You’d have to say he’s doing pretty well for an old man

“I wish I was 79 again,” quips Paul Newman, who turned 80 in January.

He’s far from being retired. His food company, Newman’s Own, has donated $200 million in lifetime profits to charity.

He supports the Hole in the Wall Camps, which provide outdoor vacations for terminally ill children (the name comes from the “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” hideout).

He owns an auto racing team that will compete this year in Australia, South Korea and Argentina.

And oh yes, Newman is still doing what he does best – acting.

He stars in the two-part HBO miniseries “Empire Falls,” which ends tonight, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Richard Russo.

Empire Falls, Maine, is a crumbling town that once thrived with clothing mills. The hangers-on comprise a rich mix of families whose secrets and failings provide the drama as well as some light touches.

Newman plays Max Roby, the wily and irreverent patriarch of one of those families, whose unkempt beard is reputed to be littered with cracker crumbs.

Other members of the cast include Ed Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Hunt, Robin Wright Penn, Aidan Quinn – and Newman’s wife, Joanne Woodward, in a rare villainess role as the heiress who wields malevolent power over some of the town’s citizens.

Having also played an old-timer in the adaptation of another Russo novel, “Nobody’s Fool,” Newman read “Empire Falls” with more than the usual interest.

“An extraordinary book,” he says. “I know there was a lot of interest in making like a two-hour film out of it, and I thought that would truncate all the values in it. It had to be done in a longer format.”

As an executive producer, Newman helped line up the stellar cast, and he insisted that “Empire Falls” be shot in Maine.

“That’s where it was set in the mind of Russo, and that’s where we shot it,” he says. “We would have saved a little money by going to Canada, but I think the film would have suffered.”

One of the first Method actors to become a movie star, Newman is a stickler for realism. He grew a vagrant-style beard for the role of Max, but it didn’t last long.

“Joanne made me shave the homeless part off first,” he says. “Then she got the rest of it; I should really say while I was sleeping. She was not enamored with it.”

His hair is white now, but otherwise Newman seems as fit as such past characters as Hud, Harper or Cool Hand Luke. It’s something he credits to his morning fitness routine: “365 days a year – weights, exercises, aerobics.”

The nine-time Oscar nominee, who won in 1986 for “The Color of Money,” is evasive about his future acting plans.

“There’s a lot of stuff floating around, but I don’t like to talk about it until it’s in cement,” he says. “I think I’d like to make one more film and then take a powder. It’s time Joanne and I spent quality time together.”

The birthday bunch

Actor Kevin Conway (“Gods and Generals”) is 63. Composer Danny Elfman is 52. Singer LaToya Jackson is 49. Actress Annette Bening is 47. Actor Rupert Everett is 46. Singer Melissa Etheridge is 44. Actress Lisa Whelchel (“The Facts of Life”) is 42. Guitarist Noel Gallagher (Oasis) is 38. Singer Melanie Brown (“Scary Spice,” Spice Girls) is 30.