As the daughter of a professional football player and a Broadway actress, Julie Newmar took stardom seriously from a young age. She studied piano, dance, and classical ballet as a child, and graduated high school when she was only 15! She spent two years playing Catwoman in the wildly popular Batman TV show, but she had never even heard of the show until she was cast in it. She only took the role because her brother said she should! Most people will remember Julie as Catwoman, but she appeared in a number of other popular television shows as well, including The Beverly Hillbillies, The Twilight Zone, and The Bionic Woman. Although she’s still acting today, she’s also been busy pursuing other business ventures like real estate investments and marketing her own patented line of women’s underwear.
Known for her talent as an actress, singer, model, and producer, Catherine Deneuve has kept herself busy throughout a career spanning almost 50 years! The French actress has long been a familiar face in French cinema, and she’s been nominated for a total of 14 Cesar awards over the course of her career. She’s won the prestigious French award twice, for the films The Last Metro and Indochine. Catherine is an international film star as well, and some of her English films include Hustle, Dancer in the Dark, and The Musketeer. She is still acting today, and most recently appeared in the 2015 films The Brand New Testament and Standing Tall. In her free time, the actress supports a number of charities and is well-known for being outspoken about her liberal political beliefs.
As the daughter of two vaudeville performers, Dame Julia “Julie” Elizabeth Andrews began receiving singing lessons at a young age. Her parents wanted to cultivate her four-octave singing range, and it’s a good thing they did! Julie was a performing singer all throughout her childhood and teen years, so it was easy for her to launch her career as a stage actress at the age of 20. Her career included several iconic roles, most notable the starring role in The Sound of Music and her portrayal of the singing nanny Mary Poppins in the film of the same name. The actress won an incredible number of awards throughout her career, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA, five Golden Globes, three Grammys, and two Emmys! In recent years, Julie has taken a break from acting to focus on other career goals like writing children’s books and directing films.
An award winning Italian actress, Monica Vitti became one of the most famous actresses of the 20th century in Italy thanks to her role in the award-winning 1960 film L’avventura. Monica never really crossed over into English-language films, but her Italian roles won her numerous awards including 7 Italian Golden Globes and the Venice Film Festival Career Golden Lion Award. Some of her other well-known works include Dramma della gelosia, La Notte, and Le Fantôme de la liberté, the last of which secured her a prominent place in the film history of Italy. Her last film was Secret Scandal in 1989, and after that she dabbled in teaching, directing, and acting in the theater. Sadly, Monica has suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for the past 20 years and has rarely been seen in public because of her condition.
Famous for her iconic role in the classic 1960 film Psycho, Vera Miles is one of the most memorable face of 60’s cinema. She won the title of “Miss Kansas” in 1948 when she was 19, and went on to catch the eyes of famous directors Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford. Ford cast her in the 1956 western film The Searchers, while Hitchcock was quick to put her under a personal contract and declare her as his “new Grace Kelly”. Unfortunately, Vera only ever appeared in one other Hitchcock film: 1956’s The Wrong Man. However, she did go on to appear in a number of other films and TV shows like The Twilight Zone, Psycho II, and Murder, She Wrote. She retired from acting in 1995, and today resides in California.
