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l a t e s t n e w s October 2007
Click here to begin tour. October 2004
This month sees the release of Finding Neverland, the story of Scottish
playwright J.M. Barrie, which is widely
tipped for Oscar success.
Christie plays Mrs du Maurier, the
grandmother of the Llewelyn Davies
boys who were the real-life inspiration
for Peter Pan, and stars alongside
Kate Winslet, Johnny Depp and Dustin
Hoffman.
b i o g r a p h y
One of the most luminous actresses to grace the British screen, as well as those of the rest of the
world, Julie Christie is known for both her onscreen magnetism, which has not faded as she has
grown older, and her so called offscreen reclusiveness. The daughter of an India-based British tea planter, she
was born in Chukua, Assam, India on April 14,1941, and grew up on her father's tea plantation.
Educated in England and on the Continent, she planned to become an artist or a linguist before she
altered her life's goals by enrolling in the Central School of Speech Training in London. In 1957, she
first stepped onstage as a paid professional with the Frinton Repertory of Essex. Celebrated less for her stage work than for her continuing role in a popular British TV serial, A For
Andromeda, Christie made her film debut in a small role in Crooks Anonymous (1963). After a
rather charming ingenue stint in The Fast Lady (1963) (the lady was a car, not the ingenue), she
received her first prestige part in Billy Liar (1963), gaining critical acclaim for this and her
subsequent supporting part in Young Cassidy (1965). Thus, Christie was not the "newcomer" that
some perceived her to be when she shook film audiences to their foundations in Darling (1965), a
poignant time capsule about a stylishly amoral sexual butterfly. Christie won numerous awards for
Darling, not the least of which were the British Film Academy award and the American Oscar.
Her star further ascended into box-office heaven when she was cast in the big-budget Doctor
Zhivago (1965), in which she gave a radiant performance as the tragic Lara. She followed this with
a dual role in Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1967) and a starring turn in John Schlesinger's acclaimed
1967 adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. Roles of wildly varying
quality followed, until in 1971 Christie began a professional and romantic liaison with Warren Beatty. The romance was over within a few years, but Beatty and Christie ultimately worked together on
three major films of the 1970s: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Shampoo (1975), and Heaven
Can Wait (1978). Christie's films of the 1970s and 1980s including The Go-Between
(1971), the classic Don't Look Now (1974) and her cameo in Nashville (1975) were juxtaposed with her campaigning for various social and political causes. Christie's
performance in the British TV movie The Railway Station Man (1992), was a choice example of
her devotion to social issues -- in this case, the ongoing ideological (and shooting) war in Ireland. Far more than any other actor of her stature she used her position to bring even the most unfashionable causes to the public eye. Few of her critics could understand her sincerity and brushed her aside or pigeon holed her as an 'enigma' which said far more for the cynics writing these pieces than their subject.
But the lazy journalism stuck and the 'enigma' tag stuck to such an extent that it was a surprise to many audiences when she
turned up as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Hamlet (1996). She won acclaim for the
role, embellished the following year with her portrayal of Nick Nolte's estranged wife in Afterglow.
In 1999, Christie made The Miracle Maker.
In the late 90s Christie relocated to the west coast of US and continues in films with her appearance in No Such Thing (2002).
a d d r e s s
Julie Christie
doctor zhivago | don't look now | far from the madding crowd 
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Julie Christie has left Los Angeles where she has lived for the past few years and taken
up residence in Bethnal Green in East London in a flat that was bought by her brother
in 1989. She also retains the farmhouse at Cefn-y-coed near Montgomery in North Wales
where she retreated in
1978 with friends Jonathan and Lesley Heale
to escape public life.
Nominated for her third Best Actress Oscar for her performance, Christie convinced many that,
although she had chosen to neglect the limelight for awhile, she hadn't chosen to neglect her talent.
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