Julie Andrews

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Vocation

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Family

British-American actress and singer with a four-octave range. She had a remarkable, fully formed adult larynx by the time she was seven and could routinely hit F above high C. She made a debut at 12, touring the variety show circuit with her folks. She was then chosen to play on Broadway in "The Boy Friend" at 18. By 20 she had two smash hits, "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot." Andrews won an Oscar in 1963 for Mary Poppins. "The Sound of Music," 1965, became one of the top grossing films of all times. She was nominated for an Oscar for that film and again, 17 years later, for "Victor-Victoria." The daughter of a schoolteacher and a pianist, she was four when her parents divorced and she remained with her mother while her younger brother went with their dad. Her mom, Barbara, then married Ted Andrews, a loud, larger-than-life alcoholic. He had a beautiful tenor voice and he and Barbara formed a vaudeville act and toured England. She joined the act at 12 and brought the house down in her first major appearance, at London's Hippodrome. Within the year, she was the family's star and main breadwinner. She took private tutoring until she was 15 and was then on her own. Her teens were personally very difficult, missing the "normal" teen years and experiences. Andrews married British stage designer Tony Walton, in 1959; one daughter, Emma; separated 1963. At the peak of her popularity, after the 1965 release of "The Sound of Music," she teetered on the edge of brink of a nervous breakdown, confused and depressed. She surprised many be taking up with 13-year-older Blake Edwards. They both have a wicked wit, a self-depreciating humor, and rely on each other's judgment. They married in 1969. Edwards had two kids from his first marriage, Jennifer and Geoffrey. In the mid '70s they adopted two Vietnamese orphan infants, Joanna and Amy. She had five years of analysis in the '60s and looks at the difficulties of adolescence, fame, marriage and parenting with the tack, "That's the way it was. Deal with it." Famously private and cautious, she does not grant interviews easily. Generally a sunny person, with British reserve and beautiful manners, she nonetheless has an edge and resents the two-dimensional image of being 'the perfect lady.' "I am an actress. Within each role there is a great deal of me; I am not as square or prim as most people make me out to be." The stage version of Victor-Victoria began gestating in 1982 when the film was nominated for seven Oscars. It took five years to put it together, finally opening on Broadway in October 1995. It was a return to Broadway after 33 years for Andrews. On 5/08/1996, she announced to a matinee crowd that she was declining her nomination for a Tony as best actress in Victoria-Victoria as a musical because everything else connected with the $8.5 million production, directed by her husband of 26 years, Blake Edwards, 73, had been overlooked. It was her third nomination for the Tony, for "My Fair Lady," and "Camelot." During the play of the musical, she missed more than 30 performances with gall bladder and throat problems. In June 1997 she quit the show for good to have throat surgery to remove non-cancerous nodules. She was told that she would recover in six weeks but a year later, her voice had not returned. In a magazine interview on 11/22/98, her husband, Blake Edwards said, "It's an absolute tragedy, she may never sing again." On 12/14/1999, Andrews filed a mal-practice lawsuit against the two doctors that operated on her throat for allegedly not informing her of the risk of permanent damage to her vocal chords. In late September 2000, her lawsuit case was settled out of court, just short of going to trial. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. On 5/16/2000, she was made a Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. Andrews released her memoir in April 2008. The book is entitled “Home: A Memoir of My Early Years.” Her husband Blake Edwards died on December 16, 2010 of complications of pneumonia in Santa Monica, CA. He was 88. Link to Wikipedia biography