Before embarking on a film career Woodward appeared as a vaudeville actor with the Orpheum Circuit in roles portraying the "Teddy Bear" and the "Parrot".

From 1909–1911 he played different animal parts with the Ziegfeld Follies including the "Ostrich", the "Jackass", the Frog, Stork and the Owl, and the G. O. P. Elephant.

He later appeared at Weber & Fields in Roly Poly playing an alligator.

In 1913 Woodward moved to Los Angeles to appear in Oliver Morosco's musical play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz in which he played the role of Hank the Mule.

[1] Woodward was born in Toronto in 1882 and died in Victoria on the Canadian West Coast in 1960 at an age of 77.