Fame could not protect Joanne Woodward from an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Alzheimer’s cannot be bought off.

It is not impressed with fame or success.

Anyone can be diagnosed with the disease.

According to a recent Hollywood Life article titled “Joanne Woodward’s Health: Her Alzheimer’s Battle & How She’s Doing Today,”  actress Joanne Woodward is a prime example.

Hollywood is where Joanne Woodward built a career and met the love of her life.

She had a decades-long career.

Born in Thomasville, Georgia on February 27, 1930, Joanne Woodward eventually found her way to Hollywood.

In the 1950s she garnered the praise and attention of film critics and viewing public for her performances in television programs like Hitchcock Presents and Goodyear Playhouse.

In the 1957 film The Three Faces of Eve, Woodward starred as a woman who had multiple personalities.

Joanne Woodward received an Academy Award for Best Actress for this role.

Finding success professionally and personally, Woodward would marry Paul Newman.

Together, they would work on several films like A New Kind of Love, Paris Blues, and The Long Hot Summer.

Woodward and Newman would remain happily married for 50 years until his death from cancer.

Only days before her husband was told he had cancer, Joanne Woodward received her Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Her fairy tale life was marred by these two tragic health issues.

After her diagnosis and the death of her husband, Joanne Woodard avoided the public eye.

Little is known about the details of her condition.

Joanne Woodard did receive attention in recent years with the release of a docuseries, The Last Movie Starts telling the story of her life with Paul Newman.

While promoting the series, the director Ethan Hawke shared that the family wanted him to complete the movie while she was capable of enjoying the film.

According to the series, Joanne Woodward is living in Connecticut with her family.

An Ok! Magazine article published earlier this year cited a source sharing how she has been courageous with the disease and is being kept comfortable by loved ones.

Alzheimer’s does not care about fame, fortune, or success.

However, a loving and devoted family are the secret to living with it.

Reference: Hollywood Life (Oct. 10, 2023) “Joanne Woodward’s Health: Her Alzheimer’s Battle & How She’s Doing Today”