Julie Andrews 'Gobsmacked' by Hollywood Award, Six Decades after 'Mary Poppins'

English actress-singer Julie Andrews received the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award VALERIE MACON AFP
English actress-singer Julie Andrews received the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award VALERIE MACON AFP
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Julie Andrews 'Gobsmacked' by Hollywood Award, Six Decades after 'Mary Poppins'

English actress-singer Julie Andrews received the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award VALERIE MACON AFP
English actress-singer Julie Andrews received the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award VALERIE MACON AFP

Nearly 60 years after preaching virtues of patience and modesty as Mary Poppins and governess Maria, Julie Andrews declared herself "gobsmacked" to have her career honored at a glitzy Hollywood gala Thursday.

"I didn't know or think that it would ever come," the 86-year-old told AFP on the red carpet before receiving the American Film Institute's life achievement award in Los Angeles, bestowed upon one silver screen legend each year.

"But it's just as well, because you can't go around expecting awards and things like that."

In fact, Andrews won the Oscar for best actress with her very first big-screen role -- 1964's "Mary Poppins" -- having rapidly progressed from child singer touring British music halls, to Broadway starlet spotted by Walt Disney, AFP said.

A year after playing the magical and squeaky-clean nanny, and still in her twenties, Andrews sealed a permanent place among Tinseltown's elite with "The Sound of Music."

Five of the actors who played the Von Trapp children -- a wealthy Austrian family in need of governess Maria's singing lessons, and help in evading the Nazis -- attended Thursday's ceremony, along with four of Andrews' real-life offspring.

Andrews went on to star in a number of films during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, with some racy -- even topless -- scenes, which shocked audiences more used to her straight-laced characters.

In 2000 she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to acting and entertainment.

Following a personal disaster when her vocal chords were damaged in an operation, Andrews revived her career with "The Princess Diaries" (2001) and its sequel in 2004.

Her voiceover work as Queen Lillian in the "Shrek" animated film series, Gru's mother in the "Despicable Me" franchise, and Lady Whistledown in the hugely popular Netflix series "Bridgerton" earned her a new generation of young fans.

Andrews was due to receive the AFI award -- billed as "the highest honor for a career in film -- in 2020 and again in 2021, but the gala was postponed both times due to the pandemic.

"When they asked me even two-and-a-half years ago -- and Covid is what kept us from doing it then -- I was gobsmacked," she said.



Brian Wilson's Top Five Beach Boys Songs

Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
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Brian Wilson's Top Five Beach Boys Songs

Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

From the carefree sound of California surf music to the sophistication of later darker works, here are five of the top hits penned by influential Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson.

'Surfin' USA' (1963)

"Surfin' USA" was the Beach Boys' first global hit, taken from their eponymous debut album. A youthful ode to sea, sun and girls, it became an anthem for the West Coast and beyond.

It demonstrated Brian Wilson's increasing songwriting prowess as well as the band's unique vocal sound achieved thanks to double tracking.

"We'll all be gone for the summer/ We're on safari to stay/ Tell the teacher we're surfin'/ Surfin' USA," it rang out.

Wilson intentionally set his lyrics to the music of "Sweet Little Sixteen," by Chuck Berry, leading Berry to take legal action.

'California Girls' (1965)

On the big hit of the summer of 1965, Wilson's cousin Mike Love burst into song to celebrate the sun-tanned women of California.

"I wish they all could be California girls," the band members sang in seemless harmony.

It was also the first song written by Wilson under the influence of LSD, "which could explain why the accompaniment seems to move in a slow, steady daze at odds with the song's bright, major-key melody," Rolling Stone magazine wrote.

'God Only Knows' (1966)

It took Wilson just 45 minutes to write "God Only Knows," the legendary eighth track on the album "Pet Sounds" which has gone down as one of the greatest love songs ever.

Sung by brother Carl Wilson, Brian's rival Paul McCartney declared it to be his favorite song of all time and said it reduced him to tears.

But the record company and other members of the group were wary at the new turn in style.

'Good Vibrations'(1966)

"Good Vibrations" was a massive commercial success, selling one million copies in the United States and topping charts there and in several other countries including the UK.

At the time the most expensive single ever made, the "pocket symphony" was recorded in four different studios, consumed over 90 hours of tape and included a complexity of keys, textures, moods and instrumentation.

The song was a far cry from the group's surf-and-sun origins and the enormity of the task brought Wilson to the brink. He was unable to go on and complete the album "Smile," of which the song was to have been the centerpiece.

- 'Til I die' (1971) -

On side B of the album "Surf's Up,'Til I die" was composed in 1969 by a depressed Wilson worn down by mental illness and addiction.

He wrote in his 1991 autobiography that it was perhaps the most personal song he had written for the Beach Boys.