Julie Andrews the biography- In Association with Villas in Austria and Switzerland

Julie Andrews, Actress, - Biography

Actress

Height: 5' 8" (1.73 M)

Birth name Julia Elizabeth Andrews
Born 1 October 1935, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, Great Britain,

A pic of her

Academy Awards

Best Actress
1964 Mary Poppins
Julia Elizabeth Andrews, is an Emmy, Grammy & Academy Award-winning actress, singer, & author. She became famous for her starring roles in the Broadway musicals My Fair Lady & Camelot, as well as the musical films Mary Poppins (1964) & The Sound of Music (1965). Of late she has had a major revival of her career & recently made her debut as a theatre director

Andrews was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, the daughter of Edward C. "Ted" Wells, a teacher of metalwork & woodwork, & Barbara Morris, a pianist. Andrews' mother divorced her father & married Ted Andrews, a man who she worked with in a Vaudeville act. Andrews' mother, Barbara, took Andrews with her to her practices as a pianist when Julie was only an infant. When Andrews was just two years old, she was given her first, non-speaking part in a show as a fairy. At this time, World War II was going on & Andrews & her mother & step-father would join their community in air raid shelters when German planes seemed to be near. While there, Andrews' step-father would lead everyone in a capella choruses, & Andrews often sang an octave above everyone else.

After Mr. Andrews started noticing Andrews' incredible talents, he put her up for voice lessons to further help develop her abilities. Andrews was taught by Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen. When Andrews was at home, her step-father made her practice her voice lessons only a half hour per day.

Occasionally, Andrews would attend the Cone-Ripman School in London that taught acting & ballet in the morning & more conventional & academic subjects in the afternoon.

In 1945, at age 10, Andrews was given her first professional acting opportunity in her parents' Vaudeville variety act, although she was unbilled.

Andrews made her professional solo debut at the London Hippodrome in a new musical revue called Starlight Roof in 1947. This same year, Julie met Tony Walton. 1954 was a turning point in her career, as Andrews made her New York stage debut portraying "Polly Brown" in the highly-successful musical, The Boy Friend.

During the next ten years, Julie starred & /or made a special appearance in a number of West End theatre productions & radio shows. Including, but not limited to: Radioloympia, Showtime, Educating Archie, Aladdin, & Jack & the Beanstalk
In 1954, on the evening before her 19th birthday, Julie Andrews made her Broadway debut. It was decided that the then hit London production of The Boy Friend be taken to America with an all new cast. Julie was the stand-out hit of the show. Not long after this, Julie was signed to appear opposite Bing Crosby in what is regarded as the first television film, High Tor. In 1956, she appeared in the Frederick Loewe & Alan Jay Lerner musical My Fair Lady as Eliza Doolittle, opposite Rex Harrison's Henry Higgins. The show was a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion & became the smash hit of the decade. Andrews became a sensation. During her run in Lady, she also starred in the television musical, Cinderella, created especially for her by Rodgers & Hammerstein.

Julie married Tony Walton on May 5, 1959 in Weybridge, Surrey. They would divorce amicably in 1967. Julie was on a three week vacation from the London production of My Fair Lady in which she again played Eliza Dolittle to Rex Harrison's Henry Higgins.

In 1960, Lerner & Loewe again cast her in a period musical, as Queen Guinevere in Camelot, opposite Richard Burton & newcomer Robert Goulet. After a slow start, cast appearances on Ed Sullivan's television show ensured that the show would ultimately become a hit.

Rave Broadway reviews aside, studio head Jack Warner declined to hire Andrews for My Fair Lady. Instead, he chose film actress Audrey Hepburn to star in the role of Eliza, as he felt "Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop." When the starring role in the film version of My Fair Lady went to Audrey Hepburn, she received the "consolation" of starring in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins. Andrews received this role after Disney saw a performance of Camelot & thought Julie would be perfect for the role of the English nanny who is "practically perfect in every way!" In light of her newly discovered pregnancy, Andrews initially declined, but Disney politely insisted & said "We'll wait for you." In September of 1962, Julie & Tony headed back to England to await the birth of their child Emma Kate Walton, who would be born on November 27, 1962, in London. The Walton family later returned to America to begin the filming of Mary Poppins in 1963. As Mary Poppins was Andrews' first film, she has commented in interviews that it was a learning experience.

“ The patience that I learned that it takes to make a film. Because, particularly 'Mary Poppins,' because it was all special effects. Half the film was animated against a big backdrop & it took forever to set up all these special effects. But it was the best learning experience I could have had, because I'd never made a film before. ”

As a result of her performance in Mary Poppins, Andrews won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. After beating Hepburn for the Golden Globe, Andrews got a measure of (as Poppins songwriter Richard M. Sherman put it) "sweet revenge": In closing her acceptance speech, Andrews—nervous & hoping the joke would play well—smiled & said, "and, finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie, & who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner."Her performance also won her the Academy Award for Best Actress for 1964. At the Grammy Awards, she & her co-stars won the Grammy Award for Best Album for Children for Mary Poppins.

Andrews' subsequent casting in both The Americanization of Emily & The Sound of Music was a result of the producers seeing snippets of Mary Poppins before its release. She was nominated for an Academy Award again, the following year, for her role as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music, (with actors Christopher Plummer & Charmian Carr), briefly becoming one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood.

By the end of 1967, Julie had appeared in the most-watched television special, Cinderella; the biggest Broadway musical of all-time, My Fair Lady; the largest-selling long playing album, the Original Cast Recording of My Fair Lady; the biggest hit in Disney's history, Mary Poppins; the biggest hit in United Artists' history, Hawaii; the biggest & second biggest hits in Universal's history, Thoroughly Modern Millie & Torn Curtain; & , the biggest hit in 20th Century Fox's history, & the most successful film of all-time, The Sound of Music. This distinction is unmatched by any other performer in history.
Star!, a 1968 biopic of Gertrude Lawrence, & Darling Lili (1970), co-starring Rock Hudson & directed by her second husband, Blake Edwards (they married in 1969), are often cited by critics as major contributors to the decline of the movie musical. Both were damaging to Andrews' subsequent career & , despite several starring roles in musical & non-musical films—including some directed by husband Edwards, such as The Tamarind Seed, 10, Victor/Victoria, & S.O.B., in one scene of which she seemed to be topless — she was seen very rarely on screen during the 1980s & 1990s.

She starred in her own variety series (for one season, on the ABC network in 1972 - 1973, winning 7 Emmy Awards), but the greatest critical acclaim accorded her TV work was for her variety show specials with her close friend, Carol Burnett.

In 1983, she was chosen as the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year by the Harvard University theatrical society. The same year, Andrews' role in Victor/Victoria earned Andrews her third Oscar nomination. In addition to her Oscar nomination, Andrews won another Golden Globe award.

In 1993, she starred in a limited run at The Manhattan Theater Club, of the American premiere of Stephen Sondheim's revue, Putting It Together. The show sold-out, immediately, & proved that there was tremendous interest in seeing her return to the New York stage.

In 1995, she starred in a very commercially successful run in a stage musical version of Victor/Victoria. It was her first appearance in a Broadway show in 35 years. Opening on Broadway on 25 October 1995, at the Marquis Theatre, it later went on the road on a very successful world tour. When she was the only Tony Award nominee for the production, she declined the nomination because she felt the entire production was snubbed.She appeared in the production, which was directed by her husband, Blake Edwards, for almost the entire run. After missing more than 30 performances of the show, Andrews quit the role to undergo throat surgery. Her role in Victor/Victoria was replaced by friend Liza Minnelli, & months later, by Raquel Welch. Since her operation, Andrews has been struggling to sing like before. In 1999, Andrews filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctors at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital that had operated on her throat. Originally, the doctors claimed that she should regain her voice within six weeks, but Andrews' stepdaughter Jennifer Edwards has claimed that "it's been two years, & it (her singing voice) still hasn't returned."
Director Garry Marshall cast her in The Princess Diaries & its sequel, playing the role of the queen of an imaginary country, Queen Clarisse Marie Renaldi; both films, in which she starred opposite Anne Hathaway, proved to be box-office hits. In the film The Princess Diaries 2, Andrews made her singing comeback, performing the song "Your Crowning Glory." The song was written in a limited one-octave range to accommodate for Andrews' recovering voice. The film's music superviser Dawn Soler had a positive reaction to Andrews' performance: "She nailed the song on the first take. I looked around & I saw grips with tears in their eyes." [7]She has also starred in two made-for-television movies based on the character of Eloise (playing her Nanny), the child who lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. In 2004, she lent her voice in the role of Queen Lillian to Shrek 2, the popular sequel to the 2001 hit Shrek.

In 1999, Julie also starred in a new movie, One Special Night, made for television, with James Garner. This would be their third time together in a movie since Victor/Victoria (1982).

In the 2000 New Year's Honours, despite her long exile in the United States & Switzerland, she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE).

Andrews has been struggling to recover her five-octave singing voice following surgery to remove vocal fold nodules, but had a short tour of the USA at the end of 2002 with Christopher Plummer, Charlotte Church, Max Howard, & the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The year before her tour, she & Plummer reunited for the first time since The Sound of Music in a live television adaptation of On Golden Pond, which aired on CBS in the United States.

Dame Julie's career is said to have suffered from typecasting, as her two most famous roles (in Mary Poppins & The Sound of Music) cemented her image as a "sugary sweet" personality best known for working with children. Her roles in Blake Edwards' films could be seen as an attempt to break away from this image: In 10, her character is a no-nonsense career woman; in Victor/Victoria, she plays a woman pretending to be a man (who is working as a female impersonator); & , perhaps most notoriously, in S.O.B., she plays a character very similar to herself, who agrees (with some pharmaceutical persuasion) to "show my boobies" in a scene in the film-within-a-film. For this last performance, late night television host Johnny Carson thanked Andrews for "showing us that the hills were still alive", alluding to her most famous line from the title song of The Sound of Music.

Andrews recently directed a revival of The Boy Friend, the musical in which she made her Broadway debut in 1954. The production was created in 2003, at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York. It was then remounted at the Tony Award winning Goodspeed Opera House in 2005, where she developed it further. From there, the show toured to cities in North America, including: Boston, Chicago & Toronto through 2006. The production included costume & scenic design by good friend & former husband, Tony Walton.

Andrews received Kennedy Center Honors in 2001. She also appears in the 2002 List of "100 Greatest Britons" sponsored by the BBC & chosen by the public. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.

On May 5th, 2005 Andrews became the Official Ambassador for Disneyland's 18 month-long, 50th anniversary celebration the "Happiest Homecoming on Earth". Her duties included making personal appearances at the park, traveling to promote the celebration & narrating the new 50th anniversary fireworks show, "Remember...Dreams Come True".

In a recent (2006) interview, she said: "To be honest with you, I've never been busier in my life," Andrews said. "I'm not quite sure what I was supposed to learn from all of that. It did bother me. I can't say that I wasn't devastated. Singing, with an orchestra, being able to sing, was what I'd known my entire life. Whatever happened, I think I found so much to keep me feeling that I'm contributing still."

In January of 2007, Andrews was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Screen Actors Guild's awards. The award was presented by two of Andrews' co-stars: Anne Hathaway, Andrews' co-star in The Princess Diaries, & Dick Van Dyke, her co-star from Mary Poppins. When commenting on her feelings on receiving the award, Andrews said: "I'm terribly honored...I mean, there are an awful lot of people out there that could be honored. & the fact that they very sweetly chose me, means a lot." When commenting on her career, Andrews said: "My career has just been blessed by good fortune, by amazing mentors who really cared & so many wonderful actors who have been a part of my life."

Currently, Andrews' goals include continuing stage direction & possibly producing her own Broadway musical.

Filmography

Mary Poppins (1964) The Americanization of Emily (1964) Salzburg Sight & Sound (1965) (short subject) The Sound of Music (1965) Torn Curtain (1966)
Hawaii (1966) Think Twentieth (1967) (short subject) Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) Star! (1968) Darling Lili (1970) The Moviemakers (1971) (short subject)
Julie (1972) (documentary) The Tamarind Seed (1974) 10 (1979) Little Miss Marker (1980) S.O.B. (1981 film) (1981) Victor/Victoria (1982) Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) (Cameo) The Man Who Loved Women (1983) That's Life! (1986) Duet for One (1986) A Fine Romance (1991) Our Sons (1991)
Relative Values (2000) The Princess Diaries (2001) Unconditional Love (2002) (Cameo) Shrek 2 (2004) (voice) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)

This site was written in February 2007

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