Melissa Newman

Melissa Stewart Newman (born September 27, 1961), also known as Lissy Newman, is an American artist, singer and former actress who appeared in the 1990 film Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, and at the 30th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

On the big screen at 7 years of age, her first appearance was in Rachel, Rachel (1968) during the classroom scene, which is not credited.

A year later, she appears in Sometimes a Great Notion (1970), as Lissy Stamper, the daughter of Joe Ben (Richard Jaeckel) and Jan (Linda Lawson).

On television, she had a supporting role as Laney, the teenage daughter of the protagonist Betty Quinn (Joanne Woodward), in the 1978 movie See How She Runs.

Melissa Newman was born in Hollywood, California, the daughter of American actors Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, and the sister of Elinor Newman (as a child actress also known as Nell Potts) and Clea (Claire) Newman.

She was born on the same day her parents' film Paris Blues was released in the U.S.

She grew up shuttling back and forth with her well-known actor parents between Westport, Connecticut and Hollywood.

She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1988.

Newman is married to Raphael "Raphe" Elkind, a middle-school teacher.

In Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), she has a cameo as Young India at the Pool, appearing in silent home movies (at the beginning and end of the film) as a flashback of Mrs. India Bridge, who was portrayed by Newman's mother, Joanne Woodward.

They reside in Westport, Connecticut, in the 19th-century home previously owned by her parents.

In 2023, Newman published a book of personal photos and letters of her parents' relationship spanning over decades entitled "Head Over Heels: Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman: A Love Affair in Words and Pictures" that included never before seen love letters and rare photos by acclaimed artists such as Richard Avedon and Stewart Stern.