Joanne Woodward Biography
Summary
"Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward" (born February 27, 1930) is an American Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, Emmy and Cannes award-winning actress. Woodward, widow of Paul Newman, is also a television and theatrical producer.
Biography
Early life
Woodward was born in Thomasville, Georgia, daughter of Elinor Gignilliat (née Trimmier) and Wade Woodward, Jr., who at one point was vice president of publisher Charles Scribner's Sons. Her middle name, 'Gignilliat', originates from distant Huguenot ancestry. She was influenced to become an actress by her mother's love of movies. Her mother named her after Joan Crawford, using the Southern pronunciation of the name - 'Joanne'. Attending the premiere of "Gone with the Wind" in Atlanta, nine-year-old Woodward 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".
Woodward lived in Thomasville 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, after her parents divorced. She graduated from Greenville High School in 1947, in Greenville, South Carolina. Woodward won many beauty contests as a teenager. She appeared in theatrical productions at Greenville High and in Greenville's Little Theatre, playing Laura Wingfield in their staging of "The Glass Menagerie" directed by Robert Hemphill McLane. She returned to Greenville in 1976 to play Amanda Wingfield in another Little Theatre production of "The Glass Menagerie". She had also returned in 1955 for the premiere of her debut movie, "Count Three And Pray", at the Paris Theatre on North Main Street.
She majored in drama at Louisiana State University, where she was an initiate of Chi Omega sorority, then headed to New York City to perform on the stage.
Career
Early career
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 after their work together in the film "The Long, Hot Summer". By that time, Woodward had starred in "The Three Faces of Eve", for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Films with Paul Newman
She appeared with her late husband, Paul Newman, in ten 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)
"Winning" (1969)
"WUSA" (1970)
"The Drowning Pool" (1975)
"Harry & Son" (1984) - (directed by Newman)
"Mr. and Mrs. Bridge" (1990)
Both appeared in the HBO miniseries "Empire Falls" but had no scenes together.
She starred in five films that Newman directed or produced but did not star in:
"Rachel, Rachel" (1968)
"They Might Be Giants" (1971)
"The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" - which featured their daughter, Nell Potts (1972)
"The Shadow Box" (1980) - (television movie)
"The Glass Menagerie" (1987)
Later career
Woodward has continued to act, in such films as "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams" and "Philadelphia" (1993) in which she played the mother to Tom Hanks' character, and in television. 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".
She has produced, co-produced and directed a number of TV programs. Woodward is the artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse.
Personal life
Joanne had been briefly engaged to author Gore Vidal prior to marrying Paul Newman. She shared a house with Vidal in Los Angeles for a short time and remained friends. Woodward married Paul Newman on January 29, 1958. They had three daughters: Elinor Teresa (1959; known on screen as Nell Potts and generally as Nell Newman), Melissa 'Lissy' Stewart (1961), and Claire 'Clea' Olivia (1965). She lives in Westport, Connecticut, but, along with her late husband, has been extremely private about her personal life. Newman occasionally ventured to California, but Woodward refused to go west for many years. Her husband died of cancer on September 26, 2008, aged 83.
In 1990, she was graduated from Sarah Lawrence College alongside her daughter, Clea.
Awards
In 1958, Woodward won the Academy Award for Best Actress for "The Three Faces of Eve". She was also nominated for Best Actress in 1969 for "Rachel, Rachel", in 1974 for "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams", and in 1991 for "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge". She was also named Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1974 for her performance in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds".
Woodward won two 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 "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 roles on television.
On February 9, 1960, Joanne Woodward became the first performer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.
External links
(Joanne Woodward's thoughts on Earth Day 2006)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Joanne Woodward.
