INTRODUCTION

HER STORY

QUOTES

Star! (1968), about Gertrude Lawrence, starring Julia Andrews, was the most complete disaster in moviemaking history until Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate in 1981.

Two failures in a row, Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970), finished Julie's movie career, and she was actually pais $ 1 million not to make a filmed version of the Broadway musical She Loves Me, a humiliation never suffered by another star before or since.

One of the sobriquets that was sometimes applied to her was "the nun with the switchblade."

Upon receiving her Best Actress Oscar for Mary Poppins in 1964 Julie said: "I know you Americans are famous for your hospitality, but this is ridiculous!"

At $163 million - much of which was gained through re-releases - The Sound of Music (1965) is the highest-grossing film of the 1960s.

Even though her official nickname is Jooles, she is also referred to as The Iron Butterfly, a nickname she shares with Dolly Parton.

Kayti Edwards, granddaughter of Julie's husband Blake, posed nude as Mary Poppins for Hustler.

Having completing her  role in Disney's The Princess Diaries (2001) she will quit acting to concentrate on getting her singing voice back.

Filed a malpractice suit against New York's Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its doctors, charging that they botched an operation on her vocal cords in 1998, resulting in the loss of her singing voice.

Started legal actions against Globe magazine and England's Daily Mail and OK! for having reported that she was addicted to prescription drugs and was being treated at a clinic in Arizona for addiction.

Is spokesperson for a national campaign called the Declaration of Independence from Osteoporosis.

As a tribute to the actress, Disney studio renamed a sound stage, at its complex in Burbank, The Julie Andrews stage. Sound Stage Two is where she filmed Mary Poppins and returned nearly four decades later to make The Princess Diaries.

Was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the millennium New Year Honours List.

Over the years, she has been seen trying to shed the squeaky clean image that has followed her since her Sound of Music and Mary Poppins days. She appeared in her husband director Blake Edwards' risque comedy 10 and she went topless in the comedy SOB.

Has raised five children - Emma from her first marriage, Jennifer & Geoffrey from Blake's first marriage, and Amy and Joanna, who are adopted Vietnamese children.

The Sound of Music costar Christopher Plummer remarked about Julie: "Working with her is like being hit over the head with a Valentine's Card."

When her mother Barbara married Ted Andrews, Julia changed her name to Julie Andrews to honor her stepfather.

In 1956, Julie appeared in one of the first television movies, entitled High Tor co-starring Bing Crosby.

She had major difficulties with her adopted children Amy and Joanna - including rebellion and drug abuse.

Julie and Carol Burnett are good friends. There is a rumour going around that they are lesbian lovers due to a trick they attempted to play on producer Mike Nichols. He was coming to meet them at Julie's hotel room, and they wanted to play a joke on him, so as the elevator door opened they embraced and kissed - only to find tourists on the elevator but no Nichols!

Wrote two children's books: Mandy and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

Before he had met Julie, her later husband Edwards was at at party where people were conjecturing on and on about what made Julie successful, and at just the right moment, he said, "I can tell you exactly what it is. She has lilacs for pubic hair." The next day he got a call from Joan Crawford telling him it was the funniest line she'd ever heard.