Joanne Woodward

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Joanne Woodward

Joanne Woodward
Birth name Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward
Born February 27, 1930
Thomasville, Georgia, US
Notable roles Eve in The Three Faces of Eve
Dr. Cornelia Wilbur in Sybil
Academy
 Awards
Eve in The Three Faces of Eve
Spouse(s) Paul Newman (1958-present)

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an Emmy Award and Academy Award-winning American actress. Woodward, who is married to Paul Newman, is also a television and theatrical producer.

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[edit] Early life

Woodward was born in Thomasville, Georgia, where she remained until she was in the second grade. Her family relocated to Marietta, Georgia. They moved once again when she was a junior in high school. She graduated from Greenville High School in 1947, in Greenville, South Carolina. Woodward won many beauty contests as a teenager. She majored in drama at Louisiana State University, then headed to New York City to perform on the stage.

She was influenced to become an actress by her mother's love of movies. Her mother wanted to name her after Joan Crawford, but then her parents decided that "Joanne" was more Southern. Attending the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta, nine-year-old Joanne rushed out into the parade of stars and sat on the lap of Laurence Olivier, star Vivien Leigh's husband. She eventually worked with Olivier in 1979, in a television production of Come Back, Little Sheba.

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Woodward and Robert Wagner in A Kiss Before Dying
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Woodward and Robert Wagner in A Kiss Before Dying

Woodward's first film was a post-Civil War western Count Three and Pray, in 1955. She continued to move between Hollywood and Broadway, eventually, understudying in the New York production of Picnic which featured Paul Newman. The two were married in 1958. By that time, Woodward had starred in The Three Faces of Eve, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

[edit] Films with Paul Newman

She appeared with her husband, Paul Newman in the featured films:

  • The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
  • Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958)
  • From the Terrace (1960)
  • Paris Blues (1961)
  • A New Kind of Love (1963) - a lightweight romantic comedy that she persuaded Newman to make.
  • Winning (1969)
  • WUSA (1970)
  • The Drowning Pool (1975)
  • Harry & Son (1984) - which Newman also directed
  • Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990)

They both also appeared in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls but did not have any scenes together.

She starred in four films that Newman directed but did not star in:

[edit] Later Career

Woodward has continued to act on stage, films, and television in such films as Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and Philadelphia (1993) in which she played the mother to Tom Hanks' character. She also appeared in the television films Sybil opposite Sally Field and Crisis at Central High. She was the narrator for Martin Scorsese's screen version of The Age of Innocence.

Woodward is currently artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse.

[edit] Academy Awards

[edit] Emmy Awards

She won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for See How She Runs (1978) as a divorced teacher who trains for a marathon, and in the same category again for Do You Remember Love? (1985) as a professor who begins to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. She has been nominated an additional five times for her acting roles on television.

[edit] Private life

Woodward married Paul Newman on January 29, 1958. They have three daughters: Elinor Teresa (1959), Melissa Steward (1961), and Claire "Clea" Olivia (1965). She and Newman live in Westport, Connecticut, but are extremely private about their personal lives. Newman will occasionally venture to California, but Woodward has refused to go west for many years.

In 1990, she was graduated from Sarah Lawrence College alongside her daughter, Clea.

Preceded by
Ingrid Bergman
for Anastasia
Academy Award for Best Actress
1957
for The Three Faces of Eve
Succeeded by
Susan Hayward
for I Want to Live!

[edit] Trivia

  • She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. She was the first performer to receive a star on the Walk of Fame. It was laid on February 9, 1960.
  • The very briefly glimpsed portrait of the unseen character Marguerite Wyke in the 1972 film Sleuth (credited to the imaginary actress Eve Channing; see [1]) is actually of Woodward.
  • In Three Faces of Eve she portrays a character suffering from multiple personality disorder. In Sybil, she portrays a character treating a persona with multiple personality disorder. Both are among her most famous roles.

[edit] External links