![]() 'It nearly drove me out of my mind,' he recalled. He would go to performances in the town's playhouse and watch the actors taking their curtain calls. With Jackie, he returned to Cleveland where their son, Scott, was born, and it looked as if, at the age of 25, Paul Newman's brief flirtation with the world of acting was over.īut he could not stop pining for the stage. When Jackie became pregnant, he had to face the prospect of giving up the theatre.Ĭoincidentally, his father had just died and it fell to him to join in the running of the family business. His acting was uninspired and, though he was 'a good-lookin' blue-eyed guy,' in the words of the theatre manager, he was not viewed as 'leading man' material. In Woodstock, Newman's theatrical career bumped along. The simplest explanation is that they were a handsome pair and in love. Pregnancy is a popular first guess, but no child was imminent. There have been various surmises as to just what led Newman to marry so quickly and to someone so young. That winter, they moved together to a theatre company in Woodstock in Illinois, and on December 27, 1949, Jackie became the first Mrs Paul Newman. Jackie was just 19 and yet to graduate from college when they met up at a small town where they both had taken summer stage work. ![]() Newman, a 24-year-old Navy veteran, had turned his back on a job in the family firm, a successful business selling sportswear in Cleveland, Ohio, and, inspired by some acting he had done at university, tried to find work in local repertory theatres around the Mid-west. The name of his first wife was Jackie Witte, a tall, dark-eyed blonde, and, in the years just after World War II, an aspiring actor like him. One for the load on his conscience: Newman used alcohol as a release It was all a dream come true - and the start of a legendary showbusiness marriage that was to last 50 years.īut their partnership became such an institution that few people realised Newman had been married before - and that he had broken up the marriage in circumstances that did him little credit and about which he was ashamed for the rest of his life. They socialised with Claire Bloom, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Kenneth Tynan and other theatre luminaries. 'There were no tourists to speak of,' Newman remembered later, 'and we would drive off into the country till we were lost and then check into country inns at nightfall. But, as our second extract from a new biography of Newman reveals, the relationship began as an adulterous affair while Newman was married to his first wife, actress Jacqueline Witte, by whom he had three children.įor their honeymoon, Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward flew to London. Comments When Paul Newman married actress Joanne Woodward, it was the start of a legendary showbusiness marriage that was to last 50 years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |