Julie Andrews: The Life Story Behind Mary Poppins' Star
In this post
Julie Andrews was born Julia Elizabeth Wells on 1 October 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, and she grew up in the world of the music hall, performing with her mother, Barbara, and her stepfather, Ted Andrews, from the time she was a small child. She was a prodigy, with a voice that spanned four octaves, and she made her professional debut at the age of twelve, performing at the London Hippodrome, and she was soon appearing in variety shows all over Britain, singing songs that showed off a voice that was unlike anything audiences had heard before. Her stepfather gave her the stage name Andrews, and she toured with her parents, learning the discipline of performing night after night, in front of audiences that were not always kind, a training that gave her a professionalism and a resilience that would serve her for the rest of her life, and that made her, by the time she was a teenager, one of the most famous young performers in Britain.
A Child Prodigy in the Music Hall
Andrews’s childhood was not easy, and she has spoken about the difficulties of growing up in the theatre, and about the pressure of being a child star, and about the fact that her parents’ marriage was unhappy, and that she often felt caught between them. She was educated at home, by tutors, because she was always on tour, and she learned to read music and to sing in several languages, and she developed a love of literature that would stay with her for the rest of her life. At the age of nineteen, in 1954, she made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, a musical by Sandy Wilson, playing Polly Browne, a young woman at a finishing school in France, a part that was light and charming, and that showed off her voice and her comic timing, and that made her a star in New York, where the critics praised her as a fresh, delightful talent, and where she was soon offered the role that would define her Broadway career.
In 1956 she played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, the musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, opposite Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins, a part that was one of the most demanding in musical theatre, and that she played for two years on Broadway and then for a year in London. Eliza is a Cockney flower girl who is taught to speak like a lady, and Andrews played her with a warmth and a humour that made the character beloved, and the show was a huge success, running for more than two thousand performances on Broadway, and winning six Tony Awards. She was not cast in the film version, a decision that went to Audrey Hepburn, and that Andrews has said was a disappointment, but that also freed her to take the film role that would make her a movie star, a role that came just a few years later, and that would change her life completely.
In 1960 she played Guenevere in Camelot, Lerner and Loewe’s musical about King Arthur, opposite Richard Burton as Arthur, a part that was romantic and tragic, and that showed a more mature side of her talent, and that was also a huge success, running for more than eight hundred performances on Broadway. Camelot was a difficult show, and Andrews has said that it was one of the hardest she ever did, because the part required her to sing, to act, and to carry the emotional weight of the story, and because Burton was a difficult colleague, brilliant but unpredictable, and the two of them had a complicated relationship, both on stage and off. The show closed in 1963, and Andrews left Broadway, and she turned her attention to film, where she was about to become one of the biggest stars in the world.
Her film debut came in 1964, when she played Mary Poppins in Walt Disney’s film of P. L. Travers’s books, a part that had been offered to several other actresses, and that Andrews took because she loved the character, a magical nanny who arrives in London to look after the Banks children, and who teaches them, and their parents, about the importance of imagination and of family. The film was a huge success, and Andrews won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, beating Audrey Hepburn, who had been nominated for My Fair Lady, a result that was widely seen as a kind of justice, and that made Andrews a movie star overnight. Mary Poppins is still one of the most beloved films ever made, and Andrews’s performance, singing Chim Chim Cher-ee and A Spoonful of Sugar, is one of the most famous in cinema history, and it is the role for which she will always be remembered.
Broadway: The Boy Friend, My Fair Lady and Camelot
In 1965 she played Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Robert Wise’s film of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, a part that was even bigger than Mary Poppins, and that made her the biggest movie star in the world. Maria is a young nun who becomes a governess to seven children in Austria, and who falls in love with their father, Captain von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer, and who flees with the family from the Nazis, a story that was based on the real von Trapp family, and that was filmed in Salzburg, in some of the most beautiful locations in Europe. The Sound of Music became one of the highest-grossing films of all time, and it won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Andrews was nominated for Best Actress, and the film’s songs, including Do-Re-Mi, My Favorite Things, and Edelweiss, became part of popular culture, and are still sung by children all over the world today.
After The Sound of Music, Andrews made a series of films that were less successful, including Hawaii in 1966, Torn Curtain in 1966, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and Thoroughly Modern Millie in 1967, a musical about a young woman in New York in the 1920s, which was a commercial success, and which showed that she could still carry a film. In 1968 she played the title role in Star!, a biographical film about the musical star Gertrude Lawrence, and in 1970 she played the lead in Darling Lili, a musical about a spy in the First World War, directed by her husband, Blake Edwards, whom she had married in 1969. These films were not as successful as her earlier work, and by the early 1970s her film career had slowed, and she turned her attention to television and to the stage, and to raising her family, a decision that she has said was deliberate, and that she does not regret.
In 1979 she appeared in 10, Blake Edwards’s comedy about a middle-aged man, played by Dudley Moore, who becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman, played by Bo Derek, and in 1981 she appeared in S.O.B., Edwards’s satire of Hollywood, playing a actress who agrees to appear topless in a film in order to save her husband’s career. In 1982 she played the lead in Victor/Victoria, Edwards’s film about a woman who pretends to be a man pretending to be a woman, in order to get work as a singer in Paris, a part that brought her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and that is still regarded as one of her finest performances, because it showed her comic timing, her singing, and her ability to play a character who was both funny and touching, and who was, in many ways, a comment on her own career, as a woman who had been typecast as a wholesome heroine.
Andrews was married to Blake Edwards from 1969 until his death in 2010, and they had two daughters, Amy and Joanna, and she had a daughter, Emma, from her first marriage, to the set designer Tony Walton, and two stepchildren, Jennifer and Geoffrey, from Edwards’s first marriage. She has said that her family was the most important thing in her life, and that she was happy to slow down her career in order to be with them, and that she does not regret the films she turned down, because the time with her family was more valuable. In 1997 she underwent surgery on her vocal cords, an operation that damaged her singing voice, and that left her unable to sing in the way she once could, a loss that she has spoken about with great sadness, and that she has said was one of the hardest things she has ever had to accept, because singing was the centre of her life.
Mary Poppins and an Oscar
In 2001 she returned to film, playing Queen Clarisse Renaldi in The Princess Diaries, a Disney film about a teenager, played by Anne Hathaway, who discovers that she is a princess, a part that introduced her to a new generation of young viewers, and that she played with a warmth and a humour that made the character beloved. She returned for the sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, in 2004, and in the same year she voiced Queen Lillian in Shrek 2, a part that she played in two more Shrek films, and that showed that she could still work in animation, and that her voice, even after the surgery, was still distinctive and beloved. In 2010 she voiced Marlena, the mother of Gru, in Despicable Me, and in 2018 she voiced Karathen, a sea monster, in Aquaman, a part that was a surprise to audiences, who did not expect to hear Julie Andrews in a superhero film.
Since 2020 she has narrated the Netflix series Bridgerton, as the voice of Lady Whistledown, the anonymous gossip columnist whose words drive the plot of the series, a part that has introduced her to yet another generation, and that has shown that her voice, even in her eighties, is still one of the most recognisable in the world. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000, in recognition of her services to the performing arts, and she received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2007, honours that reflect a career that has spanned more than seventy years, from a child prodigy in the music hall to a Dame of the British Empire, a journey that is unique in the history of entertainment, and that is unlikely to be repeated.
Andrews has also been a successful author, writing children’s books with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, including the Very Fairy Princess series, and writing two memoirs, Home in 2008, about her childhood and her early career, and Home Work in 2019, about her life in Hollywood, books that were praised for their honesty and their warmth, and that gave readers a glimpse into a life that had been, for the most part, kept private. She has said that writing is a way of making sense of her life, and that she enjoys it as much as performing, and that she hopes to write more, a sentiment that is typical of her, because she has always been a person who is interested in stories, and in the power of stories to change lives, a belief that has shaped her career from the beginning, when she was a child singing in the music hall, to the present day.
The Sound of Music and the Biggest Film in the World
Her career has been marked by a rare combination of talent, professionalism, and longevity, and by a willingness to evolve, from a child star to a Broadway star to a movie star to a narrator, without ever losing the qualities that made her special: a clear voice, a warm presence, and a sense of humour that is both gentle and sharp. She has played a nanny, a nun, a queen, and a gossip columnist, and she has done it with a directness and a warmth that audiences recognise instantly, and that critics have praised for decades. Her story, from a small town in Surrey to the biggest films in the world, is a story about a talented young woman who was given a chance and who took it, and who has spent the next seventy years proving that the chance was deserved, a story that is still being written, because she is still working, still narrating, and still surprising her audience.
There is a final detail that sums up Andrews’s career, and it is the way she has handled fame. She has never been a tabloid figure, and she has never sold her private life as part of the act, and she has worked steadily, chosen her parts carefully, and let the performances speak for themselves, and the result is a reputation that has only grown with time. Younger actors who watch her work can see a model of how to build a career without losing yourself in it: choose carefully, prepare thoroughly, treat colleagues well, and let the work speak. That model is not glamorous, and it does not make headlines, but it is the reason she is still working, still choosing interesting parts, and still regarded as one of the finest performers of her generation by the people who know the craft best.
One more thing worth noting is the way Andrews’s voice has shaped her career, from the four-octave soprano she had as a child to the warm, distinctive speaking voice she has now, a voice that is instantly recognisable, and that has been the centre of her work for more than seventy years. She has said that losing her singing voice was one of the hardest things she has ever had to accept, and that she still misses it, and that she is grateful for the speaking voice she still has, a sentiment that is simple and honest, and that reflects the way she has approached her career: as a gift to be used, not as a fame to be enjoyed, a attitude that has kept her working for more than seventy years, and that is the reason she is still here.
Blake Edwards, Victor/Victoria and a Second Act
Her work in the 2020s has included Bridgerton, and she has said that she is happy to be working, and that she enjoys narrating, because it is a way of telling a story without having to appear on camera, and because it lets her use her voice, which is still her greatest asset. She has also continued to write, and she has spoken about wanting to write more books, and about the importance of stories for children, a subject that she cares about deeply, and that she has worked on throughout her career, from her children’s books to her memoirs, a commitment to storytelling that is at the heart of everything she has done, and that is the reason her career has lasted so long.
There is a lesson in Andrews’s story for anyone who wants to become a performer, and it is about the value of hard work and of staying true to yourself. She was a child prodigy who grew up in public, and she built her career one performance at a time, from the music hall to Broadway to Hollywood, and she did it by being herself, on stage and on screen, and by treating every part, no matter how small, with the same seriousness. That is a modest ambition, and it is also the hardest one, and it is the reason her career has lasted, and the reason she is still one of the most loved performers in the world today, a career that is a model for any young performer who is told that they can only play one kind of part.
Her collaborations with Walt Disney were a key part of her career, and they show her ability to work with a studio that had a very specific vision, and to bring that vision to life, while still making the characters her own. She played Mary Poppins and Queen Clarisse, two very different kinds of royalty, and each one was different, and each one showed a different side of her, from the magical nanny to the wise queen. That collaboration was one of the most productive in Hollywood history, and it is a testament to the trust that Disney placed in her, and to the talent that she brought to the studio’s films, a talent that made those films feel real, even when they were at their most fantastical, and that is why they are still watched today.
The Princess Diaries, Shrek and Bridgerton
One more detail about Andrews is her work as an author, which has taken her from the stage to the page, and which shows her love of stories and of language. She has written children’s books that have been praised for their warmth and their humour, and memoirs that have been praised for their honesty, and she has said that writing is a way of making sense of her life, and that she enjoys it as much as performing. That love of stories is at the heart of everything she has done, from Mary Poppins to Bridgerton, and it is one of the reasons her career has lasted so long, because she has never stopped telling stories, and she has never stopped believing in their power to change lives.
Her story is still being written, and at ninety she has already achieved more than most performers achieve in a lifetime, but she has also shown that she is not finished, and that she has more to say. Bridgerton was a new chapter, and the books that followed it were a sign that she is still growing, still evolving, and still interested in making work that matters to her. I think the next few years will be the most interesting of her career, because she is now a performer with seven decades of experience, and with the confidence to make the choices she wants, without worrying about what the industry expects, a freedom that few performers ever achieve, and one that Andrews has earned.
Finally, it is worth noting that Andrews’s success has opened doors for other performers, and that she is part of a tradition of British musical theatre that values talent, discipline, and professionalism, a tradition that goes back to the music hall and that continues today. She has said that she is proud of that tradition, and that she wants to be part of it, and that she is grateful for the opportunities it has given her. That pride in her country’s theatre is part of who she is, and it is one of the reasons she is so loved in Britain, because she represents the best of British performing: talented, hardworking, and unafraid to be herself, on stage and off it, a career that is a model for any young performer.
My Take:
When I think about Julie Andrews, I think about Mary Poppins first, because it is the film that made her a star, and because it is a perfect performance: warm, funny, magical, and completely believable, even though the character is a nanny who flies in on an umbrella. I think the performance works because Andrews plays Mary Poppins as a real person, not as a cartoon, and because she sings with a voice that is pure and clear, and because she makes the audience believe in magic, which is a rare and valuable thing. It is a film that I return to often, because it reminds me that cinema, at its best, is about wonder, and Andrews is one of the few performers who can create wonder simply by being on screen, which is a gift that cannot be taught.
What impresses me about Andrews is the way she went from Broadway to Hollywood without losing herself. She was a Broadway star, playing Eliza Doolittle and Guenevere, and she could have stayed there, and instead she took a chance on film, and she won an Oscar for her first film, and she became the biggest movie star in the world. I think that courage is extraordinary, and it is the reason her career has lasted, because she was willing to leave a place where she was safe, and to try something new, and to risk failure, a lesson that any young performer should learn from, because the safe path is rarely the interesting one, and Andrews has always chosen the interesting one.
The Sound of Music is, in my view, one of the great films ever made, and it works because Andrews is at its centre, playing Maria with a joy and a warmth that makes the whole film glow. I think the film’s success is due, in large part, to her performance, because she makes Maria feel like a real person, not a saint, and because she sings the songs with a voice that is both powerful and tender, and because she makes the audience care about a family they have only just met. It is a performance that has been seen by billions of people, and it is one of the most famous in cinema history, and it is the reason The Sound of Music will be watched for as long as films are watched.
I also admire the way Andrews handled the loss of her singing voice, because it is a loss that would have destroyed many performers, and she handled it with grace and with honesty. She has spoken about the surgery in 1997, and about how it damaged her vocal cords, and about how she had to learn to live without the voice that had defined her life, and she did it without bitterness, and without giving up, and she found new ways to work, as an actress, as a narrator, and as an author. I think that resilience is remarkable, and it is one of the reasons I respect her so much, because it shows that a career is not about one talent, but about the person behind it, and Andrews is a person of great strength.
Victor/Victoria is another performance I return to, because it is so clever and so funny. Andrews plays a woman who pretends to be a man pretending to be a woman, in order to get work as a singer in Paris, and she plays it with a comic timing that is perfect, and with a singing voice that is still, at that point in her career, extraordinary. I think the Oscar nomination was deserved, and I think the performance is a model of how to play a complex, funny character, with empathy and without apology, a skill that very few actresses possess, and one that Andrews has in abundance, and that is why Victor/Victoria will be remembered as one of her finest films.
I find the Bridgerton narration fascinating, because it is a role that Andrews took on in her eighties, and that has introduced her to a whole new generation, who know her as the voice of Lady Whistledown before they know her as Mary Poppins. I think that is a remarkable thing, and it shows that her voice, even after the surgery, is still one of the most recognisable in the world, and that she is still, at ninety, a working performer, a fact that is itself an achievement. It is also a reminder that a career does not have to end when the body changes, but can evolve, and that Andrews has evolved more gracefully than almost anyone, a lesson that is worth learning from.
When I watch Andrews in The Princess Diaries, I notice how much of the performance is in her warmth and her humour. She plays Queen Clarisse, a grandmother who is also a queen, and she plays her as a woman who is wise and funny and kind, without ever being sentimental, and she makes the audience love her, even though she is only in the film for a short time. I think that is the mark of a great actress, one who can make a small part feel like a leading role, and who can do it with a lightness that makes it look easy. It is a performance that introduced her to a new generation, and that introduction helps explain why The Princess Diaries is still loved today.
My honest view is that Andrews is one of the finest performers of the twentieth century, and I say that because her range is so wide that people forget how hard it is. She can sing, she can act, she can do comedy and drama, she can carry a Broadway musical and a Hollywood film, and she can do it all with a directness that makes it look easy. I think that ease is deceptive, and that it comes from years of hard work, from a child prodigy in the music hall to a Dame of the British Empire. She is not a star who arrived overnight; she is a working performer who earned her place, and that is a more impressive achievement than fame, because it is built on the work itself, and it lasts longer.
I also think Andrews’s story is a story about resilience, and about how a performer can survive the loss of the very thing that made them famous. Her singing voice was her gift, and when she lost it, she did not give up, but found new ways to work, as an actress, as a narrator, and as an author, and she did it with a grace that is rare. I think that resilience is the most impressive thing about her, more impressive than any single performance, because it shows that a career is not about one talent, but about the person behind it, and Andrews is a person of great strength, and of great warmth, and that is why she is still here, still working, still loved.
Looking ahead, I expect Andrews to keep narrating Bridgerton, and to keep writing, because she has said that she enjoys both, and because they are ways of telling stories without having to appear on camera, and because they let her use her voice, which is still her greatest asset. I would love to see her write another memoir, because Home and Home Work were both wonderful, and because she has more to say, and I would love to see her take on another acting role, because she is still, at ninety, a performer of great talent. What I hope is that she keeps the honesty that has defined her work, the willingness to be warm and funny and direct, sometimes in the same scene. That is what makes her special, and it is what will keep audiences coming back to her.
Finally, I would tell a new viewer to start with Mary Poppins, then watch The Sound of Music, then watch Victor/Victoria, because those three together show the full range of what Andrews can do. Mary Poppins shows the magical nanny, The Sound of Music shows the joyful governess, and Victor/Victoria shows the comic actress who can play a woman pretending to be a man. Taken together, they explain why she won an Oscar and was nominated for two more, and why she is one of the most loved performers in the world. Her story is not a fairy tale; it is a story about hard work, talent and resilience, and I think that is a story worth telling.
My Fair Lady is a performance I want to mention, because it is one of the great Broadway performances, and because it shows Andrews at the height of her powers as a singer and as an actress. She played Eliza Doolittle for two years on Broadway and a year in London, and she made the part her own, even though she was not cast in the film, a decision that she has said was a disappointment, but that also freed her to take the film role that would make her a movie star. I think the performance is a reminder that a career is not defined by the parts you do not get, but by the parts you do, and Andrews has always understood that, which is why she has never been bitter about My Fair Lady, and why she has always been grateful for Mary Poppins.
There is a warmth in Andrews’s performances that I think is undervalued, and it is the reason audiences love her. She does not play characters who are cold or distant; she plays people who are warm, funny and kind, and who feel like people you might know. I think that warmth is not an act; it is who she is, and it is why she is so good at playing nannies, queens and grandmothers, the people who hold a story together. It is also why her dramatic performances are so moving, because the audience already cares about her before the story begins, and that care makes the sadness hit harder, which is a gift that very few performers have.
My last thought is that Andrews’s career is a reminder that the best performers are often the ones who work the hardest and make the least fuss about it. She has never been a tabloid star, and she has never tried to be fashionable, and she has built a career on talent, hard work and honesty, one performance at a time. I think that is a model worth following, and I think it is the reason she is still here, still working, still loved, after seventy years in the business. She is proof that a career built on craft lasts, and that a performer who treats the audience with respect will be rewarded with a loyalty that does not fade, which is the best kind of success there is.
And if I could ask Andrews one question, it would be about the songs she still sings, in private, for herself, because the music a performer keeps for themselves tells you as much as the music they share. I suspect the answer would be simple: she still sings the songs she loves, in her own way, for her family, and that is enough. That is my reading of her career anyway, and it is the principle I would pass on to anyone who asked me what this life story actually teaches: that a voice is not just a talent, but a gift, and that it should be used with care, and with joy, for as long as you have it.
Thoroughly Modern Millie is a film I want to mention, because it is often overlooked, and because it shows Andrews at her most joyful, playing a young woman in New York in the 1920s who wants to be modern, and who sings and dances with an energy that is infectious. I think the film is a reminder that Andrews was not just a dramatic actress, but a musical comedy star, and that she could be funny and light as well as serious and moving, a range that is rare, and that is one of the reasons her career has lasted so long. It is also a film that shows her voice at its best, before the surgery, and it is a joy to listen to, even now, decades after it was made.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Julie Andrews born?
Julie Andrews was born Julia Elizabeth Wells on 1 October 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. She grew up performing in the music hall with her mother and stepfather, and she made her professional debut at the age of twelve.
What film did Julie Andrews win an Oscar for?
She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Mary Poppins in 1964, her film debut. She beat Audrey Hepburn, who had been nominated for My Fair Lady, a role Andrews had played on Broadway.
Why did Julie Andrews lose her singing voice?
In 1997 she underwent surgery on her vocal cords, an operation that damaged her singing voice and left her unable to sing in the way she once could. She has spoken about the loss with great sadness, and she went on working as an actress, narrator and author.
Who did Julie Andrews play in The Sound of Music?
She played Maria von Trapp, a young nun who becomes a governess to seven children in Austria and falls in love with their father, Captain von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer. The film became one of the highest-grossing films of all time.
What is Julie Andrews’s role in Bridgerton?
Since 2020 she has narrated the Netflix series Bridgerton as the voice of Lady Whistledown, the anonymous gossip columnist whose words drive the plot of the series.
What books has Julie Andrews written?
She has written children’s books with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton, including the Very Fairy Princess series, and two memoirs: Home in 2008 and Home Work in 2019.
