Julie Andrews

She is renowned for the characters she made us love back in the 1960s, particularly magic nanny Mary Poppins and Maria in The Sound of Music.  Julie Andrews, born Julia Elizabeth Andrews on October 1, 1935, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, is certainly one of the most established veterans of singing and acting who is alive today.  And she has Emmy, Grammy, and Academy Awards under her belt to prove it. 

As a child, Andrews took voice lessons and acting and ballet classes. She took part in her parents’ Vaudeville act, and in 1947 she made her debut solo performance in the Starlight Roof musical at the London Hippodrome, and a year later, she performed for King George VI at the London Palladium.  

Over the next decade or so, Andrews performed in various Broadway musicals and radio shows, but suddenly became an overnight success in 1956 when she as cast in the smash-hit Broadway musical production of My Fair Lady as Eliza Doolittle, opposite Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins. During this time, Andrews made her television debut, appearing in an episode of Ford Star Jubilee with Bing Crosby, and starring as Cinderella in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s made-for-TV movie Cinderella, alongside Howard Lindsay, Dorothy Stickney, Ilka Chase, Kaye Ballard, Alice Ghostley, Edie Adams, and Jon Cypher. 

After the role of Eliza Doolittle went instead to Audrey Hepburn for 1964’s film version of My Fair Lady, Andrews was offered the role of Mary Poppins in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins, alongside Dick Van Dyke. This ended up being one of her most memorable performances, and it allowed her to beat out Hepburn for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, as well as to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1965. The following year, Andrews snagged an Academy Award nomination for portraying Maria in the hit musical-on-film The Sound of Music, alongside Christopher Plummer and Charmain Carr, which propelled her even further into Hollywood stardom. 

After her success with Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, Andrews starred in Hawaii, alongside Max von Sydow, Richard Harris, Gene Hackman, and Carroll O’Connor, which, incidentally, was a huge success and became the highest grossing film of 1966.

Before she went through a period of decline in her career, Andrews also starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain in 1966, opposite Paul Newman, and Thoroughly Modern Millie in 1967 with Mary Tyler Moore. However, her saving grace was the variety show series in which she starred in the 70s, particularly the special episodes featuring her friend, actress Carol Burnett.  

Then in 1995, Andrews returned to the stage after more than thirty years out of Broadway with the starring role in the musical Victor/Victoria, which was directed by her husband Edwards. Although she lasted for most the show’s world tour tour, she later gave up her part to Liza Minnelli during her vacation, who months down the road passed it on to Raquel Welch. 

Andrews graced us with her presence back on the big screen as Queen Clarisse Marie Renaldi in Garry Marshall’s The Princess Diaries in 2001 and its sequel in 2004, opposite Anne Hathaway. Also in 2004, Andrews voiced Queen Lillian in the hit sequel to Shrek, alongside the fellow voice talents of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, and John Cleese. 

In 2000, Andrews was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire. A year later she received the Kennedy Center Honors, and in 2007 she was selected to receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

YUDDY