How do you solve a problem like finding the right words to praise one of the most beloved stars of all time?
Well, when that star is Julie Andrews... snap, the job's a game.
The British actress is turning 90 on Oct. 1 and it's not every grande dame whose career has contained so many multitudes, be it in her decades spent on stage and screen or in her later chapters as a children's book author, podcaster, Bridgerton narrator and recipient of ever so many honors.
"I don't know where to begin," Andrews said of the outpouring of love and superlatives when she was presented with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2022. "I had no idea what I was going to see tonight and I'm, well, gob-smacked would be the word."
She went on to pay special thanks to "the vast number of people you don't get to see other when their names are listed in those all-too-fast credits." Because that's the sort of Hollywood royalty Andrews is, always singing the praises of others.
Meanwhile, one iconic movie role can be considered a professional coup. But after making her film debut as a practically perfect nanny in 1964's Mary Poppins (and winning the Academy Award for Best Actress), then Andrews took on the role of an aspiring nun who reports for governess duty armed with nothing but a guitar and gumption in The Sound of Music.
Of course, she was already Tony-nominated for playing Eliza in My Fair Lady and Guinevere in Camelot on Broadway and the Emmy-nominated star of Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella before she touched down in London via umbrella, but her big-screen charm was undeniable.
By the time Andrews was enchanting a new generation as the Queen of Genovia in 2001's The Princess Diaries, however, singing was no longer part of her performance repertoire after a 1997 surgery to remove a cyst on her vocal cords left her with permanent damage.
"It was devastating," she said in a 2004 interview with the Academy of Achievement. "I miss the music unbelievably, but here am I with a publishing imprint, doing lectures, doing a lot of movies that don't require singing, still working as hard as ever. In fact, I think I may be even more at work than I used to be, and I simply love it. I couldn't be happier."
And her regal speaking voice remained in high demand, Andrews providing her commanding yet comforting cadences to the Shrek and Despicable Me films, Aquaman, Bridgerton and more.
Behind the scenes, meanwhile, she's a mother of three daughters—Emma Walton Hamilton from her first marriage to Tony Walton, plus Amy Edwards and Joanna Edwards with her late second husband Blake Edwards—as well as a grandmother of nine and great-grandmother of three.
Emma and her mother have co-authored more than 30 children's books together, and they provided some much-needed cheer in 2020 with their Julie's Library podcast, featuring the mellifluous pair reading their favorite titles.
And because we should honor our legends while they're with us, make a jolly holiday out of enjoying these photos of Andrews' life through the years:
1951
1955
1957
1959
1963
1964
Mary Poppins
1965
The Sound of Music, 1965
1966
Thoroughly Modern Millie, 1967
1967
Star!, 1968
1971
1979
Victor/Victoria, 1982
1982
1983
1986
1993
2001
2004
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, 2004
2006
2010
2015
2019
2022
2023