Hello friends, today I got Julie's newer book Homework from my local library. I am very excited to add some interesting details, facts and stories about her life. As soon as i have finished reading the book, I will do a review of it and update her biography (at the bottom of this page).
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Just thought I'd share, today is Julie Andrews' 84 birthday !
Wishing you a practically perfect birthday in every way Julie!!! 🤩😘💜💚💗 For those who are interested, her sun sign is Libra. Julia Wells, better known as Julie Andrews is best remembered for her roles in Mary Poppins (1960) and The Sound of Music (1965). Julia Wells was born on October 1, 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, England. Her sun sign is Libra. Her biological father was not Ted Wells though she always thought of him as her only, true father. It was a man with whom her mother had an affair with, Julie met him once in her life and never saw him again, his name is not stated in her autobiography Home (2008). Julie discovered that ted wells was not her biological father when she was a teenager. Her mother Barbara Ward Wells divorced Ted Wells during the outbreak of WW2. Barbara Wells then married a man named Ted Andrews and they were both entertainers for the troops. When Julie was seven years old she could tell the difference between German bomb-dropping planes and England's own defending planes. She would sit on top of their apartment building and blow a whistle warning everyone in her neighborhood to hurry and go to a bomb shelter. One day, she fell asleep and a bomb was dropped very near their apartment, her neighbors were so angry at her she never fell asleep on the job again and to this very day, has a fear of loud noises such as: balloons popping or fireworks. Julie never liked to call Ted Andrews dad or father, she merely called him uncle Ted, Her mother changed that, making her call him Pop. Julie still dislikes it. The Andrews family were very poor and they lived in a very bad area of London. In her memoir Home, she tells of some horrible experiences that she encountered as a child with her step-father. Twice, when Ted was drunk, he attempted to get into bed with her. That resulted in her uncle from her mother's side fitting an iron lock on her bedroom door. Ted tried a third time but luckily Julie locked her door from the inside and could sleep in safety. When Julie was just eight years old, her step-father discovered her singing voice. They went and asked a doctor if she could begin vocal lessons. The doctor approved and she began learning under the guiding hand of Miss Lillian Stiles-Allen. She began to join her parents in their acts on stage, and would sing with her step-father standing on soapboxes. One of her experiences I feel worth mentioning is when she left her slippers at home. Her mother painted her socks white, because as you all know, "The Show Must Go On" , as she walked on and off the stage she said that she left little white footprints because the paint hadn't fully dried! At thirteen she sang for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and even took publicity pictures with Danny Kaye, sitting on his lap! I am aware that it is very old so it might not have the best audio quality. She then started becoming noticed in her small roles all over London's theaters and landed a role in Broadway's The Boyfriend. Next, she got the lead playing Eliza, a poor girl who sells flowers and later transforms into a high class lady in the musical My Fair Lady. Audrey Hepburn played Eliza in the movie version and Rex Harrison played the professor both on stage and screen productions.Many people think Jack Warner of Warner Brothers should have allowed Julie to play Eliza since she could sing and because she had the longest run playing Eliza on Broadway. Jack chose Audrey Hepburn for the role of Eliza because she was a better known star and could bring in more profit, even if she couldn't sing the high notes and was eventually completely dubbed by Marni Nixon much to Audrey's disappointment. Julie after all this had happened, still remained good friends with Audrey. She did Camelot with Richard Burton and had many guest appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, The Garry Moore Show and more. She became good friends with Carol Burnett when they did a number on the Ed Sullivan Show together and they are still very good friends today. In interviews Julie calls Carol her chum. She went on to do two television specials with Carol called: Julie and Carol At Carnegie Hall and Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center ( I am renting these audio DVDs currently from my local library and I definitely recommend them to you, you can also find separate clips of all their performances on Youtube.) Walt Disney saw one of Julie's performances in Camelot and immediately wanted her for Mary Poppins. Fun Fact: the bird who whistles in the Spoonful of Sugar number is actually Julie whistling. Julie declined the role at first because she was pregnant but Walt told her he would wait. A couple months after she had her daughter Emma, she began filming her first movie! Her first husband, Tony Walton designed the costumes and scenery. Next was Sound of Music with Christopher Plummer (to see neat interviews and videos go to youtube and search Julie is Queen!! playlist.) Julie was amazing in her role but her co-star Chris Plummer didn't have her sweet "spoonful of sugar" outlook on things. He actually called it The Sound Of Mucus and couldn't stand how saccharine the movie and script were. He also rewrote almost every line they wrote for him and I think he did a darn good job. Before Sound of Music, she starred with James Garner in The Americanization Of Emily. Julie divorced Tony Walton and continued making movies such as: Hawaii, Torn Curtain and Thoroughly Modern Millie . I recommend watching Thoroughly Modern Millie though it is a little bizarre. She had a variety show called The Julie Andrews Hour on which she had many guest stars including the real Maria Von Trapp ! It only aired one season. In 1968 and 1970 Julie starred in two of Hollywood's most costly flops, Star and Darling Lili with Rock Hudson. In 1969 she co-starred in Julie and Carol At Lincoln Center. In the 1970's she only made two movies: The Tamarind Seed (on youtube for free) and 10 directed by her second husband, renowned director Blake Edwards. In the 1980's she made: Little Miss Marker, S.O.B, Victor/Victoria (in which she plays a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman), The Man Who Loved Women,That's Life and Duet For One. In S.O.B , Julie had her first on screen nude scene, she did it on purpose to try and change her squeaky clean image, something Ginger Rogers and her don't have in common. In 1987 she made the last CBS TV special with Carol Burnett called : Julie and Carol Together Again. You MUST watch this, it has everything from class to comedy. In 1991, She made a movie with Ann-Margret called, Our Son's, it was made for TV. She was named a Disney legend later that year. She had another sitcom called Julie in 1992 but it didn't last long. In 1995 she went back to Broadway to do the stage version of Victor/Victoria. She had to quit the show a little while before it closed because her voice was strained and she could not sing. Her doctors said she needed to have an operation to remove nodules from her throat. They did the operation and ruined her singing voice from then on, she didn't even have any nodules, cancer or anything! Her famous voice was ruined, even when she spoke her voice was very raspy. She had four more operations to try and restore her voice but it only helped her speaking voice not her singing voice. She ended up suing the doctors who ruined her voice and won but never disclosed the amount she won. I think they should have shut down the practice. In a very intrusive interview, Barbara Walters questioned her about everything she went through. The full interview is on YouTube. In 1999 she and previous co-star, James Garner did a movie called One Special Night. Available for free if you have an amazon prime account. In 2001, she reunited with her old friend and co-star, Christopher Plummer to do a live TV production called On Golden Pond, which was done previously by Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda. Later that year she was cast in Princess Diaries as the royal Grandmother ( a perfect role for her) and was also in the Princess Diaries 2 in the same role. In the second Princess Diaries Julie sang for the first time in a movie since her surgery, in a duet with Raven-Symone. Throughout 2001 to early 2003 she had various small roles and jobs. In late 2003, she directed a revival of The Boy Friend, Her ex-husband Tony Walton was the scene and costume designer. The show went on to do a national tour in the year 2005. In 2004 she was the voice of the Queen Lillian in Shrek 2, Shrek 3 and Shrek Forever After.Later in 2004 she narrated Enchanted. In 2008 she published the first part of her autobiography, Home: A Memoir Of My Early Years. Throughout 2008-9 she had some concerts and received many awards. You will notice I am not talking about her awards and nominations, that's because there are too many. In 2010 Julie had a small role in The Tooth Fairy with Dwayne Johnson.She also voiced Gru's mother in Despicable Me, all three movies. On December 15, 2010 her beloved husband, Blake Edwards died from problems related to pneumonia at age 88. When Julie was 77, she went on tour all around Australia and New Zealand to make speeches and talk with fans instead of sing. The tour was hosted by Nicholas Hammond who was only fourteen when he appeared in The Sound Of Music with her. He portrayed Friedrich Von Trapp, the oldest boy out of the seven children. In 2015, instead of staying home sipping tea (which she states is her tradition during the Oscars) , she made a surprise appearance to surprise Lady Gaga and Lady Gaga honored her by singing a Sound Of Music melody in the same notes that Julie sang them! In 2016 with her daughter Emma, she created Julie's Greenroom on Netflix. In Julie's Greenroom, she owns a theater and puppet children come to do classes and learn more about acting. In each episode Julie has a guest star like: Alec Baldwin or Idina Menzel and each star gives the kids a little bit of advice in acting or show business. I watch some episodes just to learn more about the theater. Most recently she appeared in Aquaman as the monster Karathen and turned down a cameo appearance in Mary Poppins Returns in order to let Emily Blunt Have her time to shine. Fun Fact: Her favorite hobby is gardening. Did You Know? Both Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway confirmed a script for Princess Diaries Three is being written. Fun Fact: Her grandchildren call her Nanny Jools. Fun Fact: She said if she could recreate one scene from Sound of Music it would be the scene where Maria and the Captain dance the Laendler. Did you Know? She lives in Long Island to write books with her daughter but has a residence in Santa Monica. I am actually in the process of writing a letter to her. You can request autographs if you send pictures with your request. I will post the addresses that I found. I would send duplicates to both addresses and it will take a couple months to get a response. Sources: Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography by Richard Stirling Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Andrews |
Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th." I enjoy listening to operas and classical music and I couldn't believe Julie sang like this when she was just twelve! The piece is Polonaise from the play Mignon.
One of my favorite songs from Mary Poppins is Feed The Birds. It was also Walt Disney's favorite.
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