Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by JohnKristofferRamos (talk | contribs) at 23:47, 26 October 2024. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

(died 2024)}}

{{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = Dame | name = Julie Andrews | honorific_suffix = DBE | image = Julie Andrews 1970.JPG | caption = Photo of Andrews from the 1970 CBS television special A World of Love | alt = Andrews smiling, 1970 | birth_name = Julia Elizabeth Wells | birth_date = (1935-10-01) 1 October 1935 (age 89) | birth_place = Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England | (2024-10-25)October 25, 2024 Dame Julie Andrews DBE (born Julia Elizabeth Wells on 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over eight decades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for three Tony Awards. One of the biggest box office draws of the 1960s, Andrews has been honoured with the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2022. She was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.

A child actress and singer, Andrews appeared in the West End in 1948 and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend (1954). Billed as "Britain's youngest prima donna", she rose to prominence in Broadway musicals starring as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1956) and Queen Guinevere in Camelot (1960). She also starred in the Rodgers and Hammerstein television musical Cinderella (1957). Andrews made her feature film debut as the title character in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964) and won the Academy Award for Best Actress. The following year, she starred in the musical film The Sound of Music (1965), playing Maria von Trapp and winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.

Andrews starred in various films, working with directors including her husband Blake Edwards, George Roy Hill, and Alfred Hitchcock. Films she starred in include The Americanization of Emily (1964), Hawaii (1966), Torn Curtain (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Star! (1968), The Tamarind Seed (1974), 10 (1979), S.O.B. (1981), Victor/Victoria (1982), That's Life! (1986), and Duet for One (1986). She later returned to films, acting in The Princess Diaries (2001), The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), as well as Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime (both 2003). She also lent her voice to the Shrek franchise (2001–2010) as Queen Lillian and the Despicable Me franchise (2010–present) as Felonious Gru's mother Marlena.

Andrews is also known for her collaborations with Carol Burnett, including the specials Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (1962), Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center (1971) and Julie and Carol: Together Again (1989). She starred in her variety special, The Julie Andrews Hour (1973), for which she received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Musical Series. Recently she co-created and hosted Julie's Greenroom (2017), and voiced Lady Whistledown in the Netflix series Bridgerton (2020–present). Andrews has co-authored numerous children's books with her daughter and two autobiographies, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (2008) and Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years (2019).

Early life and vocal training

Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on 1 October 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. Her mother, Barbara Ward Wells (née Morris; 25 July 1910–1984) was born in Chertsey and married Edward Charles "Ted" Wells (1908–1990), a teacher of metalwork and woodwork, in 1932. Andrews was conceived as a result of an affair her mother had with a family friend. Andrews learned of her true parentage from her mother in 1950, although it was not publicly disclosed until her 2008 autobiography.

With the outbreak of World War II, her parents went their separate ways and were soon divorced. Each remarried: Barbara to Ted Andrews, in 1943, and Ted Wells in 1944 to Winifred Maud (Hyde) Birkhead, a war widow and former hairstylist at a war work factory that employed them both in Hinchley Wood, Surrey. Wells assisted with evacuating children to Surrey during the Blitz, while Andrews's mother joined her husband in entertaining the troops through the Entertainments National Service Association. Andrews lived briefly with Wells and her brother, John in Surrey.

In 1940, Wells sent her to live with her mother and stepfather, who Wells thought would be better able to provide for his talented daughter's artistic training. While Andrews had been used to calling her stepfather "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, a change which she disliked. The Andrews family was "very poor" and "lived in a bad slum area of London" at the time, stating that the war "was a very black period in my life". According to Andrews, her stepfather was violent and an alcoholic. He twice tried to get into bed with his stepdaughter while drunk, resulting in Andrews fitting a lock on her door.

As the stage career of her mother and stepfather improved, they were able to afford better surroundings, first to Beckenham and then, as the war ended, back to the Andrews's hometown of Hersham. The family took up residence at the Old Meuse, in West Grove, Hersham, a house (since demolished) where Andrews's maternal grandmother had served as a maid. Andrews's stepfather sponsored lessons for her, first at the independent arts educational school Cone-Ripman School (previously ArtsEd, now Tring Park School for the Performing Arts) and thereafter with concert soprano and voice instructor Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen.

Andrews said of Stiles-Allen, "She had an enormous influence on me", adding, "She was my third mother – I've got more mothers and fathers than anyone in the world". In her memoir Julie Andrews – My Star Pupil, Stiles-Allen records, "The range, accuracy and tone of Julie's voice amazed me ... she had possessed the rare gift of absolute pitch", though Andrews herself refutes this in her 2008 autobiography Home. According to Andrews, "Madame was sure that I could do Mozart and Rossini, but, to be honest, I never was". Of her own voice, she says, "I had a very pure, white, thin voice, a four-octave range – dogs would come from miles around." After Cone-Ripman School, Andrews continued her academic education at the nearby Woodbrook School, a local state school in Beckenham.

Career

1945–1953: Early career

Beginning in 1945, and for the next two years, Andrews performed spontaneously and unbilled on stage with her parents. "Then came the day when I was told I must go to bed in the afternoon because I was going to be allowed to sing with Mummy and Pop in the evening", Andrews explained. During her initial shows, Andrews stood on a beer crate to sing into the microphone, performing a solo or a duet with her stepfather, while her mother played piano. She later stated that "it must have been ghastly, but it seemed to go down all right". Fellow child entertainer Petula Clark, three years her senior, recalled touring around the UK by train to sing for the troops alongside Andrews; they slept in the luggage racks. Clark later said "It was fun—and not a lot of kids were having fun".

Andrews had her career breakthrough when her stepfather introduced her to managing director Val Parnell, whose Moss Empires controlled prominent performance venues in London. At the age of 12, Andrews made her professional solo debut at the London Hippodrome, singing the difficult aria "Je suis Titania" from Mignon as part of a musical revue, called "Starlight Roof", on 22 October 1947. She played at the Hippodrome for one year. Of her role in "Starlight Roof", Andrews recalled: "There was this wonderful American person and comedian, Wally Boag, who made balloon animals. He would say, 'Is there any little girl or boy in the audience who would like one of these?' And I would rush up onstage and say, 'I'd like one, please.' And then he would chat to me and I'd tell him I sang. ... I was fortunate in that I absolutely stopped the show cold. I mean, the audience went crazy."

On 1 November 1948, a thirteen-year-old Andrews became the youngest solo performer ever to be seen in a Royal Variety Performance before King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the London Palladium. Andrews performed alongside singer Danny Kaye, dancers the Nicholas Brothers, and the comedy team George and Bert Bernard.

Andrews subsequently followed her parents into radio and television. She performed in musical interludes of the BBC Light Programme comedy show Up the Pole and was a cast member in Educating Archie, from 1950 to 1952. She reportedly made her television début on the BBC programme RadiOlympia Showtime on 8 October 1949. Andrews appeared on West End theatre at the London Casino, where she played one year each as Princess Badroulbadour in Aladdin and the egg in Humpty Dumpty. Andrews also appeared on provincial stages in Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood, as well as starring as the lead role in Cinderella. In 1952, she voiced Princess Zeila in the English dub of the Italian animated movie La Rosa di Bagdad (renamed The Singing Princess), in her first film and first venture into voice-over work.

1954–1962: Broadway debut and breakthrough

On 30 September 1954, the eve of her 19th birthday, Andrews made her Broadway debut as Polly Browne in the London musical The Boy Friend. Andrews was recommended to director Vida Hope for the part by actress Hattie Jacques, whom Andrews regards as a "catalyst" for her career. Eve Benda recognised her special talent and predicted her stardom. Andrews was anxious about moving to New York; at the time, she was both breadwinner and caretaker for her family, and took the part upon her father's encouragement.

She stated that at the time, she had "no idea" how to research a role or study a script, and cites Cy Feuer's direction as being "phenomenal". The Boy Friend became a hit, with Andrews receiving praise; critics called her the stand-out of the show. In 1955, Andrews signed to appear with Bing Crosby in the television film, High Tor. It filmed in November 1955 in Los Angeles and was Andrews's first screen project, which she described as "daunting". High Tor was televised the following March before a live audience for the [[Ford Star Jub

1. ^ "Dame Julie: The Sound of Music". BBC News. 31 December 1999. Archived from the original on 9 March 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2007.
2. "Ultimate Movie Rankings Julie Andrews". 21 August 2015.
3. "Kennedy Center Honors Julie Andrews (2001)". Kennedy Center. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
4. "On the Scene as Julie Andrews and 'The Sound of Music' Share the Honor of AFI Life Achievement Award". IndieWire. 10 June 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
5. "New Dames On The Block: Taylor & Andrews Receive UK O.B.E. Honors". Playbill. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
6. "Julie Andrews to Receive SAG's Life Achievement Award". Playbill. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
7. O'Connor, John (25 October 1995). "TELEVISION REVIEW; Julie Andrews, With Tough Edges". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 December 2018. With a natural voice of uncommon clarity and purity, Ms. Andrews was soon being billed as "Britain's youngest prima donna."
8. "Julie Andrews". Reel Classics. Archived from the original on 1 December 2007.
9. "Julie Andrews Biography and Interview". achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
10. General Register Office (GRO) Register of Births: DEC 1935 2a 435 Surrey NW – Julia E Wells, mmn = Morris
11. Andrews, Julie (2008). Home : a memoir of my early years. Internet Archive. New York, NY : Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-7394-9451-6.
12. GRO Register of Births: SEP 1910 2a 51 Chertsey – Barbara W Morris, mmn = not given
13. GRO Register of Marriages: DEC 1932 2a 190 Chertsey – Edward C. Wells = Barbara W. Morris
14. ^ Spindle, Les (1989). Julie Andrews: A Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-313-26223-3.
15. ^ Windeler (1970), pp 20–21
16. ^ Brockes, Emma (30 March 2008). "Books About Julie Andrews — Memoir — Biography". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 6 April 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
17. GRO Register of Marriages: DEC 1943 1a 888 Westminster – Edward V Andrews = Barbara W Morris or Wells
18. Andrews, Julie (2008). Home: a memoir of my early years. Doubleday. p. 43.
19. GRO Register of Marriages: JUN 1944 2a 316 Surrey NE – Edward C Wells = Winifred M Birkhead
20. GRO Register of Births: JUN 1938 2a 564 Surrey NW – John D. Wells, mmn = Morris
21. Andrews, Julie (2008). Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. New York, New York: Hyperion. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-7868-8475-9.
22. ^ Stirling, Richard (2007). Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography. Portrait. ISBN 978-0-7499-5135-1.
23. Windeler (1970), pp. 22–23
24. White, Timothy (1998). The Entertainers. Billboard Books. p. 111.
25. Windeler (1970), pp 23–24
26. Spindle, p. 2, suggests that Andrews began a few years of stage work with her parents in 1946.
27. Hunt, Elle (31 July 2019). "Petula Clark: 'Elvis angled for a threesome – he was raring to go'". The Guardian.
28. Windeler (1970), pp 24–26
29. Boag, Wally and Sands, Gene. Wally Boag, Clown Prince of Disneyland, Disney Enterprises, Inc. 2009, p. 39
30. Windeler (1970), p. 26. "Julie, who was described in the official announcement 14 October as 'a 13-year-old coloratura soprano with the voice of an adult,' was the youngest solo performer ever chosen to perform before royalty at the Palladium. She sang the British National Anthem. She ran onto stage in front of Danny Kaye wearing a white A-frame dress and begins to sing, the audience join in. The evening was held in the presence of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother). The show was presented by Val Parnell."
31. ^ Spindle, p. 3
32. ^ Windeler (1970), pp 26–27.
33. Ruhlmann, William. Julie Andrews Biography Archived 1 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. All-Music Guide article from Legacy Recordings.
34. Jack Zipes, Pauline Greenhill, Kendra Magnus-Johnston (2015). "Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney: International Perspectives". p. 101 Routledge
35. ^ Andrews, Julie (1 April 2008). Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-6565-9. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
36. Spindle, pp. 4–5.