September 20, 2005. Copyright 2005, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Julie Andrews -- the sound of success
By Elisabeth Ribbans

LONDON, September 20, Graphic News:  Forty years after reaching the pinnacle of fame on the hills above Salzburg in The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews -- the movie star with the famous four-octave voice -- is still rated, according to an opinion poll published this year, among BritainŐs top five best-loved actresses, ahead of other great box-office names and dames such as Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave and Kate Winslet.

This enduring affection for an actress who first trod the boards in LondonŐs West End at the age of 11, is underwritten by her magical performances in two timeless musical films: Walt DisneyŐs Mary Poppins (1964), in which AndrewsŐ sparkling movie debut as the eponymous flying nanny won her an Academy Award; and Rodgers & HammersteinŐs The Sound of Music (1965), one of the top grossing films of all time, for which she was also Oscar-nominated for her pitch-perfect portrayal of Maria, the doe-eyed governess and would-be nun who melts the hearts of a widowed captain and his brood.

Born Julia Elizabeth Wells in Surrey, England, on October 1, 1935, she began her career as a child singer in her parentsŐ vaudeville act. By the time she won her first professional solo role in 1947, in Starlight Roof at the London Hippodrome, the little girl with a giant voice had already earned her stripes entertaining Second World War troops across Britain.

In 1954, Andrews made her U.S. debut in the Broadway production of The Boyfriend. Two years later Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe cast her as Eliza Doolittle opposite Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, an instant hit that turned the 21-year-old actress into an overnight sensation. Leading roles in TV musicals, including High Tor with Bing Crosby, and Rodgers & HammersteinŐs Cinderella, followed, along with further appearances in the Broadway limelight, notably as Guinevere opposite Richard BurtonŐs King Arthur in Camelot (1961).

As her star rose, the only seeming setback came when she lost out to Audrey Hepburn -- whose singing voice famously had to be dubbed -- for the part of Eliza in the film version of My Fair Lady. But the loss was soon forgotten when Andrews won the Oscar that year for Mary Poppins, while Hepburn was not even nominated.

Since The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews has appeared in more than 20 feature films, some directed by her husband of 36 years, Blake Edwards -- including 10 (1979), also starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek; S.O.B. (1981), in which she famously appeared topless; and Victor/Victoria (1982), a musical comedy for which she received another best actress Oscar nomination for her cross-dressing nightclub singer, a role she reprised on Broadway in 1995.

In America, her adopted home, Andrews has a long back catalogue of TV work, including her own 1972 variety show, The Julie Andrews Hour, for which she won seven Emmy Awards, and a series of acclaimed specials over several decades with the actress and comedienne Carol Burnett.

Along the way, under the name Julie Andrews Edwards, she has authored several childrenŐs books, including The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

In 1997, Andrews lost her legendary voice in an operation to remove non-cancerous polyps and has since struggled to regain her legendary singing ability. But after an eight-year absence from movies, she returned to the big screen in 2000 in an adaptation of Noel CowardŐs Relative Values. And the following year she performed a Ňsing-speakingÓ role as the Queen of Genovia in The Princess Diaries, directed by Garry Marshall. In 2004 her crown was back in place when she provided the voice of The Queen in the Dreamworks animation Shrek 2.

Julie Andrews was made a dame in BritainŐs 2000 New Year Honours list, a real-life royal summons that she described as Ňthe greatest honour of my lifeÓ.

Julie has five children, her daughter Emma, by her first marriage to set designer Tony Walton, two stepchildren -- Blake EdwardsŐ son and daughter, Geoffrey and Jennifer -- and Amy and Joanna, two Vietnamese orphans she and Edwards adopted in the 1970s.
/ENDS