On 1st October, the ultimate nanny reaches an age not usually associated with child care.
That’s the day Julie Andrews, star of Mary Poppins, turns 90. The 1964 Disney classic was her film debut, and gained her international fame and a Best Actress Oscar.
Her co-star Dick Van Dyke reaches the even more venerable milestone of 100 on 13th December.
Andrews told a 2023 CBS special celebrating Van Dyke’s life that he was ‘young, fit … and really gorgeous’, and ‘sweet and helpful’, too.
Van Dyke was in awe of her soprano voice – she’d starred in My Fair Lady on Broadway. She was patient with his somewhat flat singing – and his risible Cockney accent in his role as Bert the chimney sweep. Still, Bert’s song ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’ went on to win a Best Original Song Oscar – one of five Oscars for the film.
Astonishingly, Julie Andrews starred in another megahit, The Sound of Music, only a year later. Again, she played a nanny. Again, the film won five Oscars.
Van Dyke wanted Julie to co-star in 1968’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but she was fed up with children’s stuff at the time. They are still friends.
Comedian Carol Burnett, 92, an old friend of Julie’s, who worked with her in the 1960s, called her ‘special’ and ‘loyal’. The Sound of
Music child stars thought she was like a lovely real nanny. Widowed since the death of her second husband, Blake Edwards, director of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the Pink Panther films, Andrews now lives in Long Island near her daughter.
Recent work includes providing the voice-over for the salacious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton.
