Dame Julie Andrews, original name Julia Elizabeth Wells is an English motion-picture, stage, and musical star noted for her crystalline four-octave voice and her charm and skill as an actress.
Background
Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on 1 October 1935, in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. Her mother, Barbara Ward Wells (née Morris; 1910–1984) was born in Chertsey and married Edward Charles "Ted" Wells (1908–1990), a teacher of metalwork and woodwork in 1932. However, Andrews was conceived as a result of an affair her mother had with a family friend believed to be Alfred Westmacott, a boat builder who designed the popular XOD sailboat. Andrews discovered 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, Barbara and Ted Wells 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 working a lathe at a war work factory that employed them both in Hinchley Wood, Surrey. Ted Wells assisted with evacuating children to Surrey during the Blitz, while Barbara joined Ted Andrews in entertaining the troops through the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).
Andrews lived briefly with Ted Wells and her brother John in Surrey. In 1940, Ted Wells sent young Julia to live with her mother and stepfather, who, the elder Wells thought, would be better able to provide for his talented daughter's artistic training. According to her 2008 autobiography Home, while Julie had been used to calling Ted Andrews "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. Julie disliked this change.
The Andrews family was "very poor and we lived in a bad slum area of London," Andrews recalled, adding, "That was a very black period in my life." According to Andrews, her stepfather was violent and an alcoholic. Ted Andrews twice, while drunk, tried to get into bed with his stepdaughter, resulting in Andrews fitting a lock on her door. But, as the stage career of Ted and Barbara Andrews improved, they were able to afford to move to better surroundings, first to Beckenham and then, as the war ended, back to the Andrews' hometown of Hersham. The Andrews family took up residence at the Old Meuse, in West Grove, Hersham, a house (now demolished) where Andrews' maternal grandmother had served as a maid.
Education
Andrews' stepfather sponsored lessons for her, first at the Cone-Ripman School (now known commonly as ArtsEd), an independent arts educational school in London, then with concert soprano and voice instructor Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen.
After Cone-Ripman School, Andrews continued her academic education at the nearby Woodbrook School, a local state school in Beckenham.
Andrews has received many honorary degrees in recognition of her distinguished career in entertainment. These include: University of Maryland – Doctor of Fine Arts (1970); Yale University – Doctor of Fine Arts (1999); Stony Brook University – Doctor of Letters (2012).
Demonstrating a remarkably powerful voice with perfect pitch, she made her solo professional debut in 1947 singing an operatic aria in Starlight Roof, a revue staged at the London Hippodrome.
Andrews made her Broadway debut in 1954 in the American production of the popular British musical spoof The Boy Friend. In 1956 she created the role of the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle in Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s classic musical My Fair Lady. Andrews’s performance was universally acclaimed, and the production became one of the biggest hits in Broadway history, as well as a huge success in Britain. In 1957, during the show’s run, Andrews appeared on American television in a musical version of Cinderella, written for her by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. In 1960 she had another hit in a role developed especially for her, that of Queen Guinevere in Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot.
Although Andrews lost the part of Eliza in the film version of My Fair Lady (1964), she did make her movie debut that year. After seeing her performance in Camelot, Walt Disney went backstage and offered Andrews the title role of the magical proper English nanny in his Mary Poppins (1964). The picture became one of Disney’s biggest moneymakers, and Andrews won both a Grammy and an Academy Award for her performance. The wholesome role and image, however, would prove difficult for Andrews to shed. Her portrayal of the governess and aspiring nun Maria in The Sound of Music (1965), one of the top-grossing films of all time, earned Andrews another Academy Award nomination and further reinforced her sweet, “goody-goody” image.
Andrews attempted to change that image with dramatic, nonmusical roles in such films as The Americanization of Emily (1964) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain (1966), but these were overshadowed by her musicals, whose success made her one of the biggest stars of the decade. By the late 1960s, however, traditional film musicals were declining in popularity. Andrews starred in two expensive musical flops—Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970), the latter produced, directed, and cowritten by Blake Edwards, whom she married in 1970—and was considered by many to be a has-been. She continued to make television and concert appearances, and, using the name Julie Edwards, she wrote two children’s books—Mandy (1971) and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (1974). She did not, however, have another notable film role until 1979, when she played a supporting part in Edwards’s popular comedy 10 (1979). Beginning with that picture, audiences began to accept Andrews in a wider range of roles.
She proved herself a versatile actress, adept at both comedy and drama, and she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as a woman impersonating a male female-impersonator in Edwards’s Victor/Victoria (1982). She was also widely praised for her portrayal of a violinist struggling with multiple sclerosis in Duet for One (1986).
Andrews reprised her Victor/Victoria role on Broadway in 1995 and stirred up controversy when she refused to accept a Tony nomination for her performance—the only nomination the show received—because she felt that the rest of the cast and crew, which included director Edwards, had been “egregiously overlooked.”
Her later films include the family comedies The Princess Diaries (2001) and its sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). She also narrated the fantasy Enchanted (2007).
From 2004 to 2010, she played voice roles in the films, 'Shrek 2', 'Shrek the Third', 'Enchanted', 'Shrek Forever After' and 'Despicable Me'. She was also seen in the ‘Broadway: The American Musical’ and ‘Great Performances: From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2009’.
She is also an author of children’s books. Some of her books include, ‘The Very Fairy Princess: Here Comes the Flower Girl,’‘Dragon Hound of Honor’, ‘Dumpy and the Firefighters’ and ‘Dumpy to the Rescue!’.
A legendary figure in the world of entertainment, Julie Andrews is a dynamic and talented actress. She is a Golden Globe and Academy Award winning star, who enjoyed success on Broadway, London theatres and a series of award-winning films and television shows. Apart from her musical career, she is also an author of children's books and has published an autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (2008).
In 1997 Andrews was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. She was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2000.
Andrews has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, five Golden Globes, two Emmys, the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors Award, and the Disney Legends Award.
In 2011 she won a Grammy Award for Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies, a spoken-word album for children, and she was honoured with a special Grammy for lifetime achievement.
In 2002, she was ranked #59 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Her first marriage took place in an Anglican church. Despite these facts, there is little indication that she was even nominally Anglican.
Views
Quotations:
"Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th."
"Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it."
"All love shifts and changes. I don't know if you can be wholeheartedly in love all the time."
"Sometimes I'm so sweet even I can't stand it."
"On the whole, I think women wear too much and are to fussy. You can't see the person for all the clutter."
"I hate the word wholesome."
"I would be a fool to deny my own abilities.
"It is not enough to reach for the brass ring. You must also enjoy the merry go round."
"I don't think today's younger audience... would even know what 1920s musicals were like."
Personality
Julie is noted for her charm.
Physical Characteristics:
Termed "Britain’s Youngest Prima Donna", Andrews' classically trained soprano, lauded for its "pure and clear" sound, has been described as light, bright and operatic in tone. When a young Andrews was taken by her parents to be examined by a throat specialist, the doctor concluded that she had "an almost adult larynx." In spite of the fact that her voice teacher, English soprano Lilian Stiles-Allen, continually encouraged her to pursue opera, Andrews herself felt that her voice was unsuited for the genre and "too big a stretch". At the time, Andrews described her own voice as "extremely high and thin", feeling that it lacked "the necessary guts and weight for opera", preferring musical theatre instead. As Andrews aged, so did her voice, which began to naturally deepen. Losing her vast upper register, her "top notes" became increasingly difficult to sing while "her middle register matured into the warm golden tone" for which she has become known, according to Tim Wong of The Daily Telegraph.
In 1997 she was diagnosed with non-cancerous nodules and had to have throat surgery. Unfortunately the procedure left her unable to sing again. She later sued the doctor.
Interests
When she lost her ability to sing, Andrews says she was devastated. However, she eventually turned to another creative outlet in writing. She says she would never have discovered the pleasure of writing if she still had her voice.
Music & Bands
Musically, Andrews had always preferred singing music that was "bright and sunny", choosing to avoid songs that were sad, depressing, upsetting, or written in a minor key, for fear of losing her voice "in a mess of emotion". She cited this as yet another reason for avoiding opera.
Connections
Andrews has been married twice, first to set designer Tony Walton from 1959 until 1967, then to director Blake Edwards from 1969 until his death in 2010.
Andrews married Walton on 10 May 1959 in Weybridge, Surrey. They had first met in 1948 when Andrews was appearing at the London Casino in the show Humpty Dumpty. Andrews and Walton headed back to London in September 1962 to await the birth of daughter Emma Katherine Walton, who was born in London two months later.
Andrews married Edwards in 1969; his children from a previous marriage, Jennifer and Geoffrey, were 3 and 5 years older than Emma. In the 1970s, Edwards and Andrews adopted two daughters; Amy in 1974 and Joanna in 1975. Andrews is a grandmother to nine and great-grandmother to three.
Father:
Edward Charles "Ted" Wells
(1908–1990)
He was a teacher of metalwork and woodwork in 1932.
Mother:
Barbara Ward Wells
(1910–1984)
Spouse (1):
Tony Walton
(b. 24 October 1934)
He is an English set and costume designer.
Spouse (2):
Blake Edwards
(July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010)
He was an American filmmaker.
Daughter:
Emma Walton Hamilton
(b. 27 November 1962)
She is a British actress, theatrical director and children's book author.
Daughter:
Amy Edwards Julie Andrews
(b. February 14, 1974, Vietnam)
Daughter:
Joanna Edwards
Friend:
Carol Burnett
(b. April 26, 1933)
She is an American actress, comedian, singer and writer, whose career spans seven decades of television.
