LOCAL TIES TO THE LAST MOVIE STARS

Today's virtual screenfest recommendation is Ethan Hawke's "The Last Movie Stars." The six-part documentary from CNN Films and HBO Max chronicles Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's iconic careers and decades-long partnership. Director Ethan Hawke brings life and color to this definitive history of their dedication to their art, philanthropy, and each other.

While the series was not filmed in the Hudson Valley, many of the participants have deep roots to the region, including Newman, Woodward, Hawke and many of the participants including Gore Vidal, Vincent D'Onofrio and Sam Rockwell.

In 1990, Oscar-winning actor Joanne Woodward, directed the play “Velvet Elvis,” which opened at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock. Newman attended the opening performance with Woodward.

In 1991, Woodward returned to the Bearsville Theater to head the cast of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts," which was directed by Pulitzer Prize-winner, Michael Cristofer.

Newman and Woodward had previously collaborated on Michael Cristofer’s “The Shadow Box” in 1980. The ABC TV movie, which Newman directed, stars Woodward, Christopher Plummer and Valerie Harper in an emotional story of three terminally ill cancer patients, their family and friends. The acclaimed film was nominated for three Emmys including one for Newman.

Joanne Woodward was also involved in the River Arts Repertory at the Byrdcliffe Theatre. Famous actors walked Byrdcliffe lanes memorizing lines. When Joanne Woodward came to play in Chekhov’s The Seagull, Paul Newman tagged along with her and hung out on the Village Green sipping a paperclad Bud.

In 1991, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were honored with the Franklyn Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award, which is presented annually to "those men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to those principles which US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed in his Four Freedoms speech to the United States Congress on January 6, 1941, as essential to democracy: "freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear."

In 1994, Paul Newman (also an Oscar-Winner) starred in "Nobody's Fool," which was filmed almost entirely in Beacon, NY. The film co-also featured Bruce Willis, Jessica Tandy, Melanie Giffith, Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film received two Oscar nominations for Best Actor (Newman) and Best screenplay based on previous material).

As a side note, the Hudson Valley Film Commission still works with several people who handled locations for “Nobody’s Fool,” including location manager Daniel Strol and then location assistant Laura Berning. The film is also available for screening on HBO-MAX.

In August of 2005, Newman returned to Woodstock to help with a fundraiser for the Woodstock Playhouse

Gore Vidal, who was a close friend of Newman and Woodward, bought and lived at Edgewater in Barrytown from 1950 to 1969. A prolific writer, Vidal published 25 novels, two memoirs and several volumes of stylish, magisterial essays. He also wrote plays, television dramas and screenplays.

Gore Vidal at Edgewater

He wrote the following in his autobiography, "Palimpsest:" “I have a recurring dream about Edgewater and sometimes I wonder if I should have given it up. The dream always starts the same way. I have just bought it back from the man I sold it to.”

For Vidal, the purchase of Edgewater was also a return to his birthplace—the Hudson River Valley. Read more about Vidal and Edgewater at Classic American Homes.

Actor, writer and director, Ethan Hawke also lived in the region in the early two thousands. His body of work has been exceptional from a very young age when he made his debut in “Explorers,” and followed with a breakthrough performance in “Dead Poet’s Society.” Hawke has been nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for “Boyhood”(2013), Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for “Before Midnight” (2013), Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for “Before Sunset” (2004), and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for “Training Day” (2001). His directorial debut came in 2001 with “Chelsea Walls.” Click here to watch an Interview with Hawke on Collider.

D'Onofrio also lived in the region and Rockwell has family in the area.