February 27

She gave the performance of a lifetime in just her third film—and won an Oscar at 27.

Joanne Woodward was born in Thomasville and grew up there and in Marietta. She loved movies, and in 1939 she and her mother attended the Atlanta premiere of Gone with the Wind.

Woodward went to Louisiana State University for two years, but after her father saw her perform in The Glass Menagerie, she was off to New York. She joined the Actor’s Studio, where dramatic coach Sanford Meisner encouraged her to lose her Southern accent.

In 1952 she met another actor named Paul Newman; they married in 1958 and became one of Hollywood’s leading couples. In her third film, Woodward portrayed a real-life Georgia woman with multiple personality disorder. The Three Faces of Eve earned Woodward the 1958 Best Actress Oscar and made her a major star. She received three other Oscar nominations in her career and won two Emmys.

One of the 20th century’s most versatile actresses was born in Thomasville on February 27, 1930, Today in Georgia History.