He was born in Berlin in 1920, the son of a Jewish livestock farmer and an American mother. He was interested in photography from a young age, and in 1938 moved to Singapore to work as a photojournalist.

At the end of the Second World War he opened a photography studio in Melbourne and started to work as a freelance photographer collaborating with several magazines, among which Playboy.

Starting in the 1960s he undertook a career as a professional fashion photographer. His pictures, characterised by sophisticated eroticism and revealing a superb photographic technique, revolutionised fashion photography.

In his later life, Newton lived in Monte Carlo and Los Angeles. He was killed when his car hit a wall in the driveway of the famous Chateau Marmont, the hotel on Sunset Boulevard which had for several years served as his residence in Southern California. It has been speculated that Newton suffered a heart attack in the moments before the collision. His ashes are buried next to Marlene Dietrich at the Städtischer Friedhof III in Berlin.