Push Admin

Julie Andrews 'gobsmacked' by Hollywood award, six decades after 'Mary Poppins'

Article (news)

Agence France Presse

LOS ANGELES, United States - Nearly 60 years after preaching virtues of patience and modesty as Mary Poppins and governess Maria, Julie Andrews declared herself &quot;gobsmacked&quot; to have her career honored at a glitzy Hollywood gala Thursday.&quot;I didn&#x27;t know or think that it would ever come,&quot; the 86-year-old told AFP on the red carpet before receiving the American Film Institute&#x27;s life achievement award in Los Angeles, bestowed upon one silver screen legend each year.&quot;But it&#x27;s just as well, because you can&#x27;t go around expecting awards and things like that.&quot;In fact, Andrews won the Oscar for best actress with her very first big-screen role -- 1964&#x27;s &quot;Mary Poppins&quot; -- having rapidly progressed from child singer touring British music halls, to Broadway starlet spotted by Walt Disney.A year after playing the magical and squeaky-clean nanny, and still in her twenties, Andrews sealed a permanent place among Tinseltown&#x27;s elite with &quot;The Sound of Music.&quot;Five of the actors who played the Von Trapp children -- a wealthy Austrian family in need of governess Maria&#x27;s singing lessons, and help in evading the Nazis -- attended Thursday&#x27;s ceremony, along with four of Andrews&#x27; real-life offspring.Andrews went on to star in a number of films during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, with some racy -- even topless -- scenes, which shocked audiences more used to her straight-laced characters.In 2000 she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to acting and entertainment.Following a personal disaster when her vocal chords were damaged in an operation, Andrews revived her career with &quot;The Princess Diaries&quot; (2001) and its sequel in 2004. Her voiceover work as Queen Lillian in the &quot;Shrek&quot; animated film series, Gru&#x27;s mother in the &quot;Despicable Me&quot; franchise, and Lady Whistledown in the hugely popular Netflix series &quot;Bridgerton&quot; earned her a new generation of young fans.Andrews was due to receive the AFI award -- billed as &quot;the highest honor for a career in film -- in 2020 and again in 2021, but the gala was postponed both times due to the pandemic. &quot;When they asked me even two-and-a-half years ago -- and Covid is what kept us from doing it then -- I was gobsmacked,&quot; she said.

Nearly 60 years after preaching virtues of patience and modesty as Mary Poppins and governess Maria, Julie Andrews declared herself 'gobsmacked' to have her career honored at a glitzy Hollywood gala Thursday.