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Overview

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an American actress, producer, activist, and philanthropist. She is best known for her Academy Award-winning role in The Three Faces of Eve (1957).

Early life

Woodward was born on February 27, 1930, in Thomasville, Georgia, daughter of Elinor (ne Trimmier) and Wade Woodward, Jr., who at one point was vice president of publisher Charles Scribner’s Sons. Her middle names, “Gignilliat Trimmier”, are of Huguenot origin. 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 into the parade of stars and sat on the lap of Laurence Olivier, star Vivien Leigh‘s partner and future husband. She eventually worked with Olivier in 1977 in a television production of Come Back, Little Sheba. During rehearsals, she mentioned this incident to him, and he told her that he remembered her doing it.

Woodward lived in Thomasville until she was in the second grade, then her family relocated to Marietta, Georgia, where she attended Marietta High School. She remains a booster of Marietta High and of the city’s Strand Theater. They moved once again when she was a junior in high school after her parents divorced. She graduated from Greenville High School in Greenville, South Carolina in 1947. 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 the 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 also returned in 1955 for the premire of Count Three And Pray, her debut movie, at the Paris Theatre on North Main Street. Woodward 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 her future husband 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 (1957), for which she won the 1957 Academy Award for Best Actress.

Films with Paul Newman

She appeared with husband Paul Newman in ten feature films:

Both appeared in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls but had no scenes together.

She starred in five films that Newman directed or produced but in which he did not star:

Later career

Woodward acted in films Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973) with Martin Balsam and Philadelphia (1993), in which she played the mother to Tom Hanks‘ character,. She appeared in the television films Sybil (1976), with Sally Field, and Crisis at Central High (1981). She was the narrator for Martin Scorsese‘s screen version of The Age of Innocence (1993).

Woodward was a co-producer and starred in a 1993 broadcast of the play Blind Spot, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress Miniseries or a Movie. She was executive producer of the 2003 television production of Our Town, featuring Newman as the stage manager (for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award.) She wrote the teleplay and directed a 1982 production of Shirley Jackson‘s story Come Along with Me, for which husband Newman provided the voice of the character Hughie under the screen name of P.L. Neuman. In 1995, Woodward directed off-Broadway revivals of Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy and Waiting for Lefty at the Blue Light Theater Company in New York.

Woodward served as the artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse from 2001 to 2005.

She recorded a reading of singer John Mellencamp‘s song “The Real Life” for his box set On the Rural Route 7609. In 2011, she narrated the Scholastic/Weston Woods film All the World.

Personal life

Woodward was reported to have been engaged to author Gore Vidal before marrying Paul Newman. However, there was no real engagement: Vidal later claimed it was just a stunt to attract Newman’s attention. Woodward shared a house with Vidal in Los Angeles for a short time, and they remained friends.

Woodward first met Newman in 1953. They later reconnected on the set of The Long Hot Summer in 1957. Woodward and Newman married on January 29, 1958 in Las Vegas. On March 28 of the same year, Woodward won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve. The couple remained married for 50 years until Newman’s death from lung cancer on September 26, 2008.

Woodward and Newman had three daughters: Elinor Teresa (1959), known on screen as Nell Potts and generally as Nell Newman, Melissa “Lissy” Stewart (1961), and Claire Olivia “Clea” Newman (1965). They also have two grandsons by Lissy.

In 1988, Newman and Woodward established the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a nonprofit residential summer camp, and year-round center named after the Wyoming mountain hideaway of the outlaws in Newman’s film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The camp, located in Ashford, Connecticut provides services free of charge to 20,000 children and their families coping with cancer as well as other serious illnesses and conditions.

In 1990, Woodward graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, along with her daughter Clea. Newman delivered the commencement address, during which he said he dreamed that a woman had asked, “How dare you accept this invitation to give the commencement address when you are merely hanging on to the coattails of the accomplishments of your wife?”

Woodward and Newman made their home in Westport, Connecticut.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1952 Tales of Tomorrow Pat episode: The Bitter Storm
19521953 Omnibus Ann Rutledge episode: Mr. Lincoln
19531954 The Philco Television Playhouse Emily episode: The Dancers
1954 The Ford Television Theatre June Ledbetter episode: Segment
The Elgin Hour Nancy episode: High Man
Lux Video Theatre Jenny Townsend episode: Five Star Final
19521954 Robert Montgomery Presents Elsie
Penny
episode: Homecoming
episode: Penny
1955 The Star and the Story Jill Andrews episode: Dark Stranger
Count Three and Pray Lissy
The 20th Century Fox Hour Eleanor Apley episode: The Late George Apley
The United States Steel Hour Rocky episode: White Gloves
19541956 Four Star Playhouse Ann Benton
Terry Thomas
Victoria Lee ‘Vicki’ Hallock
episode: Watch the Sunset
episode: Full Circle
episode: Interlude
19541956 Studio One Christiana
Daisy
Lisa
episode: A Man’s World
episode: Family Protection
episode: Stir Mugs
1956 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Beth Paine episode: Momentum
Kiss Before Dying, AA Kiss Before Dying Dorothy “Dorie” Kingship
G.E. True Theatre Ann Rutledge episode: Prologue to Glory
The Alcoa Hour Margaret Spencer episode: The Girl in Chapter One
Climax! Katherine episode: Savage Portrait
1957 Three Faces of Eve, TheThe Three Faces of Eve Eve White
Eve Black
Jane
Academy Award for Best Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress
No Down Payment Leola Boone National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress
1958 Playhouse 90 Louise Darling episode: The 80 Yard Run
Long, Hot Summer, TheThe Long, Hot Summer Clara Varner
Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys! Grace Oglethorpe Bannerman Nominated Laurel Award for Top Female Comedic Performance
1959 Sound and the Fury, TheThe Sound and the Fury Quentin Compson/Narrator
1960 Fugitive Kind, TheThe Fugitive Kind Carol Cutrere San Sebastin International Film Festival Zulueta Prize for Best Actress
From the Terrace Mary St. John
1961 Paris Blues Lillian Corning
1963 Stripper, TheThe Stripper Lila Green Nominated Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance
New Kind of Love, AA New Kind of Love Samantha ‘Sam’ Blake
Mimi
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1964 Signpost to Murder Molly Thomas
1966 Big Hand for the Little Lady, AA Big Hand for the Little Lady Mary Nominated Laurel Award for Top Female Comedic Performance
Fine Madness, AA Fine Madness Rhoda Shillitoe
1968 Rachel, Rachel Rachel Cameron Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance
1969 Winning Elora Capua
1970 WUSA Geraldine
King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery to Memphis Herself documentary
1971 They Might Be Giants Dr. Mildred Watson
All the Way Home Mary Follet TV movie
1972 Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, TheThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds Beatrice Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama
1973 Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams Rita Walden BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama
1975 Drowning Pool, TheThe Drowning Pool Iris Devereaux
1976 Sybil Dr. Cornelia B. Wilbur Nominated Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress Miniseries or a Movie
The Carol Burnett Show Midge Gibson episode: Episode #9.21
1977 Come Back, Little Sheba Lola Delaney
1978 See How She Runs Betty Quinn Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress Miniseries or a Movie
End, TheThe End Jessica Lawson
A Christmas to Remember Mildred McCloud TV movie
1979 The Streets of L.A. Carol Schramm TV movie
1980 The Shadow Box Beverly
1981 Crisis at Central High Elizabeth Huckaby Nominated Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Miniseries or Television Film
1982 Candida Candida TV movie
1984 Harry & Son Lilly
Passions Catherine Kennerly TV movie
1985 Do You Remember Love Barbara Wyatt-Hollis Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Miniseries or Television Film
1987 The Glass Menagerie Amanda Wingfield Nominated Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
1990 Mr. and Mrs. Bridge India Bridge Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Drama
Nominated Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
Nominated Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
1993 Foreign Affairs Vinnie Miner TV movie
Blind Spot Nell Harrington Nominated Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress Miniseries or a Movie
Age of Innocence, TheThe Age of Innocence Narrator
Philadelphia Sarah Beckett
1994 Breathing Lessons Maggie Moran Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Miniseries or Television Film
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Nominated Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress Miniseries or a Movie
1996 Even If a Hundred Ogres… Narrator (voice)
2005 Empire Falls Francine Whiting Nominated Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress Series, Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2013 Lucky Them Doris (voice)

Awards

In 1958, Woodward won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve. She was 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 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.

A popular (but untrue) bit of Hollywood lore is that Woodward was the first celebrity to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In fact, the original 1,550 stars were created and installed as a unit in 1960; no one star was officially “first”. The first star actually completed was director Stanley Kramer‘s. The origin of this legend is not known with certainty, but according to Johnny Grant, the longtime Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, Woodward was the first celebrity to agree to pose with her star for photographers, and therefore was singled out in the collective public imagination as the first awardee.

In 1994, she and her husband were jointly presented the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.