45 Facts About Julie Walters

1.

Julie Walters is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award.

2.

Julie Walters was honored with the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2014.

3.

Julie Walters was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 for services to drama.

4.

Julie Walters rose to prominence playing the title role in Educating Rita, a part she originated in the West End production of the stage play upon which the film was based.

5.

On television, Julie Walters collaborated regularly with Victoria Wood; their projects included Wood and Julie Walters, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, Pat and Margaret, and dinnerladies.

6.

Julie Walters has won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress four times, more than any other performer, for her roles in My Beautiful Son, Murder, The Canterbury Tales, and Mo.

7.

Julia Mary Julie Walters was born on 22 February 1950 at St Chad's Hospital in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, the daughter of Mary Bridget, an Irish Catholic postal clerk from County Mayo, and Thomas Julie Walters, an English builder and decorator.

8.

Julie Walters's paternal grandfather Thomas Walters was a veteran of the Second Boer War, and was killed in action in World War I in June 1915 while serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment; he is commemorated at the Le Touret Memorial in France.

9.

Julie Walters said in 2014 that it was "heaven when [she] went to an ordinary grammar school", although she was asked to leave at the end of her lower sixth because of her "high jinks".

10.

Julie Walters decided to leave nursing and went on to study acting at the newly-established Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre.

11.

Julie Walters worked for the Everyman Theatre Company in Liverpool in the mid-1970s, alongside several other notable performers and writers such as Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, Jonathan Pryce, Willy Russell, and Alan Bleasdale.

12.

Julie Walters first received notice as the occasional partner of comedian Victoria Wood, whom she had originally met in 1971 when Wood auditioned at the School of Theatre in Manchester.

13.

Julie Walters came to national attention when she co-starred with Michael Caine in Educating Rita, a role she had created on the West End stage in Willy Russell's 1980 play.

14.

Julie Walters performed various comic monologues in The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog, which was recorded 1982, and broadcast by Channel 4 in 1983.

15.

Julie Walters appeared as Mrs Peachum in the 1989 film version of The Threepenny Opera, which was renamed Mack the Knife for the screen.

16.

In 1993, Julie Walters starred in the television film Wide-Eyed and Legless alongside Jim Broadbent and Thora Hird.

17.

In 2001, Julie Walters won a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in Arthur Miller's All My Sons.

18.

Julie Walters received her second Oscar nomination and won a BAFTA for her supporting role as the ballet teacher in Billy Elliot.

19.

Julie Walters played Molly Weasley, the matriarch of the Weasley family, in the Harry Potter film series.

20.

In 2003, Julie Walters starred as a widow determined to make some good come out of her husband's death from cancer in Calendar Girls, which starred Helen Mirren.

21.

In summer 2006, Julie Walters published her first novel, Maggie's Tree.

22.

There's nothing tentative about the writing, and Julie Walters brings her experiences as an actress to bear on the page.

23.

Julie Walters appeared alongside Patrick Stewart in UK Nintendo DS Brain Training television advertisements, and in a public information film about smoke alarms.

24.

In 2007, Julie Walters starred as the mother of author Jane Austen in Becoming Jane.

25.

Julie Walters played Mary Whitehouse in the BBC Drama Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, an adaptation of the real-life story of Mrs Whitehouse who campaigned for "taste and decency on television".

26.

Julie Walters played the late MP and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam in a drama for Channel 4 broadcast in early 2010.

27.

Julie Walters had misgivings about taking on the role because of the differences in their physical appearance, but the result was highly praised by critics.

28.

In July 2012, Julie Walters appeared in the BBC Two production The Hollow Crown as Mistress Quickly in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts I and II.

29.

Julie Walters appeared in The Last of the Haussmans at the Royal National Theatre in June 2012.

30.

On 18 November 2012, Julie Walters appeared on stage at St Martin's Theatre in the West End for a 60th anniversary performance of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play.

31.

In 2014, Julie Walters portrayed Mrs Bird, the Browns' housekeeper, in the critically acclaimed Paddington.

32.

Julie Walters reprised her role for the sequel, Paddington 2, which has received universal acclaim.

33.

Julie Walters played the part of Cynthia Coffin in the ten-part British drama serial Indian Summers aired on Channel 4 in 2015.

34.

Julie Walters voiced the Lexi Decoder for Channel 4 during the 2016 Paralympic Games.

35.

In 2020, Julie Walters starred with Colin Firth in The Secret Garden.

36.

Also in 2020, Julie Walters featured as the narrator for ITV documentary For the Love of Britain.

37.

On 25 December 2021, Channel 4 aired The Abominable Snow Baby, in which Julie Walters appeared as Granny, providing her voice for the animated television short film.

38.

That same month, Julie Walters narrated the BBC documentary The Queen: 70 Glorious Years, which took a look at the Queen's life in her seventieth year on the British throne.

39.

Julie Walters is a lifelong supporter of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, having been brought up in Smethwick.

40.

Julie Walters is a patron of the domestic violence survivors' charity Women's Aid.

41.

Julie Walters was diagnosed with stage III bowel cancer in 2018.

42.

Julie Walters did not announce her illness to the public until February 2020, when she said in an interview with Victoria Derbyshire that she would be taking a step back from acting, particularly from large and demanding film roles.

43.

In March 2023, Julie Walters announced she had withdrawn from appearing in a new Channel 4 drama, Truelove, due to ill health.

44.

Julie Walters was replaced in the show by Lindsay Duncan.

45.

Julie Walters was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1999 Birthday Honours, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2008 New Year Honours, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to drama.