Julie Andrews Forever

-I see something happening in the sky!

Here she is, ladies and gentlemen.

Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins!

[ Cheers and applause ] -In the early 1960s, in the wake of the musical "Mary Poppins," Julie Andrews became the most famous nanny in the world... ...an icon for several generations for whom she would forever embody the magical world of childhood.

But the image is too restrictive for such a multifaceted woman.

Her film roles reflect her quest for perfection and her determination to keep reinventing herself.

Each role she has played has revealed a part of her, be it her flaws, her anxieties, her devastating humor, her love of life, or her passionate romances.

In her public and private life, the sweetest turned-up nose in musicals has experienced both spectacular failures and grandiose success... ...a life that has been marked by decisive meetings, like the one with Walt Disney, the king of screen animation, who had a special gift for making fortunes out of young talents like Julie Andrews, a woman whose voice he admired.

- ...that A spoonful of sugar Helps the medicine go down The medicine go do-own The medicine go down Just a spoonful of sugar -Disney turned Julie the soprano into a children's star.

Ironically, as a child, she was already a star... not in the United States but back in her home country, England, where she was regarded as a real singing phenomenon.

-I had a really freak voice when I was a child.

It was four octaves long, extremely high and thin and squeaky.

Well, I'll play you a bit of an actual recording I made when I was 12 years old.

Listen.

-Julie Andrews.

Well, Julie, what are you going to sing for us?

-I'd like to sing the Polonaise from "Mignon."

-Oh, lovely.

-[ Singing high notes ] -In her later shows, she liked to go back to her beginnings... to the time when she was considered a child prodigy with a vocal range that extended over five octaves... -[ Singing high notes ] -...a child prodigy whose life was not necessarily a fairy tale.

- Beside a garden wall When stars were bright And you were in my arms -My stepfather had a fine tenor voice.

He discovered I had this freak voice.

- Of paradise where roses grew -My parents were in show business, my mother and my stepfather were, and when I was about 7, they decided that I should be taught to sing.

Actually I think he taught me singing really more as an attempt to get closer to me as a stepdaughter and that kind of thing.

But I know I wasn't very happy about the idea of learning to sing.

I didn't like it.

He was a very... big man physically and I was always slightly in awe of him, although he was always very sweet, but he was a little frightening at times, I think.

-What Julie fails to mention is that Ted's mood swings depended on how much whiskey he had drunk.

She feared his anger, and especially his attempts to fondle her, which she rebuffed as best she could.

At a very early age, she had a hard time when her parents separated, and she missed her father, who used to read poetry to her every night.

Often, when she played a sad song at the piano, she would burst into tears, a habit that annoyed her pianist mother, who tried to teach her to read music.

As young Julie had perfect pitch and could reproduce any sound, she had no interest in musical theory, and indeed never learned to read a note.

-Plane!

-Millions of fire bombs rain down on the great city of London.

[ Explosions ] -During the Battle of Britain, amid the sirens and the bombs raining down on London, the air-raid shelters were the theater for Julie's first successes, singing for an audience that greatly appreciated a voice that made them forget the bombs.

- Mighty cloud descending in majesty [ Singing indistinctly ] -With her fervent admiration of Winston Churchill and the British crown... -[ Cheers and applause ] -...Julie the patriot has always kept the Union Jack and the English sense of humor close to her heart.

- Who wouldn't be a soldier, eh Oh, it's a shame to take the pay As soon as the reveille has gone We feel just as heavy as lead -She was delighted to shoot this sequence that dealt with British patriotism and was a reminder of her early faltering steps on the stage at the age of 13.

-Ow!

-Ooh!

-You stupid twit.

-I'm sorry.

-Her mother and stepfather, acutely aware of how Julie's singing could spellbind audiences, took her out of school to join them in the music hall.

-Aah!

-Was she pretty as a child?

-No, no, no, not a bit.

She became prettier, but we had this business with the teeth, you know, and, of course, she had done far too much horse riding as a small girl and I would say slightly bandy.

She was very bandy, you know, the muscle got pushed around as it does when you ride too much and... a lazy eye.

It used to go into the corner.

-Despite Julie's supposed inelegance, her mother, who tried to fulfill her own ambitions through her daughter, would regularly harass talent agencies to further her career.

And when Julie later discovered the song by playwright Noel Coward about an agent fending off a pushy mother, she appropriated it.

Don't put your daughter on the stage Mrs. Worthington Don't put your daughter on the stage She's a bit of an ugly duckling You must honestly confess And the width of her seat would surely defeat Her chances of success, no comment She has nice hands To give the wretched girl her due But don't you think her bust is too Developed for her age?

It's a loud voice And though it's not exactly flat She'll need a little more than that To earn a living wage On my knees, Mrs. Worthington Please, Mrs. Worthington Don't put your daughter on the stage -Alongside her parents, Julie performed as part of The Andrews Trio, an act that trod the boards in music halls up and down England.

In her films, fiction sometimes mirrors reality, with a narrative drawn from her own experiences.

- In the daylight -As was the case here, where her character is starting out on stage with her parents in the 1930s.

While Julie's career began after the war, she confirmed that the atmosphere was equally as cheery and colorful.

Spotted by an impresario who was impressed by her voice, she sang in the musical review "Starlight Roof," enjoying some success alongside the popular actor Vic Oliver, who took her under his wing to perform a vocal duet in "Humpty Dumpy" at the London Casino.

[ Applause ] -Hello, Dr. Morton, where's Archie?

-I'm here.

Oh, it's you, Julie!

Tell me.

-Well, I could sing a song with lots of water in it.

It's called "The Blue Danube."

-Come on then.

- Danube divine -As the only child with a regular spot on a radio show, Julie became a familiar voice to British listeners in an act with a ventriloquist.

Then, spotted by MGM's London studio and given a Shirley Temple look, she auditioned, accompanied by her mother on piano.

But her voice was tense, and the ill-at-ease girl who could not unclasp her hands was politely dismissed.

In any case, the producers thought her legs were too thin.

By contrast, on November 1, 1948, at the age of 13, Julie prepared herself to live the dream of any British artist and sing before the King and Queen.

- God save our gracious King Long live our noble King God save our King Send him victorious -With her hands clasped together, as usual, in stage fright, an emboldened Julie, submerged by the waves of the chorus and orchestra, finally let them dangle by her side.

It was the most exhilarating moment of her short life.

[ Applause ] The performance was greeted with wild applause, but her happiness soon evaporated.

While Julie's career was on the rise, that of her parents continued to decline... and The Andrews Trio soon fell apart.

Ted, her stepfather, began to sing less and drink more, dragging her mother into an alcoholic hell.

As a teenager, nostalgic for her braids and bobby socks, Julie was struggling with the transition to womanhood.

During this difficult period, her aunt, who was a dancer, gave her lessons, and while Julie was losing herself in books, Broadway came calling.

[ Horns honking ] At the age of 17, she set foot in New York for the first time, walking straight into the glitz and glamour of a leading role in a Broadway musical -- "The Boy Friend."

[ 1920s music playing ] The show was a turning point in her life.

Although she had intended to return as soon as possible to her native England, Broadway adopted her, and she became the darling of critics and audiences alike.

Her mother followed across the Atlantic, both proud and jealous of her daughter's success.

But this was Julie's first opportunity to escape her, and with her stateside career now launched, she followed up with the musical "My Fair Lady."

- I could have spread my wings And done a thousand things I've never done before -For Julie, it was the role of a lifetime.

She later described the ecstasy she felt on stage, the sensation of riding the audience.

But she also recalled the anguish of losing her voice in the course of the show's marathon run.

When Maria Callas came to see her, she was captivated by Julie's performance, but horrified to learn that she had been singing eight performances a week for months on end.

Callas felt that her soprano voice could not possibly withstand such punishment.

- All night -With the help of vitamin injections and vocal-cord therapy, Julie was forced to grin and bear it because after two years on Broadway, "My Fair Lady" transferred to London.

[ Indistinct conversations ] At the show's premiere on the 5th of May 1958, all the London smart set was out in force -- lords in their tail coats rubbed shoulders with famous actors dressed to the nines, Dick Bogarde in his best tuxedo and Ingrid Bergman with her superb diamond necklace.

Meanwhile outside, onlookers and the press waited impatiently for a glimpse of the Queen and royal family, and most of all, the hero of the Battle of Britain, the old lion, Winston Churchill, for what would be one of his last public appearances.

[ Applause ] London welcomed back its two prodigal children with thunderous applause, and the show's stars topped the bill in the West End production for another 18 months.

On the surface, six-times married Rex Harrison, a voracious lady's man, was the polar opposite of the sensible, rather puritanical Julie, and yet they developed a great closeness and complicity.

-Sometimes I would be standing on stage working with him, but I would have forgotten, because he would be so wonderful, my mouth would just be open and I'd be learning, you know, watching him do something.

-And what about on stage as well, did you ever get the giggles on stage?

-Oh, well, yes, terribly.

-Tell me.

-Ah, we were doing the famous scene at the end of the play where Eliza has run away from Professor Higgins' house and she's gone to Mrs. Higgins' house.

And that evening, I don't know what happened to Rex, he must have eaten beans before dinner or whatever.

But he was extremely windy.

That's putting in mildly.

And I was delivering my great speech and suddenly, across the orchestra pit, there was this machine-gun volley... [ Laughter ] And that's the only way it can be described.

And there was utter silence.

The orchestra was stunned.

I... [ Laughter ] And at that precise moment, it was Mrs. Higgins' turn to say, "Henry, dear, please don't grind your teeth."

[ Laughter ] -For Julie, who had just turned 24, this return to London was an opportunity to renew ties with someone very close to her heart -- Tony Walton, a dear childhood friend, now a designer, and the man she would marry.

-St. Mary's Oatlands near Weybridge, the bridegroom, theatrical designer Tony Walton with his best man, Noel Harrison, getting to the church on time.

And a wildly excited crowd as the bride arrives.

-The gentleman vigorously dragging Julie through the sea of curious onlookers is her beloved and very proud father, the man who described himself as a bathroom baritone and an occasional boxer.

The marriage between Julie and Tony was the culmination of a childhood romance that had flourished, hand in hand, in the English countryside, as the two 15-year-olds ventured into the woods on a summer evening.

The only downside was that movie mogul Jack Warner, who was producing an adaptation of "My Fair Lady" for the silver screen, had just hired Rex Harrison with Audrey Hepburn, the biggest star of the day, as his co-star.

-I understood why Audrey was chosen and...

I had never made a film before and was a complete unknown as far as films were concerned.

I was disappointed.

I mean, I would have loved to have done it obviously.

-Although she didn't want to admit it, Julie was gravely disappointed.

She felt humiliated by the pecking order of a star system that crushed actors.

She never forgave Jack Warner for replacing her with an actress who was not even a singer.

Audrey Hepburn, while delighted to be cast, was greatly put out that she wasn't allowed to sing the songs herself and irritated by the incessant criticism leveled at her for accepting the part.

-I said so at the time, that part was rightfully Julie's.

She was so marvelous in it.

But it's just one of those weird quirks, if you like, of Hollywood, for some other reason, Jack Warner did not want to put her in the picture.

Because I, in fact, instructed my agent at the time that I did not want to accept that part, that it was Julie's.

But then the part was being offered to third and fourth actresses, and then I said, "Well, then I have a right to try, too."

-In the ups and downs of show business, the crushing disappointment of missing out on one part can be followed by the euphoria of another that proves to be a launch pad.

As was the case for Julie with her performances in the Broadway production of "Camelot," in which she played alongside Welsh he-man Richard Burton.

It was a match made in heaven, with the agile king and his chaste queen dancing like an angel.

[ Applause ] -Richard Burton was brilliant.

Richard had such a control over an audience that he would say sometimes for fun, "Tonight I will make them cry in this speech, or tonight let me see if I can make them laugh in this speech."

And he would do it!

There would be absolute silence where there would have been a laugh the night before in exactly the same speech and it was just the way he did it and how he did it.

-Julie, schooled in music hall, alongside Richard, steeped in Shakespeare.

One never touched alcohol while the other drank like a fish.

- So they say - They whistle?

- So they say -[ Whistling ] -When he saw her in "Camelot," Walt Disney knew he had found his Mary Poppins.

[ Both whistling ] [ Whistling continues ] -I went to New York and I caught the performance of "Camelot," and then I went backstage and I tried to convince her I was capable of making a picture with live actors as well as cartoons.

I didn't know what she thought of me and everything.

-He was very funny, had a lovely sense of humor and he was very demonstrative.

He started acting out the whole of -- the script of "Mary Poppins" right there in that small, little room.

-Julie, who had just turned 27, was delighted, but feared she would miss out again because she was pregnant, and baby Emma was born in London in 1962.

But Disney was determined to have her in "Mary Poppins," delaying the shoot and even hiring husband, Tony, as a costume consultant.

No baby blues for Julie, who flew straight to California.

Walt Disney Studios was like a huge hive producing hallucinogenic honey for young and old alike, a bustling dream factory with a studio head who personally checked everything in his production of "Mary Poppins," the first picture to feature live actors alongside cartoon characters.

Prior to filming, Julie didn't know she would be spending half the shoot hanging from wires.

-There were a lot of special effects in "Poppins," and I think that it was a great lesson in discipline for me because who knew how to make films?

I certainly didn't.

And Robert Stevenson, our director, was so kind and patient with me because I had no idea what long shots and mediums shots and close-ups and things like that meant.

It's supercalifragilistic expialidocious Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious If you say it loud enough, you'll always sound precocious Supercalifragilistic expialidocious!

My background, my early years, were all in music hall and vaudeville, my parents... Ooh, supercali... So when I saw this sort of rumpty-dum quality of the music and got the feeling of what fun Mary and Bert could have together, it appealed instantly because I kept thinking, "Yes, I recognize that, maybe I could bring something to it that would connect."

And it certainly connected and resonated with me.

-Julie, despite the fact that it was her first film, was perfectly professional.

She had a camera personality, she knew where the camera was, she knew where the lights were, as if she had done it all her life.

She was thoroughly professional from the beginning.

-"Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way."

-Mary Poppins' ongoing quest for perfection is a trait shared by Julie Andrews, which is why the character fit her like a glove.

Filmgoers, critics and the movie industry as a whole all regarded "Mary Poppins" as just perfect, as Julie was nominated for a Golden Globe.

-The winner is... Julie Andrews, "Mary Poppins"!

[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you very much for this lovely honor.

It's a wonderful memento of a very, very happy time.

Finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner.

[ Applause ] -In front of the whole industry, Julie made fun of Hollywood's biggest tycoon, Jack Warner.

Was he crying with laughter at Julie's scathing remark?

Or were they tears of regret at having rejected her?

Two months after the Golden Globes, Julie, nominated for an Oscar, duly received the kiss of the vampire, while Warner's filly, Audrey Hepburn, wasn't even in the running.

Sydney Poitier, the first Black actor ever to win an Oscar, stepped forward to award the famous statuette to the best actress of the year... -Julie Andrews in "Mary Poppins"!

-Thank you.

[ Cheers and applause ] -A Golden Globe and an Oscar for a first screen role.

Hollywood had never seen anything like it.

How to sustain success, how to stay at the top after such a triumph?

With a fairy-tale actress like Julie Andrews, nothing was impossible, and the impossible was duly repeated a year later, in 1965, thanks to her performance as Maria in "The Sound of Music," brought to the screen by "West Side Story" director, Robert Wise.

- Doe - A deer, a female deer - Ray - A drop of golden sun - Me - A name I call myself -The one that was my rock was director Bob Wise.

To see somebody that tremendous at work, to see the mind saying, "This will be the montage, and this is how we'll break it down," to see him do his homework was sensational.

You realize why he became the great director he is.

- So-do-la-fa-ti - La-so -I wouldn't have turned down the role for anything, so I was gonna do it come what may if they asked me.

-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Go, go.

[ Laughter ] -My only concern was, when you add the beautiful scenery of Austria, you've got seven children and everything else that's kind of gooey and icky, and nuns as well, it could get very saccharin.

-And as we started to sit down in the chair, she leaned over and whispered to me and says, "What are you going to do about taking all the schmaltz out of this?"

I grabbed her hand and I said, "Listen, we're gonna get along just fine because that's what we've been working on from the beginning, to get the oversweetness out of it."

-Karl.

Fix Captain Von Trapp's car so that it will start.

[ Engine starts, revs ] After all, we would not want you to get lost in the crowds.

-I'd had a private history with Julie.

She hadn't really acted in the sense of being an actress before.

She was always in revues or musical comedies.

By the time she hit "The Sound of Music," all the sort of vaudevillian kind of training that she'd had as a dancer and a singer had vanished, and she was now a-a very vulnerable... "The Sound of Music" was the actual naked Julie Andrews on the screen.

Her own heart, if you know her as I do, is just exactly like that.

She seduced the world.

-Your face is all red.

-Is it?

I don't suppose I'm used to dancing.

The hills are alive -"The Sound of Music" was a worldwide hit and became a cult movie.

People went to see it 10, 20, 100 times, sometimes more.

Fan clubs began to spring up in all four corners of the English-speaking world, organizing crazy screenings where everyone sings along at the top of their voices.

After Beatlemania came Julie Andrews-mania.

- Me, a name I call myself Far, a long, long way to run Sew, a needle pulling thread -Knocked me sideways for a while.

It was so much so fast, and I was... Who is ever prepared for something like that?

I certainly wasn't.

-At the age of 30, how do you live up to the superstar status bestowed by an adoring public that has made you box-office gold?

As much as she loved making films, Julie hated having to face the crowds.

With her movies sweeping the Oscars and bringing in millions of dollars, she turned down the song and dance roles the studios kept offering her.

Julie was determined to reinvent herself and explore other genres.

[ Tribal drums beating ] From the piles of screenplays, she chose to play a missionary in "Hawaii," a film that denounces Puritanism, religious intolerance and the damaging effects of colonization.

It dispelled any notion that Julie might be a one-trick pony.

Behind her playfulness lay a fierce will to oppose injustice.

But the film was a flop, as was her follow-up.

-Paul Newman and Julie Andrews find love in danger, and danger in love, when they venture behind Alfred Hitchcock's "Torn Curtain."

-[ Screams ] -It was a part she was reluctant to accept, but her agents convinced her that she couldn't possibly turn down a Hitchcock movie starring opposite Paul Newman.

On set, Hitchcock regarded her as mere eye candy.

How to assume the role of a fragile wife with an uncommunicative director and her own relationship on the rocks?

After two frustrating experiences playing submissive women in box-office flops, Julie was eager to play a free and happy character in a hit movie, which would turn out to be "Thoroughly Modern Millie."

On set, she rediscovered her joie de vivre and the pleasure of singing.

- Cheerie bim bim, biddy bim bum biddy bum, biddy bum Li diddle um Ay, ay, ay, ay, cheerie bum bum, ahhh Um, pa pa -Julie arrived on set every day with lots of ideas that delighted the director, throwing herself into playing the sassy and facetious Millie, a multi-faceted character that fit her like a glove.

She took to the part like a duck to water, demonstrating that she was more at home with comedy than tragedy.

-Aah!

-Tied to a demanding contract, chewed up by the Hollywood machine, haunted by the fear of suffering her parents' fate of seeing her career hit the buffers, trained at an early age to succeed, she couldn't say no.

In three years, from 1964 to 1967, Julie shot six movies in quick succession.

Physically and psychologically exhausted, she was ready for a break.

But when the chance to reform the winning team behind "The Sound of Music" came along, it was an opportunity that was impossible to refuse.

Everything pointed to another major triumph.

"Star!," written by Robert Wise as a vehicle for Julie, is a biopic about the hectic life of Gertrude Lawrence, a star of 1930's English music hall, whose career mirrored that of its leading lady.

-[ Grunts ] -Both are English, both began their careers as children on the music-hall stage, and both come from a broken home before going on to enjoy dizzying success.

Moving from capricious diva to clown, her character displays the full range of Julie's vocal palette.

- I'm Burlington Bertie, I rise at 10:30 Then Buckingham Palace I view I stand... -[ Laughter ] -Here we find a great tradition of the English music hall, where women play men and vice-versa.

Rising at 6: 00 every morning, the shoot was exhausting.

The film's success rested squarely on her shoulders and she needed vitamin shots to make it through.

She emerged exhausted by the ordeal and unfortunately, the movie bombed at the box office.

It was Julie's first resounding failure, and it coincided with the collapse of her marriage to Tony, who had tired of being Mr. Andrews, always in his wife's shadow.

And when he did make an awkward gesture of tenderness... Julie remained cold as ice.

In the fall of 1966, the couple announced that they had split.

In Santa Monica, the paradise where Julie lived with her daughter, the ghosts of her past returned to haunt her.

[ No audio ] The death of her stepfather and the plight of her alcoholic mother, now reduced to playing piano in pubs, reopened childhood wounds.

Her insecurities led to her five sessions of psychoanalysis a week, a course of treatment she would maintain for five years.

While visiting her psychoanalyst, she became intrigued by a fellow patient she often encountered.

His name was Blake Edwards, the successful director of "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "The Party" and "The Pink Panther."

A great admirer of Julie with a poetic sense of humor, he had openly speculated that her great success was due to her having "lilacs for pubic hair."

Greatly amused by the joke making the rounds in Hollywood, a few weeks later, she sent him a lilac plant, which immediately bloomed.

As a pair of recently divorced parents frequenting the same milieu, they had a lot in common.

They grew close, poking fun at their psychoanalyst and the 13-year age gap between them.

-Do you ever get resentful?

People must meet you and say, "Oh, that's Mr. Julie Andrews."

-Not so much now, but in the beginning, I was required to go to various functions with her and I hate that.

I mean, I hate the fact that you've got a suit on because I never wear one.

But in terms of being Mr. Andrews, or the husband who is little-known, married to a very big star, listen, as long as she's making the money, it's great.

[ Laughter ] -How much is she like this image, if we can stick with this Mary Poppins for just a moment longer?

-If you insist.

-Well, it is interesting actually, to me, so... -I think it's a fairly easy answer; just get her to run through her 4-letter word vocabulary and find out immediately.

-Really?

She doesn't swear.

-Listen, when I met her, I didn't even think she went to the bathroom.

[ Laughter ] -In 1968, in "Darling Lili," Blake Edwards lovingly filmed his wife, as Julie, who until then would never have dreamed of baring herself on screen... [ Burlesque music playing ] ...now revealed her sensuality to cinema audiences playing a spy who sells her charms.

[ Crowd cheering ] -[ Sings indistinctly ] -Julie the Puritan really went for it, as did her husband, who followed his muse and went way over budget.

The result was a mishmash of a movie at prohibitive cost for the studio, and Paramount rejected the director's cut and re-edited the film, which duly became a major flop, much to the annoyance of its leading lady.

-There are very few directors -- I guess you could count them on one hand -- that have the privilege of a final cut to a film.

You might get three cuts before you have to hand it over to the studio, but then most directors in Hollywood have to hand it over to the studio and the studio then decides whether that's what they want.

And if it isn't what they want, they cut it and do what they wish with it.

Well, it's like asking Picasso or somebody to paint you a picture and then telling him how you would like him to do the nose.

-Yes, of course, that happened classically to one of your films, didn't it?

"Star!"

-"Star!"

And "Darling Lili," two financial catastrophes following one after the other.

The money-conscious Hollywood studios that had previously shot Julie and her movies' profits into the stratosphere now regarded her as box-office poison.

Intrigued by this disenchantment, the gutter press went for Julie's throat, accusing her of being a bad mother and spreading rumors of an affair with Sidney Poitier.

In the midst of the race riots, the Hollywood gossip fueled the rage of those who could not bear to see a White woman in the arms of a Black man.

-They implied that I could be persuaded to terminate the affair.

-Well, that's what I was getting to, that she was forced to terminate the affair because the studio, the big bosses, said that the image of she and Sidney would be bad for her box-office-wise, and that therefore she terminated it.

And she got so angry for Sidney's sake and for the whole idea that something like that... -Could be written... -I mean, that's an appalling thing to do.

-But she sued them and, by God, she won.

-Exhausted by the celebrity press, blacklisted by the studios, now regarded as a has-been... the onslaught would have been too much for any other Hollywood couple.

But Julie has always been a fighter and she bounced back with a new turn on television.

[ Indistinct conversations ] After signing up for 24 shows, to be broadcast between 1972 and 1973, Julie, in typical style, did not hold back.

But this time around, she managed to better reconcile her hectic schedule with her family life.

-And two and three and four.

-As a househusband, Blake Edwards, surrounded by his own two children and Julie's daughter, filmed her rehearsing and making her artistic choices.

Feeling inspired and fulfilled in this setting, Julie introduced her own song compositions.

Throughout these years, the couple's priority was always their family life.

In 1975, just as the Vietnam War was ending, the family was expanded with the adoption of two Vietnamese orphans.

Now 40, Julie was a happy mother who threw herself into several humanitarian causes and became UNICEF ambassador.

While Julie seemed unconcerned when Hollywood turned its back on her, the same could not be said for her husband, Blake Edwards, who suffered a prolonged bout of depression.

Supported by his wife, his producer and his favorite actor, Peter Sellers, he found his way back to the studios to make the hugely successful "The Return of the Pink Panther," a winning comeback that opened new doors.

[ "The Pink Panther" theme music playing ] In the early '80s, director and leading lady were once again together on a movie set.

After two films offering a withering take on Hollywood mores, Blake Edwards cast his wife in a singing part of the type she had given up on.

-And in spite of what you think, Monsieur Labisse, there are some professions where practice does make perfect.

[ Inhales, sings high note ] [ Glass shatters ] -The toast of Paris...Victor!

-In "Victor/Victoria," she plays a woman who claims to be a man who claims to be a woman.

- You - And me -The transvestite aspect perfectly suited her androgynous figure.

Her mother always said she was a tomboy, and Julie took great delight in the gender switches, playing a feisty character very much like herself... -You get back in bed.

-...requiring her voice to make the leap... -Here?

-Here?

-...between deep bass and soaring high notes.

-Here?

I watched the guys in the movies a lot.

I watched James Garner, who's a wonderful friend, so I tried to be, for the man, as still as I possibly could.

And I tried to drop my voice as low as I possibly could.

And I don't think I fooled anyone, but my husband, we talked about the fact that, you know, could I really get away with it?

"No, I don't think so," and he said, "Julie, it doesn't matter.

The audience inside the movie that's watching you believes that you're a man, so the audience in the theaters will believe what they believe on screen."

When you play me Le Jazz... -Queer ahead of his time, Blake Edwards, who always loved to juggle film styles, had a lot of fun confusing sexual genres.

-It's a guy.

-Yes!

-A children's icon earlier in her career, Julie now became a muse to the gay community for whom "Victor/Victoria" was a breath of fresh air in the painful early AIDS years.

-I don't care if you are a man.

-Only recently written off as old hat, the Andrews-Edwards team were now regarded as trailblazers.

The movie acquired a cult following and became a global hit... thanks to the performance of Julie Andrews.

[ Applause ] At this point, she had played two key roles -- the ubiquitous and timeless nanny Mary Poppins... and the equally legendary heart-on-sleeve Maria in "The Sound of Music."

The altogether more complex, less conformist Victor was to be the third landmark role with which her name would be forever linked.

And yet Julie chose this moment to take a step back from cinema.

She was hungry for something else.

-It is my pleasure to welcome to the National Press Club Ms. Julie Andrews.

-Harnessing all her legendary energy, she used her popularity to champion the cause of women in third-world countries.

-Women's commitment, their energy, creativity and competence have finally won them a greater role in the political life of the United States.

And now, women in developing countries are emerging as leaders in remote villages and urban shanty towns.

They are winning a voice in the decision-making structures that shape their lives.

Like women here, they are beginning to claim their right to build the future.

-She also used her image to promote classical music, like here in Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart.

She was first introduced to Mozart and Handel as a child with Mrs. Stiles-Allen, her much-adored singing teacher, who anticipated her future singing career.

-A Christmas fantasy?

-Wonderful.

I don't know how they expect me to give a concert in two hours with no instruments.

You gentlemen have your parts?

Why don't you just sort of sing the instruments?

Tuning.

-[ All humming ] -It was under the auspices of this wonderful teacher that Julie acquired the diction in her singing... [ Piano playing ] ...spending endless hours practicing putting her tongue behind her teeth so as not to swallow the sound.

- Deck the halls with boughs of holly - Doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo - Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba Ba ba boop boop boop boop Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo - 'Tis the season to be jolly Fa la la la la, la la la la -Ever the faithful friend, Julie's best pal was Carol Burnett, a television star who, like her, had just passed the age of 50.

-Carol, why do you think our friendship has lasted this long?

-Well, I know one of the reasons is that we have always been brutally honest with one another.

-That's true, it's true.

Yeah.

-It is.

-We even know how old the other one is.

[ Laughter ] - Good - Good [ Both singing indistinctly ] -The pair proved that age hadn't dimmed their on-stage performances.

- Too damned good -Every 10 years, they appeared in a show to celebrate a friendship that dated back to their 20s.

- Mama's making music tonight -In their shows, Julie showed that she had other strings to her bow, such as a flair for the burlesque and being provocative.

Because as she said, "Carol arouses all my devilish instincts."

- Tonight -In the first place... [ Laughter ] -Oh, I'm... You...[laughs] You don't think I did that on purpose.

-Oh, no, no, no.

To do something on purpose, you would have to do something like, um... that.

[ Laughter ] [ Cheers and applause ] -In 1989, Julie Andrews wrote, directed and appeared in her first one-woman show, built around the different stages of her career.

- Diddlydeedee When you play me Le Jazz Hot maybe You're holding my soul together -With a voice as powerful as ever that seemed to have acquired a touch of swing, she performed "Jazz Hot," the hit song from "Victor/Victoria," the show she reprised on stage in a 1995 Broadway adaptation of the film.

At the age of 60, time seemed to be slipping away, and 35 years after her debut on Broadway, she was back in the exhausting routine of eight shows a week.

Then after 17 months on stage, what Julie Andrews had feared since her "My Fair Lady" days, finally happened.

- Le Jazz Hot -Her crystal-clear voice cracked.

After consultation with doctors, in June 1997, she decided to have surgery.

What was meant to be a routine operation on her vocal cords had catastrophic results.

The soaring highs of her beloved voice were gone forever.

-It is a tragedy to not sing with an orchestra, to not be able to communicate through my voice, which I've done all my life, and not be able to phrase lyrics and give people that kind of joy.

I think I would be totally devastated, so I am in some kind of denial.

Right now, as I've said, I simply cannot contemplate it.

I don't want to say that I never can, so ask me again in a couple of years, okay?

-In her despair, Julie turned to writing children's books with her daughter, Emma, illustrated by her ex-husband, Tony, and the family collaboration produced a successful collection.

It wasn't Julie's first stab at writing.

Encouraged by her husband, Blake Edwards, she had already had her work published.

But now it was Julie urging Blacky, as she called him, in reference to his dark thoughts, to stave off his suicidal tendencies.

In 2004, at the age of 82, he received a special Oscar for his work in film... -Ladies and gentlemen, one of the true masters, Blake Edwards!

-...and reacquired his taste for hilarious gags.

-Oh, my God, I can't believe this is happening!

Blake Edwards!

-It was a final burst of applause from a new generation of actors who acknowledged him as a uniquely inventive director; a final farewell before joining the dead artists society in 2010; a final tribute to the man who, for more than 40 years, lived with Julie Andrews.

-That felt good.

[ Laughter ] -The most charismatic, funny, black humor, sweet, complicated...man that I've ever met in my life.

Certainly for me, the most attractive guy I've ever met, and I'm glad.

-Henceforth Julie and her daughter would be involved in a theater training school for young children.

As a broken-voiced grandmother, Julie Andrews amazed everyone by voicing a string of animated movie characters.

[ Cellphone rings ] -Hello, Ma.

Sorry.

I meant to call, but... -I just wanted to congratulate you on stealing the pyramid, or was it a villain who is actually successful?

[ Laughs ] -Julie Andrews plays Gru's mom, and if there was a less appropriate person to play a nasty, terrible mom, it would be Julie Andrews, but she's fantastic.

-[ Gasps ] Mom!

What are you doing here?

-I couldn't do her, but our producers kept saying "Please won't you try?

And you can be the first one to say 'No, I don't think it works.'"

And it was the most emancipating experience for me because I came in and I tried a little bit... Good night, my little bubeleh.

And I tried a little bit more.

Nighty night, my little cabbages.

My little daffodils.

My little apple strudels.

-Great, great, we got it.

-As recently as 2017, in an educational series in which she guides children through the world of entertainment, a minor miracle occurred -- 82-year-old Julie, who for 20 years had avoided singing because of her broken voice... - It's a whole other world when you act -...agreed to perform a duet with actor Alec Baldwin.

- A princess, a fairy, a monster that's scary A guy with a hunch in his back - It's a way to spend the day pretending, when you act Oh -Stella!

-Whoa!

- When you act!

-Between the little Julie, trembling with stage fright and a 5-octave voice, and grandmother Julie, still trembling with stage fright and a 2-octave voice, what a fabulous journey it's been, an epic of artistic achievement.

And what energy to constantly bounce back and reinvent herself.

Julie Andrews, there's only one word left to say... Bravo!