Maria von Trapp, Marie Poppins, Eliza Dolittle, … these roles, Julie Andrews has immortalized them all. But do you really know the actress whose life was filled with adventures between the stage and the big screen? Let's take a closer look at Julie Andrews' incredible life.
The little actress with the voice of an angel
Julia Elizabeth Andrews was born in the suburbs of London in 1935. When the war broke out, her parents separated (she would find out later in life that she was the result of an extra-marital relationship). She moved in with her mother and her talented but alcoholic stepfather "Pop". Both artists and poor, they noticed her talent for singing and her crystalline voice. From the age of 10, she performed with them on stage, and learned singing with Lillian Stiles-Allen. It was her teacher that taught her the impeccable diction that makes her voice so recognizable to this day.
Aged 12, she sang at the London Hippodrome and the following year, sang in front of the future Queen of England, Elizabeth II!
Until 1950, she followed her parents and made a name for herself in "pantomimes" as well as on the screens and on the radio.
First roles on Broadway
Noticed on stage, Julie Andrews left London and her family to act in the musical The Boy Friend on Broadway. The day before her 19th birthday, she burnt the New York stage for the first time. In her book Home Work, she writes that on the evening of the premiere, the public left the room dancing the Charleston!
It's the turn of Alan Jay Lerner and Fritz Loewe to offer a new role that she can't refuse: Eliza Dolittle! For more than 3 years, on Broadway then in London, she played the title role of My Fair Lady. Her performance was acclaimed by both audiences and critics. She emerged from this experience more mature but exhausted. When Jack Warner adapted My Fair Lady as a movie, he chose Audrey Hepburn for the part, much to the chagrin of Julie.
In 1953, she also played on television in the adaptation of Cinderella by Oscar & Hammerstein II, which was watched by 100 million viewers!
Then Lerner & Lowe offered her another role: Genevieve in Camelot. On March 5, 1962, together with her BFF Carol Burnett, they played an evening of song and humor at Carnegie Hall.
Mary Poppins & Hollywood
As Julie Andrews was performing her last shows of Camelot, she received two good news. First: she was expecting her first child with hubby Tony Walton. The second is that Walt Disney wanted her to be Mary Poppins on screen and that he was ready to wait as long as necessary. Now the mother of a little Emma, Julie Andrews flew to Hollywood.
She discovered a world very different from that of the theatre: the music wass recorded before filming, the scenes were shot out of order, without wet, or with plastic penguins as scene partners... And yet, here again, Julie Andrews was a big hit. Wanting to break with her “nanny” roles, she then filmed The Americanization of Emily before tackling a new film that would soon become cult: The Sound of Music. Filming in Austria was also extravagant between the complicated weather, the helicopter shots and the hysterical laughter between the actors.
Finally, in 1964 and 1965, the three movies were released in cinemas: Julie Andrews was now a world star!
Love is at the shrink!
Julie Andrews went on her merry way in Hollywood with the movies Hawaii, Torn Curtain by Hitchcock and the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie. Then in 1967, she separated from her husband Tony Walton. But she met love on the way to her analyst: every week, she would meet the same driver behind the wheel of his Rolls Royce. They happened to share the same psychoanalyst and this mysterious driver was none other than Blake Edwards, legendary director of Diamonds on Couch et The pink Panther. They quickly fell in love and married in 1969 before buying a chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, which became their main residence. In 1974 and 75, they adopted two Vietnamese girls: Amelia and Joanna. Then Julie Andrews appeared in movies that were unfortunate box office flops: Star! and Darling Lily.
The 70s between television and writing
Julie Andrews became the host of the variety show The Julie Andrews Hour in 1972. She would welcome new guests every week, sing and dance with them. Although the show won 7 Emmys, it was canceled after just one season. In the following years, Andrews recorded many theatrical evenings for television in London.
An anecdote you may not know: Julie Andrews loves to swear. When she asked her daughter Emma what her punishment for her swearing should be, she replied, “write me a story”. Andrews discovered a passion for writing and published more than 20 books for children. Some were even be co-written with her daughter Emma and illustrated by her ex-husband Tony Walton: a real family affair!
Blake Edwards' muse
In the 80s, Andrews continued to act in movies directed by her husband: The Tamarin Seed, SOB, 10, the sequels of The Pink Panther, That's Life, The Man Who Loved Women… the list goes on.
But the greatest success remains of course Victor/Victoria. In this film she has the difficult task of playing a woman who pretends to be a transvestite man. His remarkable performance hailed and greatly rewarded! It was also in the 80s that she joined the board of directors of Operation USA, which raises funds for famine victims in Asia. She traveled to South Asia several times and remains deeply moved by these trips.
Her stage comeback and the loss of her voice.
It had been over 30 years since Julie Andrews last performed on stage. In 1993, Off-Broadway, she joined the cast of Putting It Together, Stephen Sondheim's musical review.
Then in 1995, she reprised her role in Victor/Victoria, this time on Broadway. She was nominated for a Tony Award but refused the nomination, considering that the production had been snubbed. She held the role for nearly two years but developed nodules on her vocal cords. Her operation did not go well and irreparably damaged her larynx, ending her singing career.
This situation devastated the actress whose voice previously spanned 4 octaves. For many years, she refused to sing during interviews.
Queen Julie
In 2001, Julie Andrews returned to the cinema in the Disney film The Princess Diaries where she interprets the role of Queen Renaldi of Genovia, alongside Anne Hathaway. She will resume this role in the 2nd part in 2004 where she sings for the first time since her operation.
She finds her way back to the sets but dubbing this time. Julie then lends her voice to Queen Lillian in Shrek and to Malerna in Despicable Me. She is also the narrator of the movies Enchanted, Aquaman and more recently of the Netflix series Bridgerton. In 2010, her husband Blake Edwards, who suffered from chronic fatigue, died of complications from pneumonia.
In 2017, she also appeared in the educational series Julie's Greenroom where, with stars of the milieu, she teaches the art of showbiz to puppet students.
She has received numerous awards celebrating her career and her contribution to English culture. In June 2022, she was awarded the Life Achievement Award by the American Film Institute. Always classy, she celebrated in her discourse the hidden professions of cinema. In an interview following her award, she said she was “the luckiest girl in the world”. We are the lucky ones!
You will have understood it, Julie Andrews is the coolest nanny in Hollywood. An actress, singer and dancer of immeasurable talent who combines grace and humor to perfection.
I can only advise you to watch all the movies in which she appears, she is always sublime.
If you want wacky anecdotes on the filming of Julie Andrews' films, I recommend her book Home Work, A Memoir of My Hollywood Years.