Julie Walters

At 74 years old, Julie Walters has this physical status:

Dame Julia Mary Walters (born 22 February 1950) is an English actress and writer.

She is the recipient of four BAFTA TV Awards, two BAFTA Film Awards, a BAFTA Fellowship, and a Golden Globe.

She has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, in the categories of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Walters came to international prominence in 1983, for playing the title role in Educating Rita.

It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

It also won her a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

She received a second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in the 2000 film Billy Elliot, which also won her a BAFTA.

Her other film credits include Personal Services, Prick Up Your Ears (both 1987), Buster (1988), Stepping Out (1991), Sister My Sister (1994), Girls' Night, Titanic Town (both 1998), Calendar Girls (2003), Wah-Wah (2005), Driving Lessons (2006), Becoming Jane (2007), Mamma Mia! (2008) and its sequel (2018), Brave (2012), Paddington (2014) and its sequel (2017), Effie Gray (2014), Brooklyn (2015), Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017), and Mary Poppins Returns (2018).

She played Molly Weasley in seven of the eight Harry Potter films (2001–2011).

On stage, she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress for the 2001 production of All My Sons. On television, she collaborated with Victoria Wood, and appeared with her in several television shows including Wood and Walters (1981), Victoria Wood As Seen on TV (1985–1987), Pat and Margaret (1994), and dinnerladies (1998–2000).

She has won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress four times, for My Beautiful Son (2001), Murder (2002), The Canterbury Tales (2003), and for her portrayal of Mo Mowlam in Mo (2010).

She starred in A Short Stay in Switzerland in 2009, which won her an International Emmy for Best Actress.

In 2006, she came fourth in ITV's poll of the public's 50 Greatest TV stars in Britain.

In 2008, she released her autobiography titled That's Another Story.

Early life

Julia Mary Walters was born on 22 February 1950 at St Chad's Hospital in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, the daughter of Mary Bridget (née O'Brien), an Irish Catholic postal clerk from County Mayo, and Thomas Walters, an English builder and decorator. According to the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, her maternal ancestors played an active part in the 19th-century Irish Land War. Her 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. Walters and her family lived at 69 Bishopton Road in the Bearwood area of Smethwick, Staffordshire. The youngest of five children and the third to survive birth, Walters had an early education at St Paul's School for Girls in Edgbaston and later at Holly Lodge Grammar School for Girls in Smethwick. She 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".

Walters later told interviewer Alison Oddey about her early schooling, "I was never going to be academic, so [my mother] suggested that I try teaching or nursing. [...] I'd been asked to leave school, so I thought I'd better do it." Her first job was in insurance at the age of 15. At the age of 18, she trained as a student nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham; she worked on the ophthalmic, casualty, and coronary care wards during the 18 months she spent there. She decided to leave nursing and went on to study acting at the newly-established Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre (now Manchester School of Theatre). She 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.

Personal life

Walters' relationship with Grant Roffey, a patrol man for the AA, began in 1985 after a chance meeting in a Fulham pub, where Roffey admitted to voting Labour. He was invited to repair Walters' washing machine, a whirlwind romance ensued and the couple became parents to their only child, a daughter, who they named Maisie Mae Roffey (born 26 April 1988). The couple delayed marriage until they visited New York City in 1997. The family live on an organic farm operated by Roffey near Plaistow, West Sussex.

Walters is a lifelong supporter of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, having been brought up in Smethwick. She is a patron of the domestic violence survivors' charity Women's Aid.

Walters was diagnosed with stage III bowel cancer in 2018. Having had surgery and chemotherapy, she entered remission. This meant that she had to be cut from certain scenes in The Secret Garden and also had to miss the premiere of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. 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. Later that year, however, she stated that she would make an exception for roles that she was 'really engaged' with, including Mamma Mia 3!, which is currently in development.

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Career

Walters first appeared as the occasional spouse of comedian Victoria Wood, whom she first encountered at the School of Theatre in Manchester in 1971. In 1978, the two met together for the first time in In At the Death, then followed by the television adaptation of Wood's play Talent.

They continued to appear in Wood and Walters, their own Granada television series. Over the years, they continued to perform together often. Victoria Wood's BAFTA Award-winning BBC sequel, As Seen on TV, starred one of Walters' finest roles, Mrs Overall, in Wood's parodic soap opera Acorn Antiques (she later appeared in the musical version and received an Olivier Award nomination for her efforts).

Walters' first serious acting role on television was in Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff in 1982. She came to national prominence as she co-starred with Michael Caine in Educating Rita (1983), a role she had played on Willy Russell's 1980 play. Susan "Rita" White, a Liverpudlian working-class hairdresser who wants to improve herself by enrolling in and attending an Open University English literature course, will be named in the BAFTA Award for Best Actress, Best Actress, and Outstanding Actress, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as a nomination for Best Actress.

In The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog, which was recorded 1982 and broadcast by Channel 4 in 1983, she did various comedic monologues.

In the television adaptation of Adrian Mole's The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, she appeared as Adrian Mole's mother, Pauline. Walters appeared in the lead role of Cynthia Payne in the 1987 film Personal Services, a dramatic drama about a British brothel owner. In the film Buster, she appeared with Phil Collins, playing the lead character's wife, June. In the 1989 film version of The Threepenny Opera, Mrs. Peachum was also present as Mrs. Peachum, although Mack the Knife was renamed for the film.

Walters appeared in Stepping Out in 1991, and Julie Walters and Friends, a one-off television special that featured writing contributions from Victoria Wood, Alan Bennett, Willy Russell, and Alan Bleasdale.

Walters appeared in the television film Wide-Eyed and Legless (also known as The Wedding Gift Outside of the United Kingdom) in 1993 alongside Jim Broadbent and Thora Hird. The film was based on Deric Longden's book and tells the tale of his wife Diana's last years of marriage to him, who died of a degenerative disease that medical professionals were unable to comprehend at the time, but it is now believed to be a condition of chronic exhaustion syndrome or myalgic encephalopathy.

In 1998, she appeared in the ITV pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk as the Fairy Godmother. Petula Gordeno played Petula Gordeno in Victoria Wood's BBC sitcom dinnerladies from 1998 to 2000. She appeared in a sequence of Bisto gravy commercials in the late 1990s.

Walters received a Laurence Olivier Award in 2001 for her role in Arthur Miller's All My Sons. She received her second Oscar nomination and was awarded a BAFTA for her role as the ballet coach in Billy Elliot (2000). She received a BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress for her role as Paul Reiser's mother in My Beautiful Son in 2002.

In the Harry Potter film series (2001-2011), Walters played Molly Weasley, the matriarch of the Weasley family. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the only film in the series not to have included Walters. The BBC named Molly as the "second-best screen mother" in 2003.

Walters played in Calendar Girls, starring Helen Mirren, who played widow (Annie Clark) determined to make some good come out of her husband's death from cancer. Marie Stubbs, an ITV1 drama Ahead of the Class, starred as an inspirational real-life celebrity in 2005. In 2006, she came fourth in ITV's list of the 50 Greatest Stars, ranking her fourth over frequent co-star Victoria Wood. She appeared in the film Driving Lessons with Rupert Grint (who played her son Ron in Harry Potter) and played a central role in the BBC's adaptation of Philip Pullman's book The Ruby in the Smoke, which appeared in the film Driving Lessons in 2006.

Walters' first book, Maggie's Tree, was released in summer 2006. "A disturbing and thought-provoking book about a group of English actors in Manhattan and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson was described as "a troubling and thought-provoking book about mental distress and the often comedic, mixed-up ways we imagine ourselves and misread each other." Susan Jeffreys, a book reviewer for The Independent, called the book "the work of a writer who knows what she's doing." Walters brings her experience as an actress to bear on the page, and there is nothing uncertain about the writing. "You can enter someone else's mind and look into someone else's eyes." Walters appeared in Asda's Christmas 2007 television commercial campaign. She appeared in a public information video about smoke alarms alongside Patrick Stewart in UK Nintendo DS Brain Training television commercials and in a public information film about smoke alarms. Walters appeared in Mamma Mia! film version in June 2008, marking her second high-profile musical since Acorn Antiques: The Musical! She published That's Another Story in the same year as her autobiography, Also a Woman.

In Becoming Jane, Walters portrayed author Jane Austen (played by Anne Hathaway). In the BBC Drama Filth: Mary Whitehouse's (2008) story "The Mary Whitehouse Story," an adaptation of Mrs. Whitehouse's true-life tale who called for "taste and decency on television, Walters played Mary Whitehouse. Walters wrote, "I am really excited to be playing Mary Whitehouse and going back to the days when she screamed at the BBC and began to make her name." At the 2008-13th Annual Satellite Awards, Filth was named Best Motion Picture Made for Television, and Walters was named Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television.

She appeared in the Birmingham Walk of Stars on Birmingham's Golden Mile, Broad Street, in 2009. "I am very honored and proud that the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands want to include me in their Walk of Stars, and I look forward to seeing my character." I'm from Birmingham and the West Midlands; these are my roots, and in essence, they've played a large part in making me who I am today. An International Emmy for A Short Stay in Switzerland is one of her many accolades.

In a drama for Channel 4 broadcast in early 2010, Walters played late MP and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam. She had misgivings about taking on the role due to the physical appearance of their bodies, but critics lauded the result.

Walters appeared in BBC Two's The Hollow Crown as Mistress Quickly in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts I and II, in July 2012. In Pixar's Brave (2012), she portrayed the Witch. In 2012, she worked with LV= to advertise one of their life insurance products marketed to people over the age 50. Walters was seen in television commercials, on the lv.com website, and elsewhere in other marketing pieces aimed at increasing demand for life insurance.

Walters appeared in The Last of the Haussmans at the Royal National Theatre in June 2012. Through the National Theatre Live programme, the film was broadcast to cinemas around the world. In the critically acclaimed Paddington (2014), Walters portrayed Mrs. Bird, the Browns' housekeeper, set in contemporary London. Walters reprised her role in Paddington 2 (2017), which has since been praised around the world.

Cynthia Coffin, a female actor in the ten-part British drama series Indian Summers, appeared on Channel 4 in 2015. She appeared in the romantic drama film Brooklyn, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2015. For her role in the film, she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. During the 2016 Paralympic Games, Walters narrated the Lexi Decoder (LEXI) for Channel 4 in a tweeting. The graphical system is intended to enhance the viewing experience of the games by debunking the often confusing classifications that characterize Paralympic sport. In Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Walters played Ellen, Michael and Jane's long-serving housekeeper, set in London during the depression. Walters appeared in The Secret Garden, 1947 England, starring Colin Firth (2020).

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Awards and nominations

• Walters has won eight BAFTAs, six competitive awards plus two honorary awards. The first honorary award was a special BAFTA that she received at a tribute evening in 2003, before receiving the BAFTA Fellowship in 2014.