Oscar Profile #55: Julie Christie

Born April 14, 1941 in Assam, India, the daughter of an English tea planter and his Welsh painter wife, Julie Christie was sent to a boarding school in England at the age of 6. By 16, she had moved to France and soon thereafter returned to England and the British stage. By twenty, she had a recurring role in a TV series and made her screen debut at 21. She had her first major success at 22 in John Schlesinger’s 1963 comedy Billy Liar opposite Tom Courtenay. She and Courtenay were both nominated for BAFTAs (British Oscars).

Impressed with her performance in Billy Liar, the legendary John Ford cast her a prostitute in a prominent supporting role in 1965’s Young Cassidy, but it was her performance in two other 1965 films that made her a legend at the age of 24.

She was given the role of the amoral model Diana in Schlesinger’s Darling when Shirley MacLaine turned it down. She immediately became the face of the Swinging Sixties and the on-screen representative of the modern woman. Her iconic Lara in David Lean’s film of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago was for many the best thing about the epic film. The only question seemed to be which film she would receive an Oscar nomination for, and whether or not she could win over the other Julie – Andrews in the megahit, The Sound of Music. She was nominated and won for Darling.

Immediately cast in three high profile films, Francois Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 from the classic Ray Bradbury novel; Thomas Hardy’s Bathsheba in Schlesinger’s film of Far from the Madding Crowd and the title role in Richard Lester’s Petulia. In the meantime she had met Warren Beatty and the two became inseparable until she tired of his womanizing in 1974, although the two have remained friends to this day.

During her relationship with Beatty she turned down more roles than she accepted, including the leads in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and Anne of the Thousand Days, both of which brought 1969 Oscar nominations to second choices Jane Fonda and Genevieve Bujold respectively.

Christie was back on screen in a pair of 1971 gems, as the Victorian lady engaged to one man but secretly carrying on a torrid affair with another in Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between and as the madam of the brothel in Robert Altman’s western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller opposite Beatty, She received her second Oscar nomination for the latter.

She and Donald Sutherland tore up the screen in Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now released at the end of 1973 and she and Beatty reunited for 1975’s Shampoo and 1978’s Heaven Can Wait, but she turned down the lead in his Reds because she felt an American should play the role. Diane Keaton got the part and received an Oscar nomination for it.

Seen sporadically throughout the 1980s, she had one of her best roles as the Irish widow opposite Sutherland in 1992’s little seen The Railway Station Man, but her best known role of the decade was as the former B-actress in Alan Rudolph’s Afterglow. The 1997 film brought her a third Oscar nomination.

Largely in character roles since, she was outstanding as the inspiration for Captain Hook in 2004’s Finding Neveraland and had a rare late career lead as the Alzheimer’s patient in Sarah Polley’s Away from Her. Her luminous smile undimmed, the screen legend now in her late sixties, received her fourth Oscar nomination for the 2007 film, for which many thought she should have won.

Married to longtime companion, journalist Duncan Campbell in 2008, the seventy year-old actress is still very much in demand, with two films currently in production.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

DARLING (1965), directed by John Schlesinger

As the amoral model who sleeps her way to the top of the fashion world in Darling, Christie set the acting world on its ear. While certain aspects of the film don’t hold up for today’s audiences, it’s still easy to see why Christie became everyone’s “darling” in real life. It’s a star-making performance for the ages. She makes mincemeat of the other actors in the film, including several very accomplished ones such as Laurence Harvey and Dirk Bogarde. The last scene remains a stunner.

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965), directed by

There are those who complain that Lean’s epic is nothing more than a soap opera in the snow, but the historical sweep of Pasternak’s ground-breaking novel is there in every scene. If Omar Sharif is a bit passionless as Zhivago, Christie as his great love, Lara; Rod Steiger as the evil Alexander and Tom Courtenay, Oscar nominated as the passionate Pasha, more than make up for any shortcomings the lead actor may possess. Christie’s blank stare still speaks volumes and “Lara’s Theme” remains one of cinema’s great musical treasures.

THE GO-BETWEEN (1971), directed by Joseph Losey

Oscar voters went for Christie’s other big film in 1971, Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller opposite her off-screen lover, Warren Beatty, but this Victorian romance contains a much more passionate performance from the actress at the top of her game. While the film centers on young Dominic Guard as the boy she uses to carry steamy love letters to her neighbor and lover (Alan Bates), all eyes are on Christie whenever she appears, including her final scene in old age makeup.

AFTERGLOW (1997), directed by Alan Rudolph

Christie hit it off with Altman while filming McCabe & Mrs. Miller even /though Beatty famously did not. She made a cameo appearance as herself in hismost acclaimed film, Nashville, four years later and twenty-two years after that returned to the fold in this romantic comedy produced by Altman, but directed by Altman protégé Alan Rudolph. The result was her best reviewed work in years. In it she plays a former B-movie actress married to handyman Nick Nolte, who has an affair with a much young man played by Johnny Lee Miller. Her second New York Film Critics Award and her third Oscar nomination soon followed.

AWAY FROM HER (1997), directed by Sarah Polley

Having struck up a friendship with Canadian actress Sarah Polley while supporting her in 2005’s The Secret Life of Words, Chrisite was Polley’s first and only choice to play the still lovely woman who develops Alzheimer’s disease in late middle age. Although the central character is the woman’s husband, nicely played by character actor Gordon Pinsent, Christie’s still luminous 1,000 watt smile lights up the movie even as her character’s memory dims. The performance won her a third New York Film Critics Award and numerous other honors but failed to win her a second Oscar as many had predicted.