Julie Andrews, born in 1935, is an English actress, singer, author, and theater director, famous for her roles in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music.
Andrews began singing at age 10 with her mother, a pianist, and her stepfather, a singer. She made her solo debut in 1947 singing an operatic aria in Starlight Roof at the London Hippodrome.
After that Andrews moved to America, where she got her first role in the musical The Boyfriend during the mid-’50s. Although Andrews wasn’t cast in the film version of My Fair Lady, her role in Camelot earned her a Tony Award nomination, and her role in Mary Poppins became one of Disney’s most famous films.
“It’s very hard to be upset about not getting My Fair Lady when Walt Disney comes along about three months later and says, “Would you like to come to Hollywood and do Mary Poppins?” she said.
The following year, she was nominated for another musical, The Sound of Music, one of the top-grossing films of all time.
During a vacation from My Fair Lady, Andrews married Tony Walton. The couple worked together most notably on Mary Poppins, but they divorced soon after.
“When I began filming on Mary Poppins, all the things that I’d learned in vaudeville came into play. I could sing all those wonderful songs, the ones where everyone kicks up their heels, like Supercalifragilistic, because they did have a slightly vaudevillian flavor. And I felt I could embrace and use my experience. It seems nothing is really wasted in life, although you think it might be, at the time,” she once said.
Andrews then married film director Blake Edwards, with whom she worked on Darling Lili, which he produced, directed, and co-wrote. She continued to make television and concert appearances. Most of her screen appearances were directed by her husband, Edwards.
Using the name Julie Edwards, she wrote two children’s books, Mandy and The Last of the Really Great Whang Doodles.
Her later films included the family comedies The Princess Diaries and its sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement; Andrews also narrated the fantasy Enchanted in 2007. She also voiced characters in Despicable Me, Despicable Me 3, and Aquaman, and wrote the autobiographies Home: A Memoir of My Early Years and Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years.
Andrews is also known for her charity work with the United Nations Children’s Fund and Save the Children. She has officially confirmed her retirement from on-screen and film acting, recently sharing that she has turned down a return for a third Princess Diaries film.
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