- Born
- Birth nameJoanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward
- Nickname
- Joey
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward was born on February 27, 1930, in Thomasville, Georgia, to Wade Woodward and Elinor Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward in a modest household. Her one older brother, Wade Jr., who was the favorite of her father, eventually became an architect. Elinor Woodward was a quite a movie buff and enjoyed going to picture shows often. Joanne claims she was nearly born in the middle of a Joan Crawford movie (Our Modern Maidens (1929)). Her mother wanted to name her Joan, but being Southern, she changed it to Joanne.
Thomasville was a typical small town in southern Georgia, around ten miles from the Florida border. Joanne was born right into the Great Depression. Her father was an administrator in the Thomasville school system, and her family was raised Episcopalian. Joanne's mother being an avid movie lover, it wasn't a surprise that Joanne wanted to go into the acting profession. Her father wasn't too keen on the idea, but her mother saw it coming and was thrilled. Joanne and her mother both adored the movie Wuthering Heights (1939) starring Laurence Olivier, and in 1939 Elinor took her daughter to the premiere of Gone with the Wind (1939) in Atlanta. Pulling up in a limo with the love of his life, Vivien Leigh (who starred in Gone with the Wind (1939)), Laurence Olivier was shocked when 9-year-old Joanne hopped right into the limo and sat in his lap without any warning. Years later when Joanne was famous, Olivier keenly remembered this incident. She later worked with Olivier in Come Back, Little Sheba (1977).
In her teens, Joanne entered and won many Georgia beauty contests. Her mother said that "she was the prettiest girl in town". But all Joanne wanted to do was act, and she saw beauty contests as the first step toward her dream. When she was of age, she enrolled in Louisiana State University, majoring in drama. After graduation and doing small plays, Joanne headed to New York and studied acting with Sanford Meisner. The first thing he tackled was Joanne's southern drawl.
Soon, Joanne was starring in television productions and theater. One day, she was introduced by her agent to another young actor at her level by the then-unknown name of Paul Newman. Paul's first reaction was, "Jeez, what an extraordinarily pretty girl". Joanne, while admitting that he was very good-looking, didn't like him at first sight, but she couldn't resist him. Soon they were working closely together as understudies for the Broadway production of "Picnic" and got along very well. They would have long conversations about anything and everything. Then both their movie careers took off: Joanne with Count Three and Pray (1955) and Paul with The Silver Chalice (1954). Also adding to the tension was Paul's wife, Jackie, who refused to get a divorce when Paul asked her for one. He wanted to marry Joanne; Jackie would simply not have it. Eventually, Jackie saw the anguish this was causing Paul and agreed to a divorce. Less than a week after the divorce was final, Paul married Joanne in Las Vegas on January 29, 1958, just months before Joanne won her Best Actress Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve (1957), in which she plays a woman with multiple personality disorder.
On April 8, 1959, Joanne gave birth to their first child, Elinor Teresa Newman, named after her and Paul's mothers. They both continued on with their careers, doing movies both together and apart. Two more children followed: Melissa Steward Newman on September 17, 1961, and Claire Olivia Newman on April 21, 1965. Since then, Joanne has been extremely busy in theater, film and television as well as ballet performances and very involved with charities and taking care of her family. In 2003, Joanne starred in a movie with Paul on HBO.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Skye Robinson <PaulNJoanne4ever@aol.com.
- SpousePaul Newman(January 29, 1958 - September 26, 2008) (his death, 3 children)
- Children
- Known for playing mentally or emotionally disturbed women
- When she was 9 years old, Joanne traveled with her mother to Atlanta for the premiere of Gone with the Wind (1939). During the parade, she leapt into a limousine carrying Laurence Olivier and sat in his lap as she had a crush on him after seeing Wuthering Heights (1939). Years later when the two were working on Come Back, Little Sheba (1977), Olivier claimed to remember the incident vividly.
- In 1960 she was the first actress to appear at the unveiling of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- Lived next door to her idol, Bette Davis, for awhile.
- In 2017, Woodward was reported to be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She was first diagnosed with it in 2007, just days before her husband, Paul Newman was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She moved from Westport, Connecticut to Santa Monica, California, to be near her three daughters and other family members. Woodward's mother suffered from Alzheimer's disease which is why Woodward chose to play a woman with Alzheimer's in the 1985 TV movie "Do You Remember Love.".
- Was briefly engaged to novelist, essayist and screenwriter Gore Vidal before breaking the engagement to pledge herself to eventual husband Paul Newman. The new couple, who remained friends with Vidal, briefly lived with him in a house in Los Angeles.
- In 1987: "Acting is like sex. You should do it, not talk about it."
- Being married to Paul is being married to the most considerate, romantic man.
- I don't like getting myself in hot water. But suddenly I find that every minute I have to stop and think about what I'm saying. I can see what's going to happen. I'm going to have to stop giving interviews because I'm always saying the wrong thing. I don't want that to happen.
- The September 11th tragedy forced us all to look at the world in a different way and it reminds us all of the importance of living every moment.
- Who could direct you better than the person you live with? Paul knows everything there is to know about me. I wish he could just direct every movie I ever do.
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