Paul Newman’s posthumous book revealed Thursday that the famed Hollywood actor once engaged in a bloody fight after he was called an anti-semitic slur while serving in World War II.
According to the USO website, Newman — who died in 2008 — signed up for the Navy’s V-12 pilot training program but was “disqualified upon the discovery that he was colorblind.”
The “Cool Hand Luke” actor was stationed in Hawaii working as a radioman and rear gunner for bombers when the incident occurred.
“It’s probably not a coincidence that when I served in World War II the only bloody fight I got into involved an antisemitic taunt,” wrote Newman. “I was based in Hawaii on my way out to the Pacific theater. There was a beer garden there for sailors, though you weren’t supposed to take the beer off premises.”
“The trick was you’d go over a back wall, then right back to your barracks with the contraband,” he continued. “One of the sailors there looked up from his bunk and said to me that I owed him a beer. ‘For what?’ I replied, to which the man said, ‘You k – – -, you owe me a beer.’”
According to the American Jewish Committee, the derogatory term is described as “an ethnic slur for a Jewish person,” while also noting that the slur might have several origins.
Newman wrote that he “charged the guy” and “a big brawl ensued.”
“Though I wasn’t much of a puncher, I had practiced wrestling at Ohio University,” recalled Newman. “I had an extraordinary sense of balance and could throw down an opponent, get on top of him midair and fall on him.”
“When I landed on this guy, he had his arm underneath his hip and tore everything out of his elbow. When he got off the floor, he could only move one hand,” continued Newman “No one bothered me again.”
Newman’s book “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir” is currently available.