Couples collaborating: Woodward and Newman

Submitted by Andrew Wickliffe on February 1, 2012 - 5:25pm

While many married Hollywood couples collaborate, not many do so with as many films or over as many decades as Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward did... and still do.

When Paul Newman retired from acting in 2002, eight years before his death (except for voicing "Doc Hudson" in 2006's Cars), he stayed active in filmmaking. His widow, Joanne Woodward, has just signed on to executive produce a project Newman had been putting together.

This new film, titled Lucky Them and starring Marisa Tomei, Thomas Haden Church and Allison Janney, is at least a year away. But Newman and Woodward have been collaborating on films practically since they met. The actors worked together on stage in a production of Picnic in 1953. A few years later, they met again on the set of The Long, Hot Summer and married soon after.

For over thirty years, the couple together made various films. In addition, Newman directed other films starring Woodward.

Starring Newman and Woodward

The Long, Hot Summer (1958), costarring Orson Welles and Lee Remick
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), costarring Joan Collins and Tuesday Weld
From the Terrace (1960), costarring Myrna Loy and Barbara Eden
Winning (1969), costarring Robert Wagner and Richard Thomas
WUSA (1970), costarring Anthony Perkins and Laurence Harvey
The Drowning Pool (1975), costarring Anthony Franciosa and Melanie Griffith
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1975), costarring Blythe Danner and Kyra Sedgwick

Starring Woodward, directed by Newman

Rachel, Rachel (1968), costarring Estelle Parsons and Donald Moffat

Denver Public Library has a wide selection of Woodward and Newman's other films, if you're interested, a librarian can help you find more....

Andrew Wickliffe's blog

Comments

Submitted by Kat on February 6, 2012 - 6:28pm.

Don't forget about "A New Kind of Love"! It is one of my all time favorite movies, and they are so great in it. I wish the library had it.

Submitted by Andrew Wickliffe on February 6, 2012 - 6:45pm.

Hey Kat,

Yeah, I left "A New Kind of Love" off because the library doesn't have it. It's a great one.

Submitted by Sue B on February 3, 2012 - 1:57pm.

Andrew, you missed my favorite film of theirs, The Effect of the Gamma Rays on the Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, directed by Paul and starring Joanne as Beatrice and their daughter, Nell, as Beatrice's daughter. When Paul was talking once about how differently he and Joanne worked, he said, "all of those years acting and Joanne only ever brought one character home with her . . . Beatrice". The other two films not mentioned that they did as director and actress were The Glass Menagerie, the filming of which Stewart Stern wrote a book about, and a TV movie called The Shadow Box, which I think was televised in 1980, and I believe Joanne did star in--although I might be wrong about that one.

Submitted by Andrew Wickliffe on February 6, 2012 - 6:44pm.

Hi Sue,

I left out the ones not on DVD (and not in the library system)

Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is sadly still unreleased, even though it's played on the movie channels in the last few years.

And you're right about the two TV movies--which are both, sadly, not available on DVD.

Submitted by Anonymous on February 3, 2012 - 9:45am.

In the late 60s Joanne Woodward starred in a movie where she played a woman coming down with Alzheimer's, at that time not much talked about as it is today. When I worked for the ALZ Assn CO. I called Ms. Woodward's office to invite her to speak at our gala, though I had heard she did not do speaking engagements. I got a personal call back from a very gracious Admin Asst who explained Ms. Woodward did not give presentations. She was incredibly nice to me.

Submitted by Chris on February 2, 2012 - 3:31pm.

Nice article!