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Julie Andrews

By Pilarri0105

  • 1935

    1935
    Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on 1 October 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. 

  • 1940

    1940
    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, whom the elder Wells thought would be better able to provide for his talented daughter's artistic training. 

  • 1944

    Julie Andrews gained her big break when her stepfather introduced her to Val Parnell, whose Moss Empires controlled prominent venues in London. At age 12, Andrews made her professional solo debut at the London Hippodrome singing the difficult aria "Je suis Titania".

  • 1949

    1949
    Julie Andrews followed her parents into radio and television. She performed in musical interludes of the BBC Light Programme comedy show Up the Pole and later Educating Archie, of which she was a cast member from 1950 to 1952. 

  • 1952

    1952
    In 1952, she voiced Princess Zeila in the English dub of the Italian animated movie The Singing Princess (La Rosa di Bagdad, 1949), in her first film and first venture into voice-over work.

  • 1963

    1963
    In 1963, Andrews began her work in the title role of Disney's musical film Mary Poppins. Walt Disney had seen her performance as Queen Guinevere and thought she would be perfect for the role of the British nanny.

  • 1969

    Andrews married Edwards in 1969; his children from a previous marriage, Jennifer and Geoffrey, were 3 and 5 years older than Emma. 

  • 1983

    A dual role of Victoria Grant and Count Victor Grezhinski in the film Victor/Victoria (1982), meant she performed with James Garner once again. 

  • 1992

    1992 Having played a Cockney flower seller in My Fair Lady, Andrews had an orangey-salmon pink rose named after her at London’s Chelsea Flower Show in 1992.

  • 1997

    Andrews admits that she has never recovered from the botched attempt to remove nodules from her vocal cords back in 1997.

  • 2004

    2004
    In 2004, Andrews voiced Queen Lillian in the animated blockbuster Shrek 2.

  • 2010

    2010
    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.

  • 2019

    In 2019, it remains the third highest-grossing film of all time in the US, adjusted for inflation.