“I dislike the word wholesome,” Julie Andrews once admitted to journalists a rare comment from the woman who became Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp. At 90, Andrews remains one of Hollywood’s best enigmas: a bell-clear voice, impeccable posture, and a career that has spanned saccharine spoonsful of sugar and wink-wink, offbeat roles.
Her own journey from blitzed-out London kid to global stardom is highlighted by moments of both her strength and her quiet defiance against the stereotyping. They not only defined her career but contain flashes of the introverted, complex personality behind the Hollywood icon. From Alpine helicopter crashes to Parisian gender-bending cabarets, here are seven of Andrews’ most memorable on-screen moments along with the behind-the-scenes stories that make them legendary.
1. Mary Poppins (1964): The Perfect Debut
When Jack Warner passed over Andrews for the screen adaptation of My Fair Lady, Walt Disney spotted her opportunity. Revamped by the Sherman brothers on The Ed Sullivan Show, Andrews essayed the practically perfect nanny in a hybrid film that blended live action, animation, and balletic choreography. Writer P.L. Travers, notoriously cranky, dealt only in monosyllables with Andrews, telling her simply that she “had the nose for it” and not much more. Co-star Dick Van Dyke recalled, “She disliked Julie and she disliked me.” But the final result was movie magic, Andrews’ frosty reserve hinting at a “secret life” beyond the demure mask an assumption with which her then-husband Tony Walton concurred. This first earned her an Oscar and set the tone for a career wherein sweetness concealed subdued rebellion.
2. The Sound of Music (1965): Triumph at the Summit
Produced during Mary Poppins‘ release, The Sound of Music carried stratospheric hopes. The storied opening shot from atop the Untersberg mountain was anything but idyllic for Andrews, who was blown again and again over by helicopter downdraft during photography. According to Salzburg tour lore, it took five days to capture the perfect shot, with just 20 minutes of sunshine to spare. The film became the highest-grossing of its time, and Andrews graciously greeted Marni Nixon who had dubbed Audrey Hepburn’s singing in My Fair Lady with, “Marni, I’m such a fan of yours,” a line that doubled as an icebreaker and a sly nod to past disappointments.
And now, more than 300,000 people a year visit Salzburg to follow Maria’s footsteps, an indication of the movie’s long-term appeal.
3. Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967): Flapper Follies and Fleabag Glimpses
A light-hearted spoof of the jazz age, Thoroughly Modern Millie gave Andrews a chance to wink at the camera literally. Her indefatigable flapper heroine breaks the fourth wall with wicked abandon, long before Fleabag made it hip. Its wacky plot, including Elizabethan-style mistaken identities, is offset by Andrews’ musical talents and charm. But its retro approach to Chinese stereotypes and “white slavery” has kept it out of regular TV rotation.
It was a success in 1967, but it was also the time that the old-fashioned musicals began to look disconnected from the new “New Hollywood.”
4. 10 (1979): Sultry and Unscripted
For Blake Edwards’ relations farce 10, Andrews shed her prim persona to play Samantha, the profane girlfriend of Dudley Moore’s midlife-crisis composer. The role permitted her to enact bitterness, longing, and actual sensuality characteristics rarely evident in her previous films. Her boudoir battle when Samantha finds George snooping on a neighbor is generally considered her finest post-Von Trapp work. Here, Andrews finally got her avowed objective: a role that included not a trace of Mary or Maria, but a complete, flesh-and-blood woman with emotion depth. It is a reminder that her talents were far broader than the wholesome caricatures Hollywood tried to keep her confined within.
5. S.O.B. (1981): The Topless Satire
Edwards’ Hollywood satire S.O.B. was inspired by studio meddling in Darling Lili. Playing a squeaky-clean actress persuaded to bare her chest, Andrews delivers the immortal line, “I’m going to show my boobies,” before ripping off her top mid-song. Critic Vincent Canby described the performances as “wickedly right,” and Andrews’ appearance sheer triumph was the image that persisted from the scene. It was a cheeky, calculated choice to challenge decades of public perception, to demonstrate that she could shock as well as charm.
The film remains a courageous entry in her career, indicative of her receptiveness to play with her own myth.
6. Victor/Victoria (1982): Gender-Bending Brilliance
In Victor/Victoria, Andrews played a starving soprano in Paris in the 1930s who, with the help of her gay friend Toddy, becomes Count Victor Grazinski a man impersonating a woman. The role called for both masculine bravado and female charm, fulfilled in the flashy “Le Jazz Hot” number. The film, based on a 1933 German comedy, was groundbreaking in its frank play with gender and relations. As Victor tells King Marchand, “You’re preoccupied with stereotypes. I’m one kind of man, you’re another one that doesn’t have to prove it.” Victor/Victoria remains a cult favorite, celebrated for its queer subtext, witty dialogue, and Andrews’ fearless transformation.
7. The Princess Diaries (2001): Regal Comeback
After botched vocal cord surgery in 1997 ended her singing career, Andrews resurfaced as Disney’s The Princess Diaries Queen Clarisse. Repeating opposite Anne Hathaway, she infused the role of a queenly grandmother teaching an unwilling heir with warmth, humor, and dignity.
It was an authentic comeback, introducing her to a new audience and leading to voiceover work on blockbusters like Shrek 2. The movie demonstrated that despite losing her singing voice, Andrews’ screen presence remained magnetic. It was the introduction of Andrews to the new generation, put there by it being her first in front of the classics.
Julie Andrews’ oeuvre is something greater than a sequence of legendary musicals it’s a map of her quiet resistance to the limits of her own character. From mountains to Parisian nightclubs, from proper nannies to topless comedy, she has always pleased and surprised viewers as well as audiences while remaining hidden beneath an air of secrecy. At 90, her legacy is not just in what she played, but how she played them: with grace, wit, and a dash of mischief that will keep her eternally more than practically perfect.
