Joanne Woodward Biography

A beauty at school, she majored in drama at Louisiana State University, then headed to New York City to perform on the stage, where her first instruction was to lose her southern accent.

As an understudy on Broadway in 1952 she met Newman, a bright young prospect, and they soon fell in love. They married in 1958.

Woodward's first film was 'Count Three and Pray', in 1955. Her next film role, in 'The Three Faces of Eve', earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She and Newman also starred together that year, in 'The Long Hot Summer', the first of many collaborations.

In recent years she has directed or starred in stage plays. In 1990, she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College alongside her daughter, Clea, and is the current Artistic Director at the Westport Country Playhouse.

She helps Paul with Newman's Own, his range of food products, as well as the Hole in The Wall Gang Camp, which is for kids with terminal or serious illnesses. She lives in Westport Connecticut.