Hollywood have seen many golden couples come and go. Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, and Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio are just some.
But when speaking about legendary celebrity couples, you have to mention the late Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, today 92.
Paul and Joanne wed in 1958 and stayed married until Newman died in 2008 at age 83. Joanne and Paul spent 50 years together, starring in movies, traveling, and raising a family.
But did you know that Woodward wasn’t impressed with her future husband when they first met?
Paul Newman is one of the most beloved actors and performers of his generation. Together with Joanne Woodward, they were a timeless golden Hollywood couple.
People might think that Newman was the lone star of the relationship. But actually, Joanne Woodward can look back on a successful career, winning plenty of awards and shining like the biggest and brightest Hollywood stars.
She was highly respected for her convincing and fabulous roles in film, theatre, and television. Joanne distinguished herself from other actresses in 50’s Hollywood, having strong and independent roles instead of the many helpless ones often given to women at the time.
Joanne Woodward was born on Feb. 27, 1930, in Thomasville, Georgia.
She attended Greenville High School in Greenville, South Carolina, and still a teenager, Joanne won several beauty contests.
Her acting career started in high school, with her appearing in several theatrical productions.
She played Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and would return to Greenville in the ’70s, playing in the same product again but this time as Amanda Wingfield.
Married in Las Vegas
In 1955, 25 years old, Joanne returned to Greenville for the premiere of her debut movie Count Three and Pray.
Following her graduation from High School, Joanne moved to Louisiana, where she majored in drama at Louisiana State University. She later traveled to New York City, where she performed on stage.
Joanne’s decision to go to New York turned out to be a great one. In 1953, she met what would be her future husband, Paul Newman.
At the time, Newman was married to his first wife, Jackie Witte.
Joanne had recently graduated from Louisiana State and was an understudy in the Broadway play Picnic. Newman starred in the show, and soon, there were going to be sparks of love.
Speaking to Today many years ago, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward talked about the day they first met.
It was a hot summer’s day, with Newman wearing a seersucker suit, not sweating, and looking like an “ice cream ad,” according to Joanne.
”I was hot, sweaty and my hair was all stringy around my neck,” Joanne later said.
She also admitted that she wasn’t interested at first, but Newman was drawn to her. Joanne was an ”extraordinarily pretty girl,” and Newman couldn’t stop thinking about her.
In Marian Edelman Borden’s biography about Newman, the author revealed that Woodard said:
“I hated him on sight, but he was so funny and pretty and neat.”
It would be four years before Newman and Woodward took it to the next level. They were friends from the moment they met, but while starring together in The Long, Hot Summer (1957), it turned into something else.
Wonderful love story
Newman divorced his wife Jackie just after filming The Long, Hot Summer in 1957. The couple had three children together.
Soon after the separation from Jackie, Paul tied the knot with Joanne on Jan. 29, 1858.
Joanne and Paul wed in Las Vegas and spent their honeymoon in Europe.
Just married, the press couldn’t get enough of the golden Hollywood stars. Journalists followed the two around on their honeymoon, which made them a beloved celebrity couple among the public.
It was the beginning of a happy, charming and wonderful love story.
Following their six-week honeymoon, Paul and Joanne moved into their 18th-century Connecticut farmhouse.
Speaking to the Daily News in 2001, Joanna explained that the decision to move to the house instead of Los Angeles was crucial for their marriage
“We were never Hollywood people. We just liked it better here. It also probably helps that we always enjoyed each other’s company,” Joanne said.
1958 was also going to be a year to remember as one that made Woodward immortal in Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress, starring in The Three Faces of Eve, and received an additional Academy Award nomination for her role in Rachel, Rachel in 1969. Paul Newman was the director of the latter.
Academy Award winner
She was later also nominated for an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress in 1974 for Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and in 1991 for Mr. & Mrs. Bridge.
Her husband would also move on to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1987, he received it for his role in The Color of Money.
Woodward also received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in See How She Runs (1978) and Do You Remember Love (1985). She was nominated an additional five-time.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a known landmark to visit in Hollywood, with thousands of actors, filmmakers, and musicians having received a star.
But who was the first one to be dedicated to the historic walkway? Yes, you guessed it right. It was Joanne Woodward who got her star during the official groundbreaking ceremony on Feb. 9, 1960, according to History.
Paul Newman and Joanna Woodward decided to raise their family in Connecticut, far away from the busy lifestyle in Hollywood.
In an interview with Daily Mail, daughter Clea, 55, spoke about her mother,
‘My mother was way ahead of her time,’ she says. ‘She was in the women’s lib before it became a big thing and she was a hands-on mother; when I was a baby she nursed me on set. She’d stop the cameras rolling in the middle of scenes and say, “Sorry, I’ve got to feed the baby.”’