Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews married set designer Tony Walton in 1959, and they had a daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, in 1962. Their divorce was finalised in 1968, although they remained friends and continued to collaborate on creative projects.

In 1969, Andrews married director Blake Edwards. They raised Edwards's two children and adopted two Vietnamese daughters. Andrews and Edwards remained married until his death in 2010.

Andrews began performing with her mother and stepfather in their music-hall act as a child. She made her professional solo debut at the London Hippodrome in 1947, singing the aria "Je suis Titania" from Mignon in the revue Starlight Roof. In 1948, she became the youngest solo performer to appear at a Royal Variety Performance, where she sang for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

Her Broadway debut came in 1954, when she played Polly Browne in The Boy Friend. She became a major stage star as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, which opened on Broadway in 1956. Andrews later played Cinderella in the live television musical Cinderella in 1957 and Queen Guinevere in Camelot in 1960. Although Audrey Hepburn was cast as Eliza in the film version of My Fair Lady, the Broadway role established Andrews as one of the leading musical performers of her generation.

Walt Disney offered Andrews the title role in Mary Poppins after seeing her perform in Camelot. Released in 1964, the film became her feature-film debut and earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award shared with her co-stars. Andrews later described the film as an important introduction to filmmaking.

The following year, she starred as Maria von Trapp in Robert Wise's The Sound of Music, opposite Christopher Plummer. The film became one of the highest-grossing movies of its era and won five Academy Awards. Andrews received another Academy Award nomination and won a Golden Globe for her performance. Her other prominent 1960s films included The Americanization of Emily, Hawaii, Torn Curtain and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

After the decline of large-scale musical films, Andrews broadened her screen work with comedies and dramatic roles. Her collaborations with Blake Edwards included 10, S.O.B. and Victor/Victoria. In Victor/Victoria, she played a woman who disguises herself as a man who performs as a female impersonator, earning her a third Academy Award nomination. She also received praise for her performance as a violinist with multiple sclerosis in Duet for One.

Andrews returned to a wide family audience as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. She voiced Queen Lillian in the Shrek films, Gru's mother in the Despicable Me films, Karathen in Aquaman, and the narrator of Enchanted. Beginning in 2020, she voiced Lady Whistledown in the Netflix series Bridgerton, winning an Emmy for the role in 2025.

Andrews left the Broadway production of Victor/Victoria in 1997 after developing serious vocal problems. Surgery intended to treat the condition permanently damaged her larynx and destroyed the purity of her singing voice. Further operations improved her speaking voice but did not restore her singing voice, leading her to focus on acting, narration, writing and directing.

She has written memoirs, children's novels, poetry collections and picture books, often working with Emma Walton Hamilton. Their children's book The Very Fairy Princess reached number one on The New York Times children's bestseller list, and Andrews and her daughter also created the educational series Julie's Greenroom. Her honours include Kennedy Center Honors, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, the AFI Life Achievement Award and a damehood from Queen Elizabeth II.