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Italian websites www.corriere.it and www.repubblica.it - respectively from noted newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica - reported today about the death of actor Paul Newman.

Repubblica quotes some US blogs while both have as a source Vincenzo Manes, head of the Dynamo Camp / Fondazione Dynamo foundation that was linked to Newman's charities. Manes apparently received an e-mail from the US early in the morning, 7:30am Central European Time, telling him Newman succumbed to cancer. He was reported saying "Paul Newman is no longer with us". Newman died at home in Westport, Connecticut.

No information was available immediately on the Dynamo Camp or Fondazione Dynamo websites, though. An email sent through the foundation website has not received replies yet.

US website Awardsdaily.com was one of those apparently spreading the news first: a post by Sasha Stone just said "An unconfirmed report just came in from AD reader Kubrickguy. Newman was battling cancer but must have lost the fight. Long live Paul Newman".

A few hours later, BBC and CNN also confirmed the sad news.

Newman was born in 1925 and his Wikipedia biography describes him as "actor, film director, entrepreneur, race car driver, racing team owner and humanitarian".

Winner of several major awards including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award and an Emmy award, he was also active and successful in the world of race cars, both as a driver and as a team owner. He had established a food company called "Newman's Own" whose entire profit is devoted to charity.

Due to high traffic onto Newman's Own website, a few moments after then news started circulating on major networks and Internet sites, the homepage was replaced with a message commemorating the actor and beginning with the words: "We remember the Life and Legacy of our Founder".