ACTOR · BORN 1935
Julie Andrews
- Born
- 1 October 1935, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, UK
- Known for
- Despicable Me (2010), Aquaman (2018), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007)
86 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
27 Facts From Julie Andrews' Career
- #002
According to Andrews, Walt Disney first approached her to read for the role of Mary Poppins after a performance of the Broadway show Camelot. Andrews told Disney she could not take the role because she was pregnant. Disney replied: "That's all right. I'll wait."
- #005
Audrey Hepburn played the original Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway musical "My Fair Lady" and also starred in the film My Fair Lady (1964). Studio executives did not want Andrews because she had no film experience and they thought Hepburn was the better choice. However, although the film My Fair Lady took home many Oscars in 1964, it did not win Best Actress. That award went to none other than Julie Andrews for her performance in Mary Poppins (1964).
- #008
She is the only actress nominated for (and later winner of) the Oscar for Best Actress for a Walt Disney film (Mary Poppins (1964)).
- #009
In her Oscar acceptance speech, Walt Disney was the only person thanked by name.
- #010
On 31 December 1999, she was created a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain in the Millennium New Year Honours List.
- #012
In 1996 she declined her Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for "Victor/Victoria" because the other actors and the company had been overlooked.
- #018
She was the youngest person ever to appear in a Royal Command Performance. She performed for King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth/Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret.
- #020
Julie Andrews's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame sits directly in front of the building newly added to the Chinese Theatre. The star was dedicated on October 5, 1979.
- #024
Andrews appeared in two films selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965).
- #030
Andrews received the 2011 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
- #036
Andrews reprised her role as Victoria Grant in the Broadway musical adaptation of Victor/Victoria (1982). She declined the Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.
- #038
Andrews played Eliza in My Fair Lady on Broadway for two years and in London for 18 months, never missing a single performance.
- #039
Julie Andrews is one of four actresses who won the Best Actress Oscar for their first film, taking the award for Mary Poppins (1964). The others are Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968) and Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God (1986).
- #041
At the 75th Annual Academy Awards (2003), Andrews received a standing ovation while presenting a short film tribute sequence.
- #046
Andrews is one of 15 actors who won both the Best Actress Academy Award and the Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Golden Globe for the same performance, hers being for Mary Poppins (1964). The others, in chronological order, are: Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday (1950), Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968), Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), Glenda Jackson for A Touch of Class (1973), Diane Keaton for Annie Hall (1977), Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), Cher for Moonstruck (1987), Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Helen Hunt for As Good as It Gets (1997), Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love (1998), Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005), Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose (2007), Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and Emma Stone for La La Land (2016).
- #052
When she finished her run in the Broadway musical "Camelot", she was two months pregnant with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton.
- #055
She turned down the role of Miss Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) because she thought it was too similar to Mary Poppins (1964). She eventually reconsidered, feeling she owed her career to Disney, but by that stage Angela Lansbury had been cast. Ironically, Lansbury had been considered to play Mary Poppins.
- #056
Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar for her first feature film, Mary Poppins (1964). Over her career she received 28 awards, but despite her nomination for The Sound of Music (1965), this remained her only Academy Award. Mary Poppins also earned her and her co-stars the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Album for Children. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the musical My Fair Lady.
- #057
Julie Andrews is one of nine actresses who have won an Oscar for a performance in a musical. The others, in chronological order, are Rita Moreno, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Emma Stone and Ariana DeBose.
- #061
As of 2019, she is the seventh-earliest surviving recipient of a Best Actress Oscar nomination, after Olivia de Havilland, Leslie Caron, Carroll Baker, Joanne Woodward, Shirley MacLaine and the tied Piper Laurie and Sophia Loren. She was nominated for (and won) for Mary Poppins (1964) in 1964.
- #063
As of 2013, she is one of six women to have received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a performance directed by her spouse, namely Victor/Victoria (1982), directed by Blake Edwards. The other five are Elisabeth Bergner for Escape Me Never (1935) (director Paul Czinner), Joanne Woodward for Rachel, Rachel (1968) (director Paul Newman), Jean Simmons for The Happy Ending (1969) (director Richard Brooks), Gena Rowlands for A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980) (both directed by John Cassavetes), and Frances McDormand for Fargo (1996) (director Joel Coen). Jules Dassin also directed his future wife Melina Mercouri in an Oscar-nominated Best Actress performance (Never on Sunday (1960)), but they were not yet married at the time of the nomination.
- #066
She became the 61st actor to win an Oscar, winning the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Mary Poppins (1964) at the 37th Annual Academy Awards (1965) on 5 April 1965.
- #068
She is one of 11 actresses who have won the Best Actress Oscar for a film in which they sing as a character; hers is Mary Poppins (1964). The others are Luise Rainer, Ingrid Bergman, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Ellen Burstyn, Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek, Reese Witherspoon, Emma Stone and Renée Zellweger. Marion Cotillard could be argued to belong on this list, but for La Vie En Rose (2007) she mimed Édith Piaf rather than using her own voice.
- #077
Julie Andrews was set to voice Shari Bobbins, a parody of Mary Poppins, in the 1997 film Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious, but she was busy performing on Broadway. The role went to regular cast member Maggie Roswell.
- #079
Julie Andrews is one of 27 actors nominated for an Oscar for a performance in a musical; hers were for Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound of Music (1965) and Victor/Victoria (1982). The others, in chronological order, are: Bessie Love (The Broadway Melody (1929)), Grace Moore (One Night of Love (1934)), Jean Hagen (Singin' in the Rain (1952)), Marjorie Rambeau (Torch Song (1953)), Dorothy Dandridge (Carmen Jones (1954)), Deborah Kerr (The King and I (1956)), Rita Moreno (West Side Story (1961)), Gladys Cooper (My Fair Lady (1964)), Debbie Reynolds (The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)), Peggy Wood (The Sound of Music (1965)), Carol Channing (Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)), Kay Medford (Funny Girl (1968)), Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl (1968)), Liza Minnelli (Cabaret (1972)), Ronee Blakley (Nashville (1975)), Lily Tomlin (Nashville (1975)), Ann-Margret (Tommy (1975)), Lesley Ann Warren (Victor/Victoria (1982)), Amy Irving (Yentl (1983)), Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge! (2001)), Queen Latifah (Chicago (2002)), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago (2002)), Renée Zellweger (Chicago (2002)), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls (2006)), Penélope Cruz (Nine (2009)), Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables (2012)), Meryl Streep (Into the Woods (2014)) and Emma Stone (La La Land (2016)). Andrews is the only actor nominated multiple times for a performance in a musical.
- #081
Julie Andrews is three-quarters of the way to an EGOT: she has an Emmy, a Grammy and an Oscar, but has yet to win a Tony. She has been nominated for a Tony three times without winning. Her first husband, Tony Walton, is also three-quarters of the way to an EGOT, with the Grammy being the only award he has not won.
- #082
In 1955, Julie Andrews went to the United States with Dilys Laye and Millicent Martin to appear in The Boyfriend on Broadway.
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