Was Joanne Woodward considered too plain looking for Paul Newman?

He obviously didn't think so.

Paul Newman didn't reach his mythic-level of perceived handsomeness until much later in their relationship.

At the time they got together, I'd argue that she may not have been Elizabeth Taylor or Vivian Leigh, she was still an attractive woman.

I've always thought she was very plain and dowdy looking, although at OP's pic, you can see she has great bone structure.

I surmise she must have been dynamite in the sack/freak in the sheets. Either that, or she reminded him a lot of his mother.

She was considered gamine-like in the 50s, in the vein of Shirley MacLaine. But she became rather matronly by the mid-60s.

R3 I think the new documentary about them had a part where Paul talked about how good the sex between them was.

She was pretty but he was prettier

She was what I'd call a "handsome" woman as they used to say.

For the most part she avoided glamorous and frivolous roles, and I think that was mostly her preference. She was really a character actress in lead roles.

I have read that she did not photograph well though she was quite striking in person. Her beautiful complexion and coloring did not transmit. OTOH, we hear about people whose faces the camera "loves"--Marilyn for example, whose downy facial hair gave her a luminosity.

Oh, there's a docu on them? Where can I see that?

R10 HBO Max

In the Datalounge he was gay.

Thanks, r11!

Joanne was undeniably pretty. Not movie star pretty...real life pretty.

Joanne Woodward was a Neighborhood Playhouse / Actors Studio actress, who went after good roles and not necessarily glamorous parts. She was more about the performance than the way she looked. When she accepted her Oscar wearing a home made dress, Joan Crawford took her to task for setting "the cause of Hollywood glamour back twenty years."

That said, with good makeup, clothes, and lighting, she was stunning.

^^Mannish. Unremarkable looking - even matronly - at r15's pic.

Sure ,Jan @ r16.

Bump

She was pretty. And of course Hollywood made her even better looking.

I wouldn't calll her plain looking.

More like ugly.