Joanne Woodward

Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve (1957), displaying "Eve Black", the "bad girl" personality

Woodward managed to get roles on TV shows such as Tales of Tomorrow, Goodyear Playhouse, Danger, The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, You Are There, The Web, The Ford Television Theatre, The Elgin Hour, Robert Montgomery Presents, Armstrong Circle Theatre, The Star and the Story, Omnibus, Star Tonight, and Ponds Theater.

In 1953-1954, she understudied in the New York production of Picnic, which featured her future husband Paul Newman.[3]

Woodward's first film was a post-Civil War Western, Count Three and Pray (1955). Woodward was billed second.

She was signed to a long term contract by 20th Century Fox in January 1956.[6]

Woodward guest starred on The 20th Century-Fox Hour, The United States Steel Hour, General Electric Theater, Four Star Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kraft Theatre, The Alcoa Hour, Studio One in Hollywood, and Climax!.

Woodward's second feature film was A Kiss Before Dying (1956) with Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter. These three actors were all under contract to Fox, and were loaned out to United Artists.

In 1956, Woodward returned to Broadway to star in The Lovers which only had a brief run (but was later filmed as The War Lord (1965)).

Woodward was given the lead role in her third feature, The Three Faces of Eve (1957). This was a commercial and critical success, and Woodward won the Best Actress Oscar.

Fox gave her top billing in No Down Payment (1957), directed by Martin Ritt and produced by Jerry Wald. Woodward returned to TV to do "The 80 Yard Run" for Playhouse 90.

Woodward starred in The Long, Hot Summer (1958) directed by Ritt and produced by Wald, based on a novel by William Faulkner. It co-starred Paul Newman, whom Woodward would go on to marry.

Fox promptly re-teamed Woodward and Newman on Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), a comedy.

She was re-united with Ritt on another Faulkner adaptation, The Sound and the Fury (1959), with Yul Brynner.

Sidney Lumet cast Woodward alongside Marlon Brando and Anna Magnani in The Fugitive Kind (1960), a box office disappointment. More popular was a third film with Newman, From the Terrace (1960), which Woodward later admitted to having "affection" for "because of the way I looked like Lana Turner".[7]

They then made Paris Blues (1961) with Ritt.

Woodward played the title role in The Stripper (1963) at Fox, the directorial debut of Franklin Schaffner.

She and Newman did a comedy for Paramount, A New Kind of Love (1963).

She later said: "Initially, I probably had a real movie-star dream. It faded somewhere in my mid-30s, when I realized I wasn't going to be that kind of actor. It was painful. Also, I curtailed my career because of my children. Quite a bit. I resented it at the time, which was not a good way to be around the children. Paul was away on location a lot. I wouldn't go on location because of the children. I did once, and felt overwhelmed with guilt."[8]

They returned to Broadway in Baby Want a Kiss (1964), which ran for over a hundred performances.

Woodward went to MGM for Signpost to Murder (1964), a low-budget thriller. She was in two comedies: A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1965) with Henry Fonda, and A Fine Madness (1966) with Sean Connery.

Woodward's 1960s publicity photo

Newman directed, but did not appear with, Woodward in Rachel, Rachel (1968). It was Newman's directorial debut, and both he and Woodward earned Golden Globe Awards and Oscar nominations.

The two of them acted together in Winning (1969) and WUSA (1970).

Woodward teamed with George C. Scott in They Might Be Giants (1971). She did an adaptation of the play All the Way Home (1971) for TV.[9]

Newman directed Woodward a second time in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), which earned her another Golden Globe and Best Actress at Cannes.

She then starred in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973), written by Stewart Stern, for which she received an Oscar nomination.[10]

She was to have co-starred with Robert Shaw in Strindberg's Dance of Death at Lincoln Center in 1974, but withdrew from the production during rehearsals. "New York puts a pressure on you that I don't react well to, with the critics and all that", she later said. "I like to act in a relaxed atmosphere."[8]

Woodward supported Newman in The Drowning Pool (1975).

She received excellent reviews for Sybil (1976), with Sally Field, and was Marmee in a ballet version of Little Women (1976).[11]

For TV, Woodward did Come Back, Little Sheba (1977) with Laurence Olivier, and See How She Runs (1978). The latter won her an Emmy.[12]

Woodward supported Burt Reynolds in The End (1978), and did A Christmas to Remember (1979) on TV. The decade ended with The Streets of L.A. (1979). She also directed an episode of Family in 1979.

Woodward's credits in the 1980s included The Shadow Box (1980), directed by Newman, and Crisis at Central High (1981) for TV.

She returned to Broadway for Candida (1981–1982), a production directed by Michael Cristofer that was filmed in 1982.[8]

She did Harry & Son (1984), directed by and co-starring Newman; and some TV movies, Passions (1984) and Do You Remember Love (1985).

She wrote the teleplay and directed a 1982 production of Shirley Jackson's story Come Along with Me, for which husband Newman provided the voice of the character Hughie under the screen name of P.L. Neuman.

For Newman, she starred in The Glass Menagerie (1987).

Newman and Woodward starred in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), garnering Woodward an Academy Award nomination. She did some TV movies, Foreign Affairs (1993) and Blind Spot (1993). Woodward was a co-producer of Blind Spot, a drama about drug addiction, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Mini-Series or a Movie.[13]

She narrated The Age of Innocence (1993) and had a supporting role in Philadelphia (1993). She did Breathing Lessons (1995) for TV.

In 1995, Woodward directed off-Broadway revivals of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy and Waiting for Lefty at the Blue Light Theater Company in New York.[14]

Woodward served as the artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse from 2001 to 2005.[15]

She was executive producer of the 2003 television production of Our Town, featuring Newman as the stage manager (for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award.) She and Newman also appeared in Empire Falls (2005) for TV.

She recorded a reading of singer John Mellencamp's song "The Real Life" for his box set On the Rural Route 7609.

She had the lead in Change in the Wind (2010).

In 2011, she narrated the Scholastic/Weston Woods film All the World.