Julie Andrews Biography

Julie Andrews made her mark as the singing star of Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965), two of the most successful movies of the 20th century. She began performing at an early age and broke through on stage in 1954’s The Boy Friend. Her performance as Eliza in My Fair Lady (1956-63) in New York and London made her an international sensation, but the film role went to Audrey Hepburn instead. Andrews then made her film debut in the Walt Disney musical Mary Poppins, earning an Oscar and a place in the history books. She followed up with the lead role in The Sound of Music, one of the top-grossing movies in history, and scored another Oscar nomination. During the late 1960s and early ’70s she was a much loved guest on television, but her movies didn’t fare so well. She then made a comeback in movies made by her second husband, Blake Edwards (they married in 1969). Andrews appeared in the box office hits 10 (1979, with Bo Derek), S.O.B. (1981 — she famously went against type and bared her breasts) and Victor/Victoria (1982, and another Oscar nomination). Her famously flexible voice suffered after a throat operation in 1997, but Andrews made another comeback with the Anne Hathaway movie The Princess Diaries (2001) and as the voice of the queen in Shrek 2 (2004). She published her memoir, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years in 2008.