JULIE ANDREWS ACTRESS OF THE SOUND OF MUSIC BORN 1935 OCTOBER 1

JULIE ANDREWS ACTRESS OF  

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

BORN 1935 OCTOBER 1

Dame Julia Elizabeth "Julie" Andrews, DBE (née Wells; born 1 October 1935) is an English film and stage actress, a singer, an author, a theatre director, and a dancer.[1] Andrews, a child actress and singer, appeared on the West End in 1948, and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend (1954). She rose to prominence starring in Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady (1956) and Camelot (1960). In 1957, Andrews starred in the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's written-for-television musical Cinderella, a live network broadcast seen by over 100 million viewers.

Andrews made her feature film debut in Mary Poppins (1964), and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role. She starred in The Sound of Music (1965), playing Maria, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Between 1964 and 1986, she starred in, The Americanization of Emily (1964), Hawaii (1966), Torn Curtain (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Star! (1968), The Tamarind Seed (1974), 10 (1979), Victor Victoria (1982), That's Life! (1986), and Duet for One (1986).

In 2000, Andrews was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the performing arts. In 2002, she was ranked #59 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In 2003, she revisited her first Broadway success, this time as a stage director, with a revival of The Boy Friend. From 2001 to 2004, Andrews starred in The Princess Diaries (2001), The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). From 2004 to 2010, she lent her voice to the Shrek animated films, and Despicable Me (2010).

Andrews has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, 5 Golden Globes, 3 Grammys, 2 Emmys, the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors Award, and the Disney Legend Award. She is an author of children's books, and has published her autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (2008).

Early life[edit]

Julia Elizabeth Wells[2] was born on 1 October 1935, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.[3][4] Her mother, Barbara Ward Wells (née Morris) (1910—1984) was born 1910 in Chertsey[5] and married Edward Charles "Ted" Wells (1908—1990), a teacher of metalwork and woodwork in 1932.[6] However, Andrews was conceived as a result of an affair her mother had with an unnamed family friend.[7] Andrews discovered her true parentage from her mother in 1950,[7][8] although it was not publicly disclosed until her 2008 autobiography.[9]

With the outbreak of World War II, Barbara and Ted Wells went their separate ways and were soon divorced. They both remarried: Barbara to Ted Andrews, in 1943,[10] and Ted Wells, in 1944,[11] to Winifred Maud (Hyde) Birkhead, a war widow and former hairstylist working a lathe at a war work factory that employed them both in Hinchley Wood, Surrey.[7][8][12] Ted Wells assisted with evacuating children to Surrey during the Blitz, while Barbara joined Ted Andrews in entertaining the troops through the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).

Andrews lived briefly with Ted Wells and her brother John[13] in Surrey. In 1940, Ted Wells sent young Julia to live with her mother and stepfather, who, the elder Wells thought, would be better able to provide for his talented daughter's artistic training. According to her 2008 autobiography Home, while Julie had been used to calling Ted Andrews "Uncle Ted", her mother suggested it would be more appropriate to refer to her stepfather as "Pop", while her father remained "Dad" or "Daddy" to her. Julie disliked this change

Early career in Britain
On 1 November 1948, Julie Andrews (aged 13) became the youngest solo performer ever to be seen in a Royal Command Variety Performance, at the London Palladium, where she performed along with Danny Kaye, the Nicholas Brothers and the comedy team George and Bert Bernard for members of King George VI's family.[22][23]

Julie Andrews followed her parents into radio and television.[24] She performed in musical interludes of the BBC Light Programme comedy show Up the Pole and later Educating Archie, of which she was a cast member from 1950 to 1952.[23] She reportedly made her television début on the BBC programme RadiOlympia Showtime on 8 October 1949.[2


Early career in the United States[edit]

Andrews and Richard Burton in Broadway's presentation of Camelot
On 30 September 1954 on the eve of her 19th birthday, Julie Andrews made her Broadway debut portraying Polly Browne in the already highly successful London musical The Boy Friend.[1] To the critics, Andrews was the stand-out performer in the show.[26] Near the end of her Boy Friend contract, Andrews was asked to audition for My Fair Lady on Broadway and got the part.[27] In November 1955 Andrews was signed to appear with Bing Crosby in what is regarded as the first made-for-television film, High Tor.[28]

Andrews auditioned for a part in the Richard Rodgers musical Pipe Dream. Although Rodgers wanted her for Pipe Dream, he advised her to take the part in the Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner musical My Fair Lady if it were offered to her. In 1956, she appeared on stage in My Fair Lady as Eliza Doolittle to Rex Harrison's Henry Higgins. Rodgers was so impressed with Andrews' talent that concurrent with her run in My Fair Lady, she was featured in the Rodgers and Hammerstein television musical, Cinderella.[26] Cinderella was broadcast live on CBS on 31 March 1957 under the musical direction of Alfredo Antonini and attracted an estimated 107 million viewers.[29][30] The show was broadcast in colour from CBS Studio 72, at 2248 Broadway in New York City. Only a black-and-white kinescope remains, which has been released on DVD.


 Andrews was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance.[31] Between 1958 and 1962, Andrews appeared on such specials as CBS-TV's The Fabulous Fifties and NBC-TV's The Broadway of Lerner & Loewe. In addition to guest starring on The Ed Sullivan Show (15 July 1956), she also appeared on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, What's My Line?, The Jack Benny Program, The Bell Telephone Hour and The Garry Moore Show. In June 1962, Andrews co-starred in Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall, a CBS special with Carol Burnett.

In 1960, Lerner and Loewe again cast her in a period musical as Queen Guinevere in Camelot, with Richard Burton and newcomer Robert Goulet. However film studio head Jack L. Warner decided Andrews lacked sufficient name recognition for her casting in the film version of My Fair Lady; Eliza was played by the established film actress Audrey Hepburn instead. As Warner later recalled, the decision was easy, "In my business I have to know who brings people and their money to a cinema box office. Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop."[32]
Film stardom[edit]

Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964)

In 1963, Andrews began her work in the title role of Disney's musical film Mary Poppins. Walt Disney had seen a performance of Camelot and thought Andrews would be perfect for the role of the British nanny who is "practically perfect in every way!" Andrews initially declined because of pregnancy, but Disney politely insisted, saying, "We'll wait for you."[33]

Mary Poppins became the biggest box-office draw in Disney history. Andrews won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance. She and her co-stars also won the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Album for Children. As a measure of "sweet revenge," as Poppins songwriter Richard M. Sherman put it, Andrews closed her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes by saying, "And, finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner."[33][34] My Fair Lady was in direct competition for the awards.

Andrews starred opposite James Garner in The Americanization of Emily (1964), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress in a Leading Role. A comedy-drama war film set in London during World War II, Andrews has described it as her favourite film, a sentiment shared by her co-star Garner.[35]

In 1965, Andrews starred in The Sound of Music, which was the highest-grossing film of the year. It was also the biggest hit in the history of 20th Century Fox.[36] As of 2013, it is the third highest-grossing film of all time in the United States, adjusted for inflation.[37] For her performance as Maria Von Trapp, Andrews won her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, though she lost to Julie Christie, for Darling.

After completing The Sound of Music, Andrews appeared as a guest star on the NBC-TV variety series The Andy Williams Show. She followed this television appearance with an Emmy Award-winning special, The Julie Andrews Show, which featured Gene Kelly and the New Christy Minstrels as guests. It aired on NBC-TV in November 1965.

In 1966, Andrews starred in Hawaii, the highest-grossing film of its year.[38] Also in 1966, she starred opposite Paul Newman in Torn Curtain, which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The following year, she played the eponymous character in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. At the time, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Torn Curtain were the biggest and second biggest hits in Universal Pictures history, respectively.


Personal life[edit]

Andrews has been married twice, first to set designer Tony Walton from 1959 until 1967,then to director Blake Edwards from 1969 until his death in 2010.[23][82][83]

Andrews married Walton on 10 May 1959 in Weybridge, Surrey. They had first met in 1948 when Andrews was appearing at the London Casino in the show Humpty Dumpty. Andrews and Walton headed back to Britain in September 1962 to await the birth of daughter Emma Katherine Walton, who was born in London two months later.[84]

Andrews married Edwards in 1969; his children from a previous marriage, Jennifer and Geoffrey, were 3 and 5 years older than Emma, Andrews' daughter with Tony Walton.[85] In the 1970s, Edwards and Andrews adopted two daughters; Amy in 1974 and Joanna in 1975.[86][87] Andrews is a grandmother to nine[88] and great-grandmother to three.[8