Personal Life
Woodward was married twice. His first marriage was to the actress Venetia Barrett (born Venetia Mary Collett) from 1952 to their divorce in 1986. They had two sons: Tim Woodward (born 1953) and Peter Woodward (born 1956), both of whom became actors, as well as a daughter, the Tony Award-nominated actress Sarah Woodward (born 1963). Woodward left Barrett for actress Michele Dotrice, the daughter of his contemporary Roy Dotrice, and married her in New York in January 1987. Their daughter, Emily Beth Woodward (born 1983), was present at the ceremony.
Woodward suffered a massive heart attack in 1987 and later underwent triple bypass surgery in 1996 and quit smoking after two heart attacks. In February 2003 it was announced that he had prostate cancer.
In July 2009 it was announced that a performance planned for later in 2009 of Love Letters, co-starring his wife Michele Dotrice, would be postponed because of damage caused to his hip when he fell down the stairs at his West Country home.
Edward Woodward died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro on 16 November 2009 at the age of 79. He had lived in Hawker's Cove, Cornwall, near Padstow and had been suffering from various illnesses, including pneumonia.
He is survived by his wife, Michele Dotrice and their daughter, and the three children of his first marriage.
Read more about this topic: Edward Woodward
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“Picture the prince, such as most of them are today: a man ignorant of the law, well-nigh an enemy to his people’s advantage, while intent on his personal convenience, a dedicated voluptuary, a hater of learning, freedom and truth, without a thought for the interests of his country, and measuring everything in terms of his own profit and desires.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“man’s life is thought,
And he, despite his terror, cannot cease
Ravening through century after century,
Ravening, raging, and uprooting that he may come
Into the desolation of reality....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)