Feb 27, 1930

Thomasville, Georgia, USA

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward was born on February 27th, 1930 in Thomasville, Georgia USA.

In her teens, Joanne entered and won many Georgia beauty contests. Her mother said "she was the prettiest girl in town". But all Joanne wanted to do was act and she saw beauty contests as taking the first step toward her dream. When she was of age, she enrolled into Louisiana State University, majoring in drama. After graduation and doing small plays, Joanne headed to New York and studied acting ... ... (read more...) with Sanford Meisner. The first thing he tackled was Joanne's Southern drawl.

Soon, Joanne was starring in television productions and theater. One day, by her agent, she introduced 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 together as understudies for the Broadway production of "Picnic". They worked very closely together and got along very well. They would have long conversations about everything and anything. Then both their movie careers took off, Joanne with Count Three and Pray (1955), 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 divorce. Less than a week after the divorce was final, Paul married Joanne in Las Vegas. This was on January 29th, 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.