Julie Christie the biography

Julie Christie, Actress, - Biography

Actress

Birth name Julie Frances Christie
Born April 14, 1941, Assam, India

Height, 5 foot 2

Julie Frances Christie is an Academy Award-winning English film actress. She was a leading figure in the glamorous London of the 1960

Christie was born in Assam, India, then part of the British Empire, as one of two children. Her mother, Rosemary Ramsden, was a Welsh-born painter & childhood friend of actor Richard Burton. Her father, Frank St. John Christie, ran the tea plantation around which Christie grew up. She had a brother & a half-sibling from her father's affair with an Indian mistress. Christie's parents separated during her childhood. She was baptized in the Anglican religion, & studied at a convent school in England (from which she was later expelled), also living with a foster mother from the age of six. After her parents' divorce, Christie spent time with her mother in rural Wales. She studied at the Central School of Speech & Drama before getting her big break in 1961 in a science fiction series on BBC television, entitled A for Andromeda.

Early career
Christie's first major film role was as Liz, the friend & would-be lover of the eponymous Billy Liar played by Tom Courtenay in the 1963 film directed by John Schlesinger. Schlesinger, who only cast Christie after another actress dropped out of his film, directed her in her breakthrough role, as the amoral model Diana Scott in Darling (1965), a role which the producers originally offered to Shirley MacLaine. Though virtually unknown before Darling (1965), Christie ended the year 1965 by appearing as Lara Antipova in David Lean's adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago (1965), which was one of the all-time box office hits. In 1966, the 25-year-old Christie won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Darling (1965). Later, she played Thomas Hardy's heroine Bathsheba Everdene in Schlesinger's Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) & the lead character, Petulia Danner, (opposite George C. Scott) in Richard Lester's Petulia (1968).

Christie as Lara in Doctor Zhivago (1965)In the 1970s, Christie starred in such films as Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971) (her second Best Actress Oscar nomination), The Go-Between (again co-starring Alan Bates, 1971), Don't Look Now (1973), Shampoo (1975), Demon Seed (1977), & Heaven Can Wait (1978). She moved to Hollywood during the decade, where she had a high-profile (1967-1974), but intermittent relationship with actor Warren Beatty who described her as "the most beautiful & at the same time the most nervous person I had ever known". Following the end of the relationship, she returned to Britain, where she lived on a farm in Wales. Never a prolific actress, even at the height of her fame & bankability in the 1960s, Christie made fewer & fewer films in the 1980s. She had a major supporting role in Sidney Lumet's Power (1986), but other than that, she avoided appearances in large budget films & appeared in riskier fare.

Christie was namechecked in the Yo La Tengo song "Tom Courtenay" from the album Electro-O-Pura. She is mentioned by name in the Al Stewart song "Gina in the Kings Road" on his album A Beach Full of Shells.

Christie has turned down many leading roles in films such as They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Anne of the Thousand Days & The Greek Tycoon. Christie also signed on to play the female lead in American Gigolo opposite Richard Gere, however when Gere dropped out & John Travolta was cast in the role, Christie too dropped out from the project. Gere changed his mind & took back the role, however it was too late for Christie as her part was already taken by Lauren Hutton. Julie Christie also had to drop out of the leading role in Agatha due to breaking her wrist whilst roller-skating; the part was filled by Vanessa Redgrave.

Later work
A reluctant star, Christie made a comeback with her appearance as the unhappy wife in Alan Rudolph's domestic comedy-drama Afterglow (1997). Critics were delighted with her performance, for which she received her third Oscar nomination. However, rather than capitalizing on her comeback, Christie continued her nonchalant attitude towards acting. Since her last Oscar nomination, she has appeared mostly in small roles in English & American films.

Christie's latest portrayal is the female lead in Away From Her, a film about a long-married Canadian couple coping with the wife's Alzheimer's disease. Based on the Alice Munro short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain", the movie is the first feature film directed by Christie's sometime co-star, Canadian actress Sarah Polley. She only took the role, she says, as Polley is her friend. On her part, Polley said that Christie liked her script but initially turned it down as she was ambivalent about acting. It took several months of persuasion by Polley before Christie finally accepted the role, which was written with her in mind.

Debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2006 as part of the TIFF's Gala showcase, Away From Her drew rave reviews from the trade press, including the Hollywood Reporter, & the three Toronto dailies. The critics singled out the performances of Christie & her co-star, Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent, & Polley's assured direction.

Personal life
Christie has never married & has made it clear she has no plans to ever do so. Her long-time partner (since 1979) is The Guardian journalist Duncan Campbell, who prompted her reluctant return to Los Angeles, California, as that is where he has been based.

Since the 1970s, Christie has been politically active & involved in multiple causes, including animal rights, environmental protection, & the anti-nuclear power movement. She continues to make movies, including in French Belphégor - Le fantôme du Louvre (2001) opposite Sophie Marceau.

Christie is a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the U.K

This site was written in May 2007

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