This coming February 27 Joanne Woodward will turn 91 years as the great lady of American acting, winner of the Oscar for best actress in 1957. Her acting talent is immense, but she was always overshadowed by being the wife of Paul Newman, with whom she formed the most solid marriage for 50 years from Hollywood. “Why look for a hamburger when I have a steak at home?” Newman had said many times. Woodward now lives a placid old age in Westport, where he lived with Newman, until his death.
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward was born in Thomasville, Georgia, United States, on February 27, 1930. She studied at Louisiana State University, where she would already participate in theatrical productions. To develop his acting concerns, he moved to New York in the early 1950s, attending acting classes at luxurious academies in The Big Apple. After his training he appeared in several Broadway plays and in numerous television series. Later he would be able to sign a contract with 20th Century Fox and shine in the film ‘Count to three and pray’ (1955). From then on it would shine especially in dramatic films.
After his debut before the cameras, he works on ‘A kiss before dying’ (1956), ‘Stronger than life’ (1957) and ‘The three faces of Eva’ (1957), by Nunnally Johnson, along with David Wayne and Lee J. Cobb, with a triple character for which he receives the Oscar for best leading actress and is the first person to obtain a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . In 1958 he worked in ‘The long and hot summer’ with Paul Newman, with whom he married in May (both had had several love affairs and Newman had to achieve a complicated divorce from his previous wife), thus forming one of the most stable in Hollywood, being married 50 years, until the death of Paul, who was the great and only love of his life.
That same year he starred in ‘A husband in distress’ again with Newman, which was followed by ‘The noise and the fury’ (1959), ‘Snake skin’ (1959) with Marlon Brando, ‘From the terrace’ (1960 ), again with Newman, directed by Mark Robson, ‘Paris Blues’ (1961), ‘One day I’ll be back’ (with Newman), ‘Lost Roses’ (1963), ‘Samantha’ (1963), again with Newman, ‘Signpost to murder’ (1964), ‘Fate also plays’ (1966), with Henry Fonda and Edward G. Robinson, ‘A wonderful madman’ (1966), with Sean Connery, ‘Raquel, Raquel’ (1968 ), for which she is nominated for an Oscar or ‘500 miles’ (1969), again with Newman, a passionate about motor racing. In addition, he combines all his cinematographic works with others on the tables.
The decade of the 70s is started by Joanne Woodward with her husband in ‘A man of today’ (1970), which is followed by ‘The detective and doctor’ (1971), ‘The effect of gamma rays on daisies’ ( 1972), where it is directed by Paul Newnan, ‘Summer wishes, winter dreams’ (1973), for which it is again nominated for an Oscar, ‘With the water around the neck’ (1975), by Stuart Rosenberg, which stars Paul Newman, the miniseries ‘Sybil’ (1976) or ‘Of fear also dies’ (1978). These are a few years in which the Newman-Woodward couple have helped each other. In Newman’s films, he requests the inclusion of his wife in the cast and vice versa. When the work call is to Woodward, it is she who asks that her husband be there as well. And the producers are delighted because the Woodward-Newman tandem is synonymous with artistic quality and box office success. And in 1980 Newman returned to direct his wife in the telefilm ‘The Shadow Box’.
With the 1980s, Woodward’s work turned towards television again, although he returned to star in the new film directed by Newman, ‘Harry and Son’ (1984), which here combines work in front of and behind the camera. He returns to Newman’s command in “‘The glass zoo’ (1987), which he had performed in the theater, where the actor has no role before the camera, and in ‘Waiting for Mr. Bridge’ (1990) , with many autobiographical touches, in which she is again nominated for an Oscar.
Joanne Woodward’s last films were ‘Philadelphia’ (1993), along with Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas and the TV movie ‘Empire Falls’ (2005), with Newman in the cast, the last film they would make together.
Joanne Woodward achieved an Oscar of four nominations, three Golden Globes, three Emmys, a Bafta and an acting award at Cannes, and had the honor of inaugurating the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but always remained in the shadow of her husband . He has three daughters from his marriage to Newman: Elinor Teresa (1959), Melissa Steward (1961) and Claire Olivia (1965). “My great-grandmother once told me never to marry a man with whom I wasn’t sure I could have breakfast every day for 50 years,” she wrote in her biography ‘Joanne Woodward: Her Life and Career.’ Retired, Woodward continues to live in Westport, where she was happy with Newman, until his death.
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