman was a race car driver. He loved to cook, even writing his own cookbook. And he was involved in philanthropy, from starting his own food product company that gives all proceeds to charity to starting a drug addiction rehabilitation center in honor of his late son.
But what is also so hot about Paul Newman is an ineffable coolness that is part of his persona through his acting career. He was known for playing the anti-hero, like pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson in “The Hustler” and “The Color of Money,” authority-defying prisoner Luke Jackson in “Cool Hand Luke” and outlaw Butch Cassidy in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” These are all imperfect men, men that you root for even when you probably shouldn’t. They’re bad boys and sometimes they’re underdogs, which makes Paul Newman all the more irresistible while playing them.
I think it’s worth noting that the reason Paul Newman, the Jewish kid from Shaker Heights, was able to attain sex symbol and heartthrob status starting in the ’50s is, frankly, because he isn’t easily identifiable as Jewish. Though Jews can and do have all the different pairings of physical attributes, Paul wasn’t stereotypically “Jewish looking,” especially not with his baby blue eyes. His name, which Jewish producer Sam Speigel once suggested he change (Newman refused), isn’t stereotypically Jewish either. He wasn’t a religious Jew, and despite wearing a Star of David on occasion, he didn’t don a kippah or a tallit. Essentially, Paul Newman was able to become a heartthrob, in part, because he was able to pass as a WASP at a time when Jewish entertainers in the United States were often encouraged to change their names and their looks.
Would Paul Newman have the staying power that he does now if he didn’t bring his experience of being othered and misunderstood to his anti-hero roles? Would his career have gone differently — and maybe not as well — if he had chosen to change his Jewish last name? Obviously, I can’t know the answers to these questions. But what I do know is that by being true to himself, Paul Newman is still a household name of sheer sex appeal and talent even 100 years after he was born.
In that authenticity to himself and his Jewishness, he has also paved the way for other Jewish heartthrobs. So, thank you, thank you, thank you, Paul Newman. May your smoking hot memory be for a blessing.