JULIE CHRISTIE
Name: Julie Frances Christie
Born: 14 April 1941 Chabua, Assam, India
Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1941) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-,
BAFTA Award-, and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning British actress. She was a
pop icon of the "swinging London" era of the 1960s.
Christie was born in Chabua, Assam, India, then part of the British Empire, as
the first of two children by her mother Rosemary (née Ramsden) and father
Frank St. John Christie. Rosemary was a Welsh-born painter and childhood friend
of actor Richard Burton. Frank ran the tea plantation around which Christie grew
up. She had a brother and a half-sibling from her father's affair with an
Indian mistress. Christie's parents separated during her childhood. She was
baptized in the Anglican church, and studied at a convent school in England (from
which she was later expelled), also living with a foster mother from the age of
six. After her parents' divorce, Christie spent time with her mother in rural
Wales. As a teenager she attended Wycombe Court, a boarding school for girls in
Buckinghamshire, and played the role of the Dauphin in a school production of
George Bernard Shaw's "St. Joan". She later studied at the Central School of
Speech and Drama before getting her big break in 1961 in a science fiction
series on BBC television, entitled A for Andromeda.
Christie's first major film role was as Liz, the friend and would-be lover of
the eponymous Billy Liar played by Tom Courtenay in the 1963 film directed by
John Schlesinger. Schlesinger, who only cast Christie after another actress
dropped out of his film, directed her in her breakthrough role, as the amoral
model Diana Scott in Darling (1965), a role which the producers originally
offered to Shirley MacLaine. Though virtually unknown before Darling (1965),
Christie ended the year 1965 by appearing as Lara Antipova in David Lean's
adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago (1965), which was one of
the all-time box office hits, and as Daisy Battles in Young Cassidy, the John
Ford-Jack Cardiff directed biopic of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey. In 1966, the
25-year-old Christie won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Darling (1965).
Later, she played Thomas Hardy's heroine Bathsheba Everdene in Schlesinger's Far
from the Madding Crowd (1967) and the lead character, Petulia Danner, (opposite
George C. Scott) in Richard Lester's Petulia (1968).
In the 1970s, Christie starred in such films as Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs
Miller (1971) (her second Best Actress Oscar nomination), The Go-Between (again
co-starring Alan Bates, 1971), Don't Look Now (1973), Shampoo (1975), Altman's
classic Nashville (also 1975, in an amusing cameo as herself opposite Karen
Black and Henry Gibson), Demon Seed (1977), and Heaven Can Wait (1978). She
moved to Hollywood during the decade, where she had a high-profile (1967-1974),
but intermittent relationship with actor Warren Beatty who described her as "the
most beautiful and at the same time the most nervous person I had ever known".
Following the end of the relationship, she returned to the United Kingdom, where
she lived on a farm in Wales. Never a prolific actress, even at the height of
her fame and bankability in the 1960s, Christie made fewer and fewer films in
the 1980s. She had a major supporting role in Sidney Lumet's Power (1986), but
other than that, she avoided appearances in large budget films and appeared in
riskier fare.
Christie has turned down many leading roles in films such as They Shoot Horses,
Don't They?, Anne of the Thousand Days and The Greek Tycoon. Christie also
signed on to play the female lead in American Gigolo opposite Richard Gere,
however when Gere dropped out and John Travolta was cast in the role, Christie
too dropped out from the project. Gere changed his mind and took back the role,
however it was too late for Christie as her part was already taken by Lauren
Hutton. Julie Christie also had to drop out of the leading role in Agatha due to
breaking her wrist whilst roller-skating; the part was filled by Vanessa
Redgrave.
Christie made a comeback with her appearance as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's
Hamlet (1996). Despite her training, it was her first-ever venture into
Shakespeare. She next starred as the unhappy wife in Alan Rudolph's domestic
comedy-drama Afterglow (1997). Critics were delighted with her performance, for
which she received her third Oscar nomination. Since then, Christie has appeared
mostly in small roles in English and American films.
Christie made a brief appearance in the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), playing Madame Rosmerta. That same year, she
also appeared in two other high-profile films: Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, and
Marc Forster's Finding Neverland, in which she played Kate Winslet's mother. The
latter performance earned Christie a BAFTA nomination as supporting actress in
film.
Christie portrayed the female lead in Away From Her, a film about a long-married
Canadian couple coping with the wife's Alzheimer's disease. A role in which she
won the Genie Award for Best Actress. Based on the Alice Munro short story "The
Bear Came Over the Mountain", the movie is the first feature film directed by
Christie's sometime co-star, Canadian actress Sarah Polley. She only took the
role, she says, as Polley is her friend. On her part, Polley said that Christie
liked her script but initially turned it down as she was ambivalent about acting.
It took several months of persuasion by Polley before Christie finally accepted
the role, which was written with her in mind.
Debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2006 as
part of the TIFF's Gala showcase, Away From Her drew rave reviews from the trade
press, including the Hollywood Reporter, and the four Toronto dailies. The
critics singled out the performances of Christie and her co-star, Canadian actor
Gordon Pinsent, and Polley's assured direction. Her luminous
performance created an "Oscar buzz", leading the distributor, Lions Gate Films,
who bought the film at the TIFF to release the film in 2007 in order to build up
momentum during the awards season.
On December 5, 2007, Christie won the Best Actress Award from the National Board
of Review for her performance in Away From Her. She also won the Golden Globe
Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award for
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - Motion Picture,
and a Genie Award for the same film. On January 22, 2008, Christie received her
fourth Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for
the 80th Academy Awards.
In 2008 Christie narrated a short film for the British-based charity Survival
International, "Uncontacted Tribes", featuring previously unseen footage of
remote and endangered peoples. Christie has been a long-standing supporter of
the charity, and in February 2008 was named as its first 'Ambassador'.
Name: Julie Frances Christie
Born: 14 April 1941 Chabua, Assam, India
Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1941) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-,
BAFTA Award-, and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning British actress. She was a
pop icon of the "swinging London" era of the 1960s.
Christie was born in Chabua, Assam, India, then part of the British Empire, as
the first of two children by her mother Rosemary (née Ramsden) and father
Frank St. John Christie. Rosemary was a Welsh-born painter and childhood friend
of actor Richard Burton. Frank ran the tea plantation around which Christie grew
up. She had a brother and a half-sibling from her father's affair with an
Indian mistress. Christie's parents separated during her childhood. She was
baptized in the Anglican church, and studied at a convent school in England (from
which she was later expelled), also living with a foster mother from the age of
six. After her parents' divorce, Christie spent time with her mother in rural
Wales. As a teenager she attended Wycombe Court, a boarding school for girls in
Buckinghamshire, and played the role of the Dauphin in a school production of
George Bernard Shaw's "St. Joan". She later studied at the Central School of
Speech and Drama before getting her big break in 1961 in a science fiction
series on BBC television, entitled A for Andromeda.
Christie's first major film role was as Liz, the friend and would-be lover of
the eponymous Billy Liar played by Tom Courtenay in the 1963 film directed by
John Schlesinger. Schlesinger, who only cast Christie after another actress
dropped out of his film, directed her in her breakthrough role, as the amoral
model Diana Scott in Darling (1965), a role which the producers originally
offered to Shirley MacLaine. Though virtually unknown before Darling (1965),
Christie ended the year 1965 by appearing as Lara Antipova in David Lean's
adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago (1965), which was one of
the all-time box office hits, and as Daisy Battles in Young Cassidy, the John
Ford-Jack Cardiff directed biopic of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey. In 1966, the
25-year-old Christie won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Darling (1965).
Later, she played Thomas Hardy's heroine Bathsheba Everdene in Schlesinger's Far
from the Madding Crowd (1967) and the lead character, Petulia Danner, (opposite
George C. Scott) in Richard Lester's Petulia (1968).
In the 1970s, Christie starred in such films as Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs
Miller (1971) (her second Best Actress Oscar nomination), The Go-Between (again
co-starring Alan Bates, 1971), Don't Look Now (1973), Shampoo (1975), Altman's
classic Nashville (also 1975, in an amusing cameo as herself opposite Karen
Black and Henry Gibson), Demon Seed (1977), and Heaven Can Wait (1978). She
moved to Hollywood during the decade, where she had a high-profile (1967-1974),
but intermittent relationship with actor Warren Beatty who described her as "the
most beautiful and at the same time the most nervous person I had ever known".
Following the end of the relationship, she returned to the United Kingdom, where
she lived on a farm in Wales. Never a prolific actress, even at the height of
her fame and bankability in the 1960s, Christie made fewer and fewer films in
the 1980s. She had a major supporting role in Sidney Lumet's Power (1986), but
other than that, she avoided appearances in large budget films and appeared in
riskier fare.
Christie has turned down many leading roles in films such as They Shoot Horses,
Don't They?, Anne of the Thousand Days and The Greek Tycoon. Christie also
signed on to play the female lead in American Gigolo opposite Richard Gere,
however when Gere dropped out and John Travolta was cast in the role, Christie
too dropped out from the project. Gere changed his mind and took back the role,
however it was too late for Christie as her part was already taken by Lauren
Hutton. Julie Christie also had to drop out of the leading role in Agatha due to
breaking her wrist whilst roller-skating; the part was filled by Vanessa
Redgrave.
Christie made a comeback with her appearance as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's
Hamlet (1996). Despite her training, it was her first-ever venture into
Shakespeare. She next starred as the unhappy wife in Alan Rudolph's domestic
comedy-drama Afterglow (1997). Critics were delighted with her performance, for
which she received her third Oscar nomination. Since then, Christie has appeared
mostly in small roles in English and American films.
Christie made a brief appearance in the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), playing Madame Rosmerta. That same year, she
also appeared in two other high-profile films: Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, and
Marc Forster's Finding Neverland, in which she played Kate Winslet's mother. The
latter performance earned Christie a BAFTA nomination as supporting actress in
film.
Christie portrayed the female lead in Away From Her, a film about a long-married
Canadian couple coping with the wife's Alzheimer's disease. A role in which she
won the Genie Award for Best Actress. Based on the Alice Munro short story "The
Bear Came Over the Mountain", the movie is the first feature film directed by
Christie's sometime co-star, Canadian actress Sarah Polley. She only took the
role, she says, as Polley is her friend. On her part, Polley said that Christie
liked her script but initially turned it down as she was ambivalent about acting.
It took several months of persuasion by Polley before Christie finally accepted
the role, which was written with her in mind.
Debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2006 as
part of the TIFF's Gala showcase, Away From Her drew rave reviews from the trade
press, including the Hollywood Reporter, and the four Toronto dailies. The
critics singled out the performances of Christie and her co-star, Canadian actor
Gordon Pinsent, and Polley's assured direction. Her luminous
performance created an "Oscar buzz", leading the distributor, Lions Gate Films,
who bought the film at the TIFF to release the film in 2007 in order to build up
momentum during the awards season.
On December 5, 2007, Christie won the Best Actress Award from the National Board
of Review for her performance in Away From Her. She also won the Golden Globe
Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award for
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - Motion Picture,
and a Genie Award for the same film. On January 22, 2008, Christie received her
fourth Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for
the 80th Academy Awards.
In 2008 Christie narrated a short film for the British-based charity Survival
International, "Uncontacted Tribes", featuring previously unseen footage of
remote and endangered peoples. Christie has been a long-standing supporter of
the charity, and in February 2008 was named as its first 'Ambassador'.