A national treasure in Britain, Julie Andrews will forever be remembered as the English rose who sang and danced her way through the massively successful family entertainment movies of the 1960s, The Sound Of Music and Mary Poppins. Growing up in wartime Britain, Andrews had a tough upbringing in London's slums, but her precocious singing talents with a rare four-octave range were recognised early and she was tutored by the soprano Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen. A meeting with entrepreneur Val Parnell led to her professional stage debut at the London Hippodrome in 1947, singing an aria as part of the musical revue Starlight Roof. It caused a sensation and at 13 she became the youngest act ever invited to appear at the Royal Command Variety Show at London Palladium in front of King George V1. More stage and radio appearances followed and she won further acclaim on her Broadway debut in The Boyfriend and then made one of her defining stage appearances as Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady. She was replaced in the subsequent movie by Audrey Hepburn, but this was eclipsed by her performances as Mary Poppins and Maria Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music; the soundtrack album for the latter becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. By 1967 Andrews was the world's biggest box office movie star and subsequently concentrated on non-singing roles in a long-running series of films. After a 21-year absence she made her London stage comeback in 2010 at the O2 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
