Hollywood has seen many golden couples come and go. Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio are just a few of them.
But when it comes to legendary celebrity couples, one cannot fail to mention the late Paul Newman and Joan Woodward, who is now 92.
Paul and Joanne married in 1958 and remained married until Newman’s death in 2008 at the age of 83. Joanne and Paul spent 50 years together, acting in films, travelling and raising children.
But did you know that Woodward wasn’t impressed with her future husband when they first met?
Joan Woodward and Paul Newman
Paul Newman is one of the most beloved actors and performers of his generation. Together with Joan Woodward, they were Hollywood’s eternal golden couple.
People may think that Newman was the only star in this relationship. But in fact, Joanne Woodward can look back on a successful career, winning numerous awards and shining as one of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest stars.
She was highly respected for her compelling and magnificent roles in film, theatre, and television. Joanne stood out from other Hollywood actresses of the 1950s by playing strong and independent roles instead of the helpless ones that were often given to women at the time.
Joanne Woodward was born on 27 February 1930 in Thomasville, Georgia.
She attended Greenville High School in South Carolina, and while still a teenager, Joanne won several beauty contests.
Her acting career began in secondary school, where she appeared in several theatre productions.
She played Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and returned to Greenville in the 1970s to perform in the same play again, this time as Amanda Wingfield.
Married in Las Vegas
In 1955, at the age of 25, Joanne returned to Greenville for the premiere of her debut film, Count to Three and Pray.
After graduating from high school, Joanne moved to Louisiana, where she studied drama at Louisiana State University. She later moved to New York City, where she performed on stage.
Joanne’s decision to move to New York proved to be a very fortunate one. In 1953, she met her future husband, Paul Newman.
At the time, Newman was married to his first wife, Jackie Whitt.
Joanne had recently graduated from Louisiana State University and was an understudy in the Broadway play Picnic. Newman played the lead role in the play, and soon love blossomed between them.
Many years ago, in an interview on the Today programme, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward talked about the day they first met.
It was a hot summer day, Newman was wearing a silk suit, wasn’t sweating, and, according to Joanne, looked like ‘an ice cream advertisement’.
‘I was hot, I was sweating, and my hair was stuck around my neck,’ Joanne later said.
In Newman’s biography, written by Marian Edelman Borden, the author revealed that Woodward said:
‘I hated him at first sight, but he was so funny, handsome and neat.’
It took four years before Newman and Woodward took their relationship to the next level. They had been friends since they met, but while working together on the film The Long, Hot Summer (1957), their relationship blossomed into something more.
A wonderful love story
Newman divorced his wife Jackie immediately after filming The Long, Hot Summer in 1957. The couple had three children.
Shortly after separating from Jackie, Paul married Joanne on 29 January 1858.
Joanne and Paul were married in Las Vegas and spent their honeymoon in Europe.
Newlyweds, they couldn’t get enough of the press attention given to Hollywood’s golden stars. Journalists followed them throughout their honeymoon, making them a favourite celebrity couple among the public.
It was the beginning of a happy, charming and beautiful love story.
After a six-week honeymoon, Paul and Joanna moved into their 18th-century farmhouse in Connecticut.
In a 2001 interview with the Daily News, Joanna explained that the decision to move into this house rather than Los Angeles was crucial to their marriage.
‘We were never Hollywood people. We just liked it better here. It probably also helped that we always enjoyed each other’s company,’ Joanna said.
1958 was also the year that made Woodward immortal in Hollywood. She won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in The Three Faces of Eve and was nominated for another Oscar for her role in Rachel, Rachel in 1969. The latter film was directed by Paul Newman.
Oscar winner
She was later nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in 1974 for the film Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and in 1991 for the film Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.
Her husband also won an Oscar for Best Actor. In 1987, he won it for his role in the film The Color of Money.
Woodward also won two Emmy Awards for Best Actress in the films Look How She Runs (1978) and Remember the Love? (1985). She was nominated for this award five more times.