Julie Andrews

Her mother, Barbara Ward Wells (née Morris; 25 July 1910 –1984) was born in Chertsey and married Edward Charles "Ted" Wells (1908–1990), a teacher of metalwork and woodwork, in 1932.

Andrews was conceived as a result of an affair her mother had with a family friend.

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 seven decades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for three Tony Awards.

Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on 1 October 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.

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's 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 (ArtsEd) in London, 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".

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.

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.

A child actress and singer, Andrews appeared in the West End in 1948 and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend (1954).

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.

Billed as "Britain's youngest prima donna", she rose to prominence in Broadway musicals starring as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1956) and Queen Guinevere in Camelot (1960).

She also starred in the Rodgers and Hammerstein television musical Cinderella (1957).

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.

Andrews is also known for her collaborations with Carol Burnett, including the specials Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (1962), Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center (1971) and Julie and Carol: Together Again (1989).

Andrews made her feature film debut as the title character in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964) and won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

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).

The following year, she starred in the musical film The Sound of Music (1965), playing Maria von Trapp and winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.

Andrews starred in various films working with directors including her husband Blake Edwards, George Roy Hill, and Alfred Hitchcock.

She starred in her own variety special The Julie Andrews Hour (1973) for which she received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Musical Series.

She was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.

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 lent her voice to the Shrek franchise (2001–2010) and the Despicable Me franchise (2010–present).

Andrews has co-authored numerous children's books with her daughter and two autobiographies, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (2008) and Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years (2019).

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.

Recently she co-created and hosted Julie's Greenroom (2017), and voiced Lady Whistledown in the Netflix series Bridgerton (2020–present).