Age, Biography and Wiki
- Age: As of 2025, Julie Andrews is 89 years old.
- Biography: Andrews began her career as a child performer on stage in the UK during the 1940s. She gained international recognition with her performances in Broadway productions like The Boy Friend (1954), My Fair Lady (1956), and Camelot (1960) .
- Wiki: Julie Andrews' extensive career includes film roles in Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and Victor/Victoria (1982). She has also voiced characters in films like the Shrek series .
| Occupation | Voice Actress |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 1 October 1935 |
| Age | 89 Years |
| Birth Place | Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England |
| Horoscope | Libra |
| Country | England |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Julie Andrews' height is approximately 5 feet 8 inches (173 cm), but detailed information on her weight and other measurements is not readily available.
Once termed "Britain's youngest prima donna", Andrews's classically trained soprano voice has been described as light, bright and operatic in tone and praised for its "pure and clear" sound. When she was young, a throat specialist examined her and determined that she had "an almost adult larynx". Despite her voice teacher's, soprano Lilian Stiles-Allen, encouragement to pursue opera, Andrews felt that her voice was unsuited for the genre and "too big a stretch". At the time, she described her own voice as "extremely high and thin", feeling that it lacked "the necessary guts and weight for opera", preferring musical theatre instead.
| Height | 5 feet 8 inches |
| Weight | |
| Body Measurements | |
| Eye Color | |
| Hair Color |
Dating & Relationship status
- Julie Andrews was married to Tony Walton from 1959 to 1967 and then to Blake Edwards from 1969 until his death in 2010. She does not appear to be actively involved in any new relationships as of 2025.
Andrews starred in various films, working with directors including her husband Blake Edwards, George Roy Hill, and Alfred Hitchcock. Films she starred in include The Americanization of Emily (1964), Hawaii (1966), Torn Curtain (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Star! (1968), The Tamarind Seed (1974), 10 (1979), S.O.B. (1981), Victor/Victoria (1982), That's Life! (1986), and Duet for One (1986). She later returned to films, acting in The Princess Diaries (2001), The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), as well as Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime (both 2003). She also has voiced roles in the Shrek franchise (2001–2010) and the Despicable Me franchise (2010–present).
Andrews was conceived as a result of an affair her mother had with a family friend. Andrews learned of her true parentage from her mother in 1950, although it was not publicly disclosed until her 2008 autobiography.
With the outbreak of World War II, her parents went their separate ways and were soon divorced. Each remarried: Barbara to Ted Andrews, in 1943, and Ted Wells in 1944 to Winifred Maud (Hyde) Birkhead, a war widow and former hairstylist at a war work factory that employed them both in Hinchley Wood, Surrey. Wells assisted with evacuating children to Surrey during the Blitz, while Andrews's mother joined her husband in entertaining the troops through the Entertainments National Service Association. Andrews lived briefly with Wells and her brother, John, in Surrey.
In 1940, Wells sent her to live with her mother and stepfather, who Wells thought would be better able to provide for his talented daughter's artistic training. While Andrews had been used to calling her stepfather "Uncle Ted", her mother suggested it would be more appropriate to refer to her stepfather as "Pop", while her father remained "Dad" or "Daddy" to her, a change which she disliked. The Andrews family was "very poor" and "lived in a bad slum area of London" at the time, stating that the war "was a very black period in my life". According to Andrews, her stepfather was violent and an alcoholic. He twice tried to get into bed with his stepdaughter while drunk, resulting in Andrews fitting a lock on her door.
As the stage career of her mother and stepfather improved, they were able to afford better surroundings, first to Beckenham and then, as the war ended, back to the Andrews' hometown of Hersham. The family took up residence at the Old Meuse, in West Grove, Hersham, a house (since demolished) where Andrews's maternal grandmother had served as a maid. Andrews's stepfather sponsored lessons for her, first at the independent arts educational school Cone-Ripman School (previously ArtsEd, now Tring Park School for the Performing Arts) and thereafter with concert soprano and voice instructor Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen.
Andrews said of Stiles-Allen, "She had an enormous influence on me", adding, "She was my third mother – I've got more mothers and fathers than anyone in the world". In her memoir Julie Andrews – My Star Pupil, Stiles-Allen records, "The range, accuracy and tone of Julie's voice amazed me ... she had possessed the rare gift of absolute pitch", though Andrews herself refutes this in her 2008 autobiography Home. According to Andrews, "Madame was sure that I could do Mozart and Rossini, but, to be honest, I never was". Of her own voice, she says, "I had a very pure, white, thin voice, a four-octave range – dogs would come from miles around." After Cone-Ripman School, Andrews continued her academic education at the nearby Woodbrook School, a local state school in Beckenham.
Beginning in 1945, and for the next two years, Andrews performed spontaneously and unbilled on stage with her parents. "Then came the day when I was told I must go to bed in the afternoon because I was going to be allowed to sing with Mummy and Pop in the evening", Andrews explained. During her initial shows, Andrews stood on a beer crate to sing into the microphone, performing a solo or a duet with her stepfather, while her mother played piano. She later stated that "it must have been ghastly, but it seemed to go down all right". Fellow child entertainer Petula Clark, three years her senior, recalled touring around the UK by train to sing for the troops alongside Andrews; they slept in the luggage racks. Clark later said "It was fun—and not a lot of kids were having fun".
Andrews subsequently followed her parents into radio and television. She performed in musical interludes of the BBC Light Programme comedy show Up the Pole and was a cast member in Educating Archie, from 1950 to 1952. She reportedly made her television début on the BBC programme RadiOlympia Showtime on 8 October 1949. Andrews appeared on West End theatre at the London Casino, where she played one year each as Princess Badroulbadour in Aladdin and the egg in Humpty Dumpty. Andrews also appeared on provincial stages in Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood, as well as starring as the lead role in Cinderella. In 1952, she voiced Princess Zeila in the English dub of the Italian animated movie La Rosa di Bagdad (renamed The Singing Princess), in her first film and first venture into voice-over work.
On 30 September 1954, the eve of her 19th birthday, Andrews made her Broadway debut as Polly Browne in the London musical The Boy Friend. Andrews was recommended to director Vida Hope for the part by actress Hattie Jacques, whom Andrews regards as a "catalyst" for her career. Eve Benda recognised her special talent and predicted her stardom. Andrews was anxious about moving to New York; at the time, she was both breadwinner and caretaker for her family, and took the part upon her father's encouragement.
Andrews next appeared in two of Hollywood's most expensive flops: Star! (1968), a biopic of Gertrude Lawrence; and Darling Lili (1970), co-starring Rock Hudson and directed by her second husband, Blake Edwards. Andrews "went through her usual period of insecurity" during the production of Star!, intensely analysing her choices for the character. Choreographer Michael Kidd worked closely with Andrews during the complicated musical numbers, which Andrews regarded as physically and mentally gruelling, coupled with her divorce from her first husband, Tony Walton. The New York Times singled out the film as "not one of [Andrews]'s best", while Variety wrote her "carefully built-up" performance "sagged" with "overdone hoydenishness". Despite reviews, her performance was once again nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. Andrews regards her friendships with Kidd and director Robert Wise as her "greatest gifts" from the film.
Andrews continued her association with Disney when she appeared as the nanny in two television films based on the Eloise books, a series of children's books by Kay Thompson about a child who lives in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Eloise at the Plaza premiered in April 2003, and Eloise at Christmastime was broadcast in November 2003; Andrews was nominated for an Emmy Award. The same year she made her debut as a theatre director, directing a revival of The Boy Friend, the musical in which she made her 1954 Broadway debut, at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York. Her production, which featured costume and scenic design by her former husband Tony Walton, was remounted at the Goodspeed Opera House in 2005 and went on a national tour in 2006. From 2005 to 2006, Andrews served as the Official Ambassador for Disneyland's 18-month-long, 50th-anniversary celebration, the "Happiest Homecoming on Earth", travelling to promote the celebration, recording narration and appearing at several events at the park. On 17 March 2005, Andrews appeared onstage during the curtain calls for the musical of Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End, where she gave a speech recalling her own memories from making the film and praised the cast for their new interpretation. In 2004, Andrews voiced Queen Lillian in the animated blockbuster Shrek 2 (2004), reprising the role for its sequels, Shrek the Third (2007) and Shrek Forever After (2010). Also in 2007, she narrated Enchanted, a live-action Disney musical comedy that both parodied and paid homage to Disney films.
On 18 May 2010, Andrews's 23rd book (this one also written with her daughter Emma) was published. In June 2010, the book, entitled The Very Fairy Princess, reached number 1 on The New York Times Best Seller List for Children's Books. On 21 May 2010, her film Shrek Forever After was released; in it Andrews reprises her role as the Queen. On 9 July 2010, Despicable Me, an animated film in which Andrews lent her voice to Marlena Gru, the thoughtless and soul-crushing mother of the main character Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), opened to rave reviews and strong box office. On 28 October 2010, Andrews appeared, along with the actors who portrayed the cinematic von Trapp family members, on Oprah to commemorate the film's 45th anniversary. A few days later, her 24th book, Little Bo in Italy, was published.
Beginning in December 2020, Andrews voiced the narrator Lady Whistledown in the Netflix period drama series Bridgerton. In 2022, Andrews narrated the film The King's Daughter for Gravitas Ventures. She recorded her narration in 2020. A few weeks later she was announced to be the narrator. On 9 June 2022, Andrews was honoured by the American Film Institute with a Lifetime Achievement Award, where she reflected on her career and received tributes by multiple artists. The same year, she reprised her role as Gru's mother in Minions: The Rise of Gru.
In November 1969, Andrews married director Blake Edwards, who had been her companion for at least two years, becoming stepmother to his children, Jennifer and Geoffrey. In the 1970s, Edwards and Andrews adopted two Vietnamese daughters, Amy (later known as Amelia) Leigh and Joanna Lynne. They were married for 41 years, until Edwards's death at the age of 88 on 15 December 2010 at the Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, due to complications of pneumonia. Andrews was by her husband's side when he died. Andrews is a grandmother to nine and a great-grandmother to three.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Tony Walton (m. 1959-1968) Blake Edwards (m. 1969-2010) |
| Sibling | |
| Children |
Net Worth and Salary
- Net Worth: As of 2025, Julie Andrews' net worth is estimated to be $30 million. This wealth is a result of her extensive career in film, television, and stage performances, as well as her work as an author .
- Salary: Specific details on her current salary are not available, but her earnings have been consistent throughout her career.
Career, Business and Investments
- Early Career: Andrews started performing on stage as a child and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend (1954). Her breakthrough came with My Fair Lady (1956) .
- Film Success: She is best known for her Oscar-winning role in Mary Poppins (1964) and her starring role in The Sound of Music (1965) .
- Later Work: Andrews continued her career with films like Victor/Victoria (1982) and voice work in the Shrek series. She has also been involved in television projects and has worked as an author .
- Business Ventures: While there is limited information on specific business ventures, Andrews has been involved in various philanthropic activities and has a strong presence in the entertainment industry.
Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over eight decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for three Tony Awards. One of the biggest box office draws of the 1960s, Andrews has been honoured with the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2022. She was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.
Casting for the film adaptation of My Fair Lady began in 1962; Alan Jay Lerner hoped for Andrews to reprise her role, but Warner Brothers studio head Jack Warner decided Andrews lacked sufficient name recognition; the part was played by the established film actress Audrey Hepburn, with the bulk of the singing dubbed by Marni Nixon. As Warner later recalled that the decision was made for financial purposes, stating, "In my business, I have to know who brings people and their money to a cinema box office. Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop." Andrews later reflected that she understood her experience on Broadway "was within a very small pond" but wished she had been able to record her performance for posterity.
Edwards pitched the concept of Darling Lili to Andrews two years prior to the start of production in 1968. She prerecorded original songs for the film with Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. Andrews cited Darling Lili's tepid reviews as being caused by studio marketing and postproduction issues. While the film was a commercial bomb, the New York Times praised Andrews's performance, calling her an "unmitigated delight" and "perfect centerpiece" of the film, praising "her coolness and precision as a comedienne and a singer". She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, while the film won both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Of these films, Andrews later wrote that "nonstop success in a career is impossible [...] but nobody sets out to make a failure, either".
In January 2010, Andrews was the official United States presenter for the Great Performances From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2010 concert. This was her second appearance in this role, after presenting the previous year's concert. Andrews also had a supporting role in the film Tooth Fairy, which opened to unfavourable reviews although the box office receipts were successful. On her promotion tour for the film, she also spoke of Operation USA and the aid campaign to the Haiti disaster.
Over her career Andrews received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, six Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, and two Emmy Awards. Despite being nominated for three Tony Awards, Andrews never won. In June 2022, Andrews was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award at a ceremony in Los Angeles after a two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2002, Andrews was ranked No. 59 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Social Network
Julie Andrews is not very active on social media platforms, which is common for celebrities of her generation. However, her work and legacy are widely discussed across various social media platforms.
Andrews had her career breakthrough when her stepfather introduced her to managing director Val Parnell, whose Moss Empires controlled prominent performance venues in London. At the age of 12, Andrews made her professional solo debut at the London Hippodrome, singing the difficult aria "Je suis Titania" from Mignon as part of a musical revue, called "Starlight Roof", on 22 October 1947. She played at the Hippodrome for one year. Of her role in "Starlight Roof", Andrews recalled: "There was this wonderful American person and comedian, Wally Boag, who made balloon animals. He would say, 'Is there any little girl or boy in the audience who would like one of these?' And I would rush up onstage and say, 'I'd like one, please.' And then he would chat to me and I'd tell him I sang. ... I was fortunate in that I absolutely stopped the show cold. I mean, the audience went crazy."
On 1 May 2005, Disneyland debuted a new fireworks show, Remember... Dreams Come True, for Disneyland's 50th anniversary, with Andrews being the host and narrator of the show. In January 2007, Andrews was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Screen Actors Guild's awards and stated that her goals included continuing to direct for the stage and possibly to produce her own Broadway musical. She published Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, which she characterised as "part one" of her autobiography, on 1 April 2008. Home chronicles her early years in Britain's music hall circuit and ends in 1962 with her winning the role of Mary Poppins. For a Walt Disney video release, she again portrayed Mary Poppins and narrated the story of The Cat That Looked at a King in 2004. From July until early August 2008, Andrews hosted Julie Andrews' The Gift of Music, a short tour of the United States where she sang various Rodgers and Hammerstein songs and symphonised her recently published book, Simeon's Gift. Appearances included the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, and a performance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. These were her first public singing performances in a dozen years, due to her failed vocal cord surgery. In January 2009, Andrews was named on The Times' list of the top 10 British Actresses of all time. The list included Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham Carter, Judi Dench, and Audrey Hepburn. Also in 2009, Andrews received the honorary George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement.
In 2015, Andrews made a surprise appearance at the Oscars, greeting Lady Gaga who paid her homage by singing a medley from The Sound of Music. This became a social media sensation, trending all over the world. Lyndon Terracini announced in August 2015 that Andrews would direct My Fair Lady in 2016 for Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House. In 2016, Andrews created the preschool television series Julie's Greenroom with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton and Judy Rothman. Andrews is joined by her assistant Gus (Giullian Yao Gioiello) and "Greenies", a cast of original puppets built by The Jim Henson Company. The series premiered on Netflix in 2017. In 2017, Andrews also reprised her role as Marlena Gru in the second Despicable Me sequel Despicable Me 3. In 2018, Andrews voiced Karathen, a leviathan, in James Wan's Aquaman. That same year, she declined a cameo appearance in Mary Poppins Returns to avoid stealing the limelight now belonging to star Emily Blunt.
In April 2023, Andrews participated in the NBC primetime special Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love where she paid tribute to her friend Carol Burnett. The same year, she also made a featured taped appearance on the primetime CBS special Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic, wherein she told the story of working alongside Van Dyke in the 1964 film Mary Poppins.
Education
- Early Education: Julie Andrews began her early education at the Cone-Ripman School, a local drama school in Surrey, England. She also received vocal training from renowned vocal coach, Madame Lillian Stiles-Allen .
As of 2025, Julie Andrews continues to be celebrated for her enduring impact on the entertainment industry, with a net worth that reflects her successful career as an actress, singer, and author.
Andrews stated that at the time, she had "no idea" how to research a role or study a script, and cites Cy Feuer's direction as being "phenomenal". The Boy Friend became a hit, with Andrews receiving praise; critics called her the stand-out of the show. In 1955, Andrews signed to appear with Bing Crosby in the television film, High Tor. It filmed in November 1955 in Los Angeles and was Andrews's first screen project, which she described as "daunting". High Tor was televised the following March before a live audience for the Ford Star Jubilee, receiving lukewarm reviews.
In 1963, Andrews began work in the titular role of Disney's musical film Mary Poppins. Walt Disney had seen her performance in Camelot and subsequently offered her the role; Andrews initially declined because of pregnancy, returning to London to give birth, but Disney firmly insisted, saying, "We'll wait for you." After the birth of her daughter, she received a call from P. L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins book series, who told her, "Well, you're much too pretty of course. But you've got the nose for it." Disney rented a house in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, for her family to reside in during production. Andrews relied largely on instinct for her portrayal, conceptualising her background and giving the character a "particular walk" and a turned-out stance to suit her ladylike sensibility. Andrews referred to production as "unrelenting" given the physical exertion and technical details, saying that she "could not have asked" for a better introduction to film.
In February 1980, Andrews headlined "Because We Care", a CBS-TV special with 30 major stars raising funds for Cambodian Famine victims through Operation California (now Operation USA, on whose Board she serves). Later that year, she starred in Little Miss Marker as "English rose" Amanda Worthington (a label she had first been given in the 1960s). In Blake Edwards's S.O.B. (1981), she played Sally Miles, a character who agrees to "show my boobies" in a scene in the film-within-a-film. A dual role of Victoria Grant and Count Victor Grezhinski in the film Victor/Victoria (1982) reunited her with Garner once again. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, as well as a nomination for the 1982 Academy Award for Best Actress, her third Oscar nomination. In 1983, Andrews was chosen as the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year by the Harvard University Theatrical Society. That year, she co-starred with Burt Reynolds in The Man Who Loved Women. Her next two films were That's Life! and Duet for One (both 1986), which earned her Golden Globe nominations. In December 1987, Andrews starred in an ABC Christmas special, Julie Andrews: The Sound Of Christmas, which went on to win five Emmy Awards. Two years later, she was reunited for the third time with Carol Burnett for a variety special which aired on ABC in December 1989.
