36 Facts About Julie Christie

1.

An icon of the Swinging Sixties, Christie is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

2.

Julie Christie has appeared in six films ranked in the British Film Institute's BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century, and in 1997, she received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement.

3.

Julie Christie came to international attention for her performances in Darling, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and Doctor Zhivago, the eighth highest-grossing film of all time after adjustment for inflation.

4.

Christie was born Julie Frances Christie on 14 April 1940 at Singlijan Tea Estate, Chabua, Assam, British India, to Rosemary, a Welsh-born painter and Frank, who ran the tea plantation where she grew up.

5.

Julie Christie's parents separated when Julie was a child, and after their divorce, she spent time with her mother in rural Wales.

6.

Julie Christie was baptised in the Church of England, and studied as a boarder at the independent Convent of Our Lady school in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, after being expelled from another convent school for telling a risque joke that reached a wider audience than she had anticipated.

7.

Julie Christie went to Paris to finish schooling and learn French.

8.

Julie Christie later returned to England and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

9.

Julie Christie made her professional stage debut in 1957, and her first screen roles were on British television.

10.

Julie Christie was a contender for the role of Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film, Dr No, but producer Albert R Broccoli reportedly thought her breasts were too small.

11.

Julie Christie appeared in two comedies for Independent Artists: Crooks Anonymous and The Fast Lady.

12.

Julie Christie appeared as Daisy Battles in Young Cassidy, a biopic of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey, co-directed by Jack Cardiff and John Ford.

13.

Julie Christie received the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress in a Leading Role for her performance.

14.

In 1967, Time magazine said of her: "What Julie Christie wears has more real impact on fashion than all the clothes of the ten best-dressed women combined".

15.

In Joseph Losey's romantic drama The Go-Between, Julie Christie had a lead role along with Alan Bates.

16.

Don't Look Now in particular has received acclaim, with Julie Christie nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and in 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine ranked it the greatest British film ever.

17.

Julie Christie returned to the United Kingdom in 1977, living on a farm in Wales.

18.

Julie Christie had a major supporting role in Sidney Lumet's Power alongside Richard Gere and Gene Hackman, but apart from that, she avoided large budget films.

19.

Julie Christie starred in the television film Dadah Is Death, based on the Barlow and Chambers execution, as Barlow's mother Barbara, who desperately fought to save her son from being hanged for drug trafficking in Malaysia.

20.

Julie Christie made a brief cameo appearance in the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, playing Madam Rosmerta.

21.

Julie 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.

22.

Julie Christie took the role, she says, only because Polley is her friend.

23.

Polley has said Julie Christie liked the script but initially turned it down as she was ambivalent about acting.

24.

Julie Christie's performance generated Oscar buzz, leading the distributor, Lions Gate Entertainment, to buy the film at the festival to release the film in 2007 to build momentum during the awards season.

25.

Julie Christie 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 and the Genie Award for Best Actress for the same film.

26.

On 22 January 2008, Julie Christie received her fourth Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role at the 80th Academy Awards.

27.

Julie Christie appeared at the ceremony wearing a pin calling for the closure of the prison in Guantanamo Bay.

28.

Julie Christie narrated Uncontacted Tribes, a short film for the British-based charity Survival International, featuring previously unseen footage of remote and endangered peoples.

29.

Julie Christie has been a long-standing supporter of the charity, and in February 2008, was named as its first 'Ambassador'.

30.

Julie Christie appeared in a segment of the film, New York, I Love You, written by Anthony Minghella, directed by Shekhar Kapur and co-starring Shia LaBeouf, as well as in Glorious 39, about a British family at the start of World War II.

31.

Julie Christie played a "sexy, bohemian" version of the grandmother role in Catherine Hardwicke's gothic retelling of Red Riding Hood.

32.

Julie Christie had a live-in relationship with Don Bessant, a lithographer and art teacher, from December 1962 to May 1967, before dating actor Warren Beatty for seven on-and-off years.

33.

Julie Christie was linked romantically with musician Brian Eno, record producer Lou Adler, director Jim McBride and photographer Terry O'Neill.

34.

Julie Christie is married to journalist Duncan Campbell; they have lived together since 1979, but the date they married is disputed.

35.

Julie Christie is active in various causes, including animal rights, environmental protection, and the anti-nuclear power movement.

36.

Julie Christie made her professional debut in 1957 at the Frinton Repertory Company in Essex.