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"Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th." Julie Andrews barely seems to age. Look at her today and you'll see the same face that delighted audiences over fifty years ago as the titular British nanny Mary Poppins (1964). Like her co-star, Dick Van Dyke, she has remained as energetic and productive in her later years as she was in her youth, still finding time to feature in major Hollywood releases like Aquaman (2018), and the Despicable Me (2010-17) series.

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"Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it."

Walton-on-Thames

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Born to Barbara Ward Wells and woodwork and metalwork teacher Edward Charles Wells on the first of October in 1935, Julia Elizabeth Wells came into life in Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey, England. With the outbreak of World War II, her parents would split up and Andrews would wind up living with one family member and another, at one point winding up in a poor area of London, and while her upbringing was not always idyllic, she does remember with fondness the place of her birth. "Whenever I think of my birthplace, Walton-on-Thames, my reference first and foremost is the river. I love the smell of the river; love its history, its gentleness. I was aware of its presence from my earliest years. Its majesty centered me, calmed me, was a solace to a certain extent."

Long before Andrews would be cast as Mary Poppins, she had already seen the power of the arts to transform one's life. Julie's mother Barbara and stepfather Ted Andrews would soon find success performing on stage, allowing the family to move to Beckenham, and then to Hersham at the end of World War II. 

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Julie's education would be devoted to following in their footsteps, attending the Cone-Ripman School, known today as ArtsEd, and then taking lessons with legendary voice instructor and concert soprano singer Madame Lillian Stiles-Allen. Andrews would later describe the instructor as her "third mother," after her birth mother and stepmother. Julie was a natural, and Stiles-Allen would remember Julie as her star pupil, citing the young singer's "rare gift of absolute pitch." After these early lessons, Andrews would attend Woodbrook School in Beckenham before entering the professional arts scene.

Before she would ever step onto the set of a Hollywood film, Andrews lived a whole other life as a performer of stage, TV and radio in England, featuring in productions of Aladdin, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella at London Casino's West End Theater in the early 1950s. She would perform with Danny Kaye and the Nicholas Brothers for Queen Elizabeth and King George VI in her early teens, and would feature in musical sequences for BBC comedy series Educating Archie (1950-60).

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"When you are traveling in vaudeville, you experience so many different kinds of audiences, depending on what time of the week it is, how long the pubs have been open, and things like that."

At 19 Julie Andrews would move to the United States and make her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, a play which had already been a hit on the London theater scene. From there she would star as Eliza Doolittle in a production of My Fair Lady, and by 1955 she had signed a contract with Bing Crosby to star in High Tor (1956), which would be the very first made-for-TV film. After arriving in the United States, Andrews' career would hit the ground running, straight towards the landmark role that would make the young actress a household name.

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"I'm never sure one is exactly ready. You jump in, with both feet, into a very big fish pond."

Practically Perfect In Every Way

Mary Poppins would be a film that would sink or swim on the abilities of its leading lady. For the titular nanny to betray even a hint of insincerity or falsehood would effectively render the entire project pointless, so Walt Disney was disappointed when Andrews at first turned the role down, having been pregnant at the time. Walt wouldn't take no for an answer, however, and assured the young actress "We'll wait for you."

The animation mogul's faith in Julie Andrews paid off, and the movie would be the most successful ever produced by Disney. In her very first film role, Andrews won an Oscar and Golden Globe for best actress, and along with her co-stars won a Grammy for Best Album for Children.

Andrews went on to star in The Sound of Music (1965), which remains in the top ten highest-grossing films of all time in the US, adjusting for inflation. Here again she would win a Golden Globe, and another Oscar nomination. The very next year she would again feature in a blockbusting film, Hawaii (1966), which would be the second highest-grossing film of the year, and receive another Golden Globe nomination for next year's Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967).

It seemed that all a producer had to do to guarantee a hit was cast Julie Andrews. Unfortunately, this would turn out not to be the case, and she would feature in a number of expensive box office bombs including Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970). She break her career slump by pursuing work in television and, most importantly, Broadway in the coming years, eventually turning down a Tony Award nomination for Victor/Victoria (1995), feeling that she could not accept an award when the rest of the production had been unfairly snubbed. This chapter of Andrews' career would come to an unfortunate end in 1997 when the actress lost her singing voice due to a throat injury. The injury permanently destroyed Julie's singing voice and left her with a raspy speaking voice.

For a time it seemed that Julie Andrews' best work was behind her, but this changed in 2001 when she would feature as Queen Clarisse Marie Renaldi in The Princess Diaries (2001), working again on a Disney project and winning the adoration of a whole new generation of fans. Her new voice, which once seemed a curse, became a blessing, earning her voice acting work in Shrek 2 (2004) as Queen Lillian, a role she would revisit in Shrek the Third (2007) and Shrek Forever After (2010). She has since been a mainstay of the voice acting scene, narrating Enchanted (2007) and lending her voice to films like Tooth Fairy (2010) and Aquaman (2018).

Julie Andrews' career has seen its share of ups and downs, heartbreaking setbacks and culture-defining peaks. Above all she stands as living proof that a great talent is never really down and out, they're just waiting for the right opportunity.

"When I've least expected it, an enormous opportunity or stroke of luck has crossed right under my nose. So I tell everybody, if you're passionate about what you do and you love it, do it. But do your homework. Because you'll never know when the opportunity is going to happen."