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Julie Andrews
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Biography
Gave her debut on broadway in 1954 aged 19. Later she worked for television until 1964 when her first succesful movie as protagonist was released; it was "Mary Poppins" by 'R. Stevenson' for which she won an oscar. In the following years she worked with different directors in various genres (e.g. Robert Wise "Sound of Music, The (1965)" and with Alfred Hitchcock "Torn Curtain (1966)"). In 1969 she married the director Blake Edwards with whom she also made various movies (e.g. "Victor/Victoria (1982)").
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Mini biography
Born Julia Elizabeth Wells in England in 1935, it was discovered when she was a child that she had a freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave singing voice. her mother and stepfather, both vaudeville performers, immediately got her into a singing career, and she performed in music halls throughout her childhood and teens, always immensely popular. At age 20, she performed in a London Palladium production of "Cinderella;" this launched her stage career. She came to Broadway in 1954 with "The Boy Friend." It was a hit, and Julie Andrews became a bona fide star two years later, in 1956, in the role of Eliza Doolittle in the unprecedented hit "My Fair Lady." Her star status continued in 1957, when she starred in the hit TV-production of Cinderella (1957) (TV) and through 1960, when she played Guenevere in "Camelot." She also starred in many TV-specials, notably one with Carol Burnett. In 1963, Walt Disney asked if she would like to star in his upcoming production, a lavish musical fantasy that combined live-action and animation. Julie said she would do it if she did not get to play Eliza in the pending film production of "My Fair Lady." She didn't, and so she made an auspicious film debut in Disney's Mary Poppins (1964), a huge hit which got her the Academy Award for Best Actress. (Audrey Hepburn, who played Eliza in the My Fair Lady film, wasn't even nominated.) Now Julie was a MOVIE STAR in capital letters, and it was her star power that helped make her third film, The Sound of Music (1965), the highest-grossing movie of its day and one of the highest-grossing of all time. The only problem was that now audiences identified her only with singing, sugary-sweet nannies and governesses. Therefore, they could not accept her in dramatic roles (The Americanization of Emily (1964), and definitely not in a Hitchcock thriller (Torn Curtain (1966). However, the musicals Julie subsequently made were casualties of the boom in musical film she helped to create. Throughly Modern Millie (1967), Star(1968), and Darling Lilli (1970) all bombed at the box office. However, Julie did not let this keep her down. She did work in nightclubs and hosted a TV variety series in the 1970s. Then she made a comeback to movies with an appearence in 10 (1979), directed by husband Blake Edwards. He helped continue to keep her on the rise by directing her in subsequent roles that were entirely different than anything she had been seen in before. There was the movie star who bared her breasts onscreen in S.O.B. (1981) and thewoman playing a man playing a woman in Victor/Victoria (1982), and the sheer novelty of seeing Julie Andrews in these roles, not to mention her brilliant performances in both of them, undoubtedly helped make them successes. She continued acting throughout the 1980s and 1990s in movies and TV, hosting several specials and starring in a short-lived sitcom. In 1995, she returned to Broadway to star in the musical version of "Victor/Victoria" and was again a smash. Sadly, an operation on her vocal chords left her singing voice badly damaged in 1998, but she has not let even this stop her, giving a showstopping appearence at the 1999 Tony Awards and appearing in the TV-movie One Special Night (1999) (TV). Julie Andrews, in all her many incarnations, will no doubt keep us very entertained for years to come.
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Spouse
Blake Edwards (1969 - present)
Tony Walton (1959 - 1967) (divorced); 1 daughter
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Trivia
Was named a Dame by Britain's Queen Elizabeth on New Year's Eve, 1999
(November 1998) Her husband reported that she would probably never sing again because the throat surgery had ruined her voice.
(March 1998) Undergoes throat surgery
Step-mother of Jennifer Edwards. Mother of Emma Walton
Uses the pen-name "Julie Edwards"
Has two step children from Blake Edwards.
Born at 6:00am-BST
Spent some time in a psychiatric clinic, to help her cope with the trauma resulting from her throat surgery.
Stepchildren, Jennifer and Geoffrey Daughter, Emma Adopted daughters (with Edwards), Amy and Joanna (Dec. 1999) is writing her memoirs Julie & husband Blake Edwards have raised five children - Emma from her first marriage, Jennifer & Geoffrey from his first, and Amy and Joanna, who are adopted Vietnamese children.
7 September 2000 - Her malpractice suit against the 2 New York Mt. Sinai Hospital doctors who allegedly botched her throat surgery was settled for an undisclosed sum.
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Personal quotes
"Working with Julie Andrews is like getting hit over the head with a valentine." - Christopher Plummer, Julie's costar in Sound of Music, The (1965)
"I don't want to be thought of as wholesome."
"Does Mary Poppins have an orgasm? Does she go to the bathroom? I assure you, she does." 1982
"She has lilacs for public hairs." Blake Edwards |  |
