Angel-faced, with a cut-glass accent and a voice that could charm the birds from the trees. But as The Sound of Music star Julie Andrews turns 90, how her steely core has earned her the nickname ‘the nun with a switchblade’

Given she has had a career spanning 80 years, it is no surprise that Dame Julie Andrews has had a lot of roles on stage and screen.

Even now though, as she turns 90, it is two that stand out more than any other.

To everyone, the star is both magical nanny Mary Poppins and the all-singing, all-dancing Maria von Trapp in the Sound of Music. 

They are two films which will forever live in the national consciousness as salves for the downhearted.

With her incredible voice and and angelic appearance, Dame Julie has for decades been a certified national treasure.  

Although her most iconic roles were of universal appeal, the star has always refused to be typecast as simply a family-friendly icon and even once told journalists: ‘I hate the word wholesome’. 

Known in Hollywood as ‘the nun with the switchblade’ for her ruthlessness, she has also had risque roles in the likes of 1986 production Duet for One, in which she starred alongside Liam Neeson.

And, as an older woman, she garnered yet more legions of fans with her performance as the fiery Queen Clarisse Renaldi in the 2001 film adaptation of The Princess Diaries and its 2004 follow-up. 

Dame Julie’s fellow stars today wished her a happy birthday, with Mary Poppins child actress Karen Dotrice calling her a ‘tonic in this world’, and the Sound of Music’s Nicholas Hammond calling her ‘the personification of professionalism’. 

The twice-married mother-of-three, who in recent years has made increasingly fleeting public appearances, had to cope with the loss of her momentous singing voice following a botched operation in 1997.

Dame Julie Andrews, who turned 90 today, has made only fleeting public appearances in recent years. Above: During a shopping trip near her home in The Hamptons last April

Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music

Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins in 1964. The production was the star’s film debut

Speaking in 2019, she told how the trauma made her feel as though she had ‘lost my identity’.

Dame Julie’s early life was one of grinding poverty. Born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, she was closer to her school teacher father than she was to her mother.

When she was aged just four, her mother went to live with her Canadian tenor lover. When she was eight, her parents formally divorced. 

Possessing an incredible soprano voice, the young Julie joined her mother and stepfather on stage from an early age.

But her stepfather also had a sordid sexual interest in the youngster, a fact Julie discovered when he encouraged her to climb into bed with him and later kissed her on the mouth.  

When she was 14, the actress learned that she had been conceived during an affair her mother had had with a family friend. 

When she learned this momentous news about her background, the young star had already shown off her momentous singing talent at the Royal Variety Performance as a precocious 13-year-old.

And that gig had come after her first big break in the West End revue Starlight Roof, aged 12. 

With regular work at the BBC under her belt, Dame Julie then went to perform on Broadway.

Then still a teenager, she was chosen for the lead in The Boy Friend. 

Dame Julie Andrews during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 24, 2022

Julie Andrews attends the a gala celebrating her life at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, June 9, 2022

Julie Andrews with second husband Blake Edwards in June 2010

That was followed by her performance as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, which propelled her to Broadway superstardom.

It was while performing in New York that Dame Julie got the part in her very first film, the one that would win her an Oscar.

By then, she was married to first husband, costume designer Tony Walton, who she had her first child, daughter Emma, with. 

The Daily Mail’s report of Julie Andrews’ West End debut in 1947

Speaking five years ago, she explained how Walt Disney saw her perform and then asked her if she would star in his next project.  

‘He came to see one of the shows I was in, which was Camelot on Broadway with the lovely Richard Burton and came back stage and asked if I would like to Hollywood to make a movie, Mary Poppins,’ she said. 

‘But I said, “Oh, Mr Disney I would love to but I am afraid I’m pregnant.” And he said, “Oh, that’s okay, we can wait. And he did.”

Mary Poppins, which was released in 1964, received universal acclaim from critics and viewers alike.

Based on P. L. Travers’s book series, it went on to become the highest-grossing film of 1964, and received 13 Academy Awards nominations, a record for any film released by Walt Disney Studios.

In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2023, Dame Julie revealed that it was the music that first grabbed her attention and drew her to the role.

‘It was a brand new thing in my life that I’d never done before. It was for Walt Disney, of course, and the songs in Mary Poppins had a kind of Vaudeville quality to them,’ Andrews explained.

Julie Andrews alongside Liam Neeson in 1986 film Duet for One

In Duet for One, Dame Julie portrayed a concert violinist with a cheating husband who ends up having an affair herself

Julie Andrews in 1982 film Victor/Victoria

‘I think it’s what attracted me to the role, because all that kind of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Jolly Holiday music was very much like the kind of things that you hear in English vaudeville.’

In 1965, further viewer adoration came with her role in the Sound of Music alongside Christopher Plummer. 

The story was based on the real life of Austrian nun turned governess Maria von Trapp, who married into a musical family and defied the Nazis.

Soon after its release, it was the most popular film on the planet. It won five Oscars in 1966, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Sadly, Dame Julie lost out to Julie Christie in the Best Actress award.   

Today, the film remains one of the best-loved productions globally. 

Dame Julie went on to work with horror behemoth Alfred Hitchcock in the Torn Curtain in 1966, before largely shifting to TV work in the 1970s.

She and Walton divorced in 1968, and she went on to marry director Blake Edwards the following year. 

Julie Andrews as a 13-year-old performing at the Royal Variety Show, November 1, 1948

Julie Andrews in a scene from the musical My Fair Lady, which made its debut in 1956

Julie Andrews in 1955. The radiant star was a celebrated stage actress before she left her teens

Julie Andrews with fiancé Tony Walton in 1959, the year the couple married

Julie Andrews with future second husband Blake Edwards in 1967. The couple married in 1969

Julie Andrews in 1986 with second husband Blake Edwards

With him, Dame Julie made 1974 romantic spy thriller The Tamarind Seed and sex comedy 10.

And then in S.O.B in 1981 and Victor/Victoria in 1982, Dame Julie proved that on-screen nudity was within her comfort zone.

In 1986, she starred in both That’s Life and then Duet for One. In the former, she depicted a singer waiting to find out if she has throat cancer.

In the latter, she was a concert violinist with a cheating husband who ends up having an affair herself with Liam Neeson’s rag-and-bone man after receiving an MS diagnosis.  

Dame Julie was finally made a dame in the year 2000. The late Queen Elizabeth greeted her at the Palace by saying: ‘I’ve been waiting a long time to see you here.’

To mark her big day today, Ms Dotrice, who was nine when she starred as Jane Banks in Mary Poppins, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Happy Birthday Julie, you are a tonic in this world. 

‘You are somebody that changed the world, changed family dynamics, her interpretation of Mary Poppins I think… there is a deep message about that film. 

‘And it isn’t just a flippant musical, it is about how parents should notice their children from that Edwardian era where people weren’t really taking care of family, kids were seen and not heard. 

Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews alongside child stars Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber in 1964 film Mary Poppins 

Julie Andrews and her young co-stars in the Sound of Music

Julie Andrews in her most iconic role as Maria von Trapp in 1965 film The Sound of Music

‘She followed those rules to a point but she always allowed for the fun. 

‘And that’s Julie herself in a nutshell, she’s a bloody hard worker but at the same time, if there’s a giggle to be had or some fun, she’s the first in line.’ 

Sound of Music star Nicholas Hammond, who portrayed youngster Friedrich von Trapp in the hit film, said: ‘My mother and I went to see Julie Andrews’ final performance in My Fair Lady, so when three and a half, four years later, I found myself sitting on the end of the bed in my pyjamas with her singing My Favourite Things to me, I just felt like this is a dream come true.’

He added: ‘She was every day of that entire film [the Sound of Music], the personification of professionalism, of hard work, [and] positive attitude. 

‘She is to this day still a very good friend of mine and someone who I love with all my heart.’

Dame Julie, who lives in The Hamptons in New York, has not spoken publicly to mark her birthday.

She was last pictured in public during a shopping trip near her home last April.