Alex Carson
Julie Andrews is a Hollywood icon that is a decades-spanning career in the entertainment industry in the years. Her star-making turn as the titular magical nanny in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. Julie further capitalizes on her fame by appearing in films like The Sound of Music and The Princess Diaries. Her career has given her a vast amount of wealth and has afforded her a very luxurious lifestyle. Join Facts Verse as we explore Julie Andrews’ lifestyle at 86 years old.
Julie Andrews was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her parents are vaudeville performers, and they notice that their daughter is a vocal range at an early age. Even when Julie was just a child, her vocal range spanned four octaves, making her larynx stronger than most adults. This immense natural talent inspires Julie’s parents to use their show business connections. They secure their daughter an early career singing in music halls throughout her childhood and teenage years.
In 1954, Julie debuts on Broadway in The Boy Friend. Though her breakout Broadway performance didn’t come until two years later, with 1956’s My Fair Lady. In 1963, Julie’s stage presence catches the eye of Walt Disney, who envisions the film that becomes Mary Poppins. He knew Julie was perfect for the role of the titular character and offered her the part. The Hollywood adaptation of My Fair Lady is in production at the time. Julie is hoping that she is going to get the part that she popularizes in the Broadway production. Because of this, Julie initially turned down the role in Mary Poppins. The role of Eliza Doolittle in the Hollywood adaptation of My Fair Lady goes to Audrey Hepburn instead of her. Julie goes back to Walt and says that she will do it after all.
Walt Disney’s eye for talent pays off, and Julie in Mary Poppins garners her an Academy Award for Best Actress. This victory makes impressive by the fact that Julie’s performance in the film serves as her big-screen breakout role. Julie follows up Mary Poppins a year later with The Sound of Music, which becomes iconic, if not more so. The Sound of Music is an adaptation of the hit Broadway play, and it becomes the highest-grossing film. When adjusting for inflation, The Sound of Music ranks among the highest-grossing films of all time at the box office.
Although Julie was seeing immense success in Hollywood musicals, this success didn’t translate as well into dramatic performances. Julie receives some critical acclaim for her dramatic turns in films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain. The audience is never quite willing to remember her as much for her dramatic performances as for her musical ones. Throughout the 1970s, Julie performed live and even hosted her own television variety series. It seems as if the actress’s career is on the outs. Her second husband offers her a renewed artistic lease when he is casting her in his features.
Julie’s second husband directs by Blake Edwards, who first cast Julie in his 1979 feature 10. Following this, Julie appeared in more of her husband’s films, including 1982’s Victor Victoria. Both features were incredibly well-received, and Julie’s performance in the latter feature even garnered her another nomination for Best Actress. Julie continues working in show business up until this day. A botched surgery on her vocal cords in the 1990s makes it so that Julie’s voice is forever changed. Because of this, subsequent roles have had to utilize her speaking voice and stage presence without any singing.
In the 2000s, Julie returns to cinemas in The Princess Diaries and its sequel, which reunites Julie with Disney. Although Walt was no longer alive, fans were happy to see Julie back with the brand. Julie takes on voice-acting roles and branched out into other ventures, such as authoring children’s books with her daughter, Emma. The two even recently started a podcast together dedicated to reading books to children.
After Julie Andrews finishes her career, she attains a net worth of around $30 million. This vast wealth allows the 86-year-old star to live a luxurious lifestyle, traveling around to wherever she happens to work. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! As well, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
In 1999, Julie Andrews purchased a home with her second husband, Blake Edwards, for nearly $1.5 million. The home locates in an exclusive neighborhood, Brentwood, as a home to many stars and near several major studios. Julie and Blake lived in the home until Blake’s death, though Julie has since sold the property. The property sells for over $2.5 million, which is well over a million dollars more than Julie purchases it for.
In the years since her second husband’s death, Julie prefers to travel around and live wherever work happens to find her. Recently, she has spent a great deal of time in England, performing concerts accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Still, Julie’s voice alters by the botched vocal cord surgery that she receives before the turn of the century. Despite Julie’s steady attempts to rehabilitate her voice and gain back control, her voice has still never fully come back.
The surgery that forever alters Julie Andrews’ voice is to be a routine procedure to remove a benign lesion. If Julie had known the damage that the surgery was going to cause, she would’ve been better off leaving the lesion untouched. Julie went under the knife in 1997, after she had begun expiring issues with her vocal cords while performing on Broadway. Apparently, Julie wasn’t the only person around the time who was injured from the procedure, as there had recently been introduced a new method of surgery that was found to leave severe unnecessary scarring due to the equipment involved. Julie sued those responsible for the botched operations and received an undisclosed settlement.
The settlement that Julie received after the botched surgery likely meant nothing to a woman who already had many millions of dollars in the bank and whose whole life revolved around singing. Julie was devastated by the loss of her iconic voice and had to go through therapy to deal with it. Julie has claimed her mental health was severely affected by the ordeal of losing her voice, though she has since done her best to try and rehabilitate her singing voice with vocal exercises, as well as follow-up procedures meant to reduce the damage done by the original one.
Although Julie’s speaking voice has since returned to normal, her singing voice has never quite been the same. Still, that hasn’t stopped Julie from trying her best. However, she’s also branched out into other ventures besides singing and performing in the years since the botched operation, including writing children’s books with her daughter. As well, Julie has taken part in numerous voice acting roles, with some of her most recent work being in the Netflix series Bridgerton, in which she voices Lady Whistledown.
Julie’s first and only daughter by birth is Emma, whom she became pregnant with just as she had accepted the titular role in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. Walt was so adamant about keeping Julie for the part that he insisted the production could wait, and the rest is history! Emma’s father was Julie’s first husband, who was a man by the name of Tony Walton. After Julie and Tony’s divorce, Emma ended up splitting time between her father’s home in New York City and her mother’s home in Hollywood.
Julie ended up marrying Blake Edwards in 1969, only two years after divorcing her first husband. Blake had two children from a previous marriage, and the couple adopted two Vietnamese children soon after marrying. Because of this, Julie has ended up having an incredibly large and varied family, despite only have one daughter by blood. Julie and Blake remained together until Blake passed away in 2010, after which time Julie sold their home. Julie has never remarried after Blake and still considers the beloved director to be the love of her life. In addition to the films that Blake had directed starring Julie, he was also the director of such iconic films as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Pink Panther.
Blake’s two children from a previous marriage were named Jennifer and Geoffrey, and they joined Emma as her new siblings after Julie and Blake’s 1969 marriage. Joanna and Amy are the names of the two Vietnamese children that Julie and Blake adopted as infants in 1974, making a total of five children for their unique and varied family.
Currently, Julie is hard at work on the podcast that she has started with Emma. The two also recently collaborated on a memoir together titled Home Work, and have also written several children’s books together. These children’s books include The Very Fair Princess and Mandy. Their podcast together is called Julie’s Library, and it features the mother and daughter reading stories that are meant for kids. With Julie’s new podcast, as well as her recent voice work on the Netflix series Bridgerton, it seems as if she is doing her best to keep active in the entertainment industry!
At 86 years of age, and despite a devastating botched surgery, Julie Andrews is still successfully adding to her resume with her recent work as a writer and podcaster. Comment down below to share if you’re glad to learn that Julie has persevered into her late 80s, or if you’re hoping to see her back on the screen sometime soon! As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
