Julie Newmar
| Julie Newmar | ||
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Julie Chalene Newmeyer | |
| Born | Aug 16, 1933 / 90 yo Los Angeles, California | |
| Spouse(s) | J. Holt Smith (1977-1983) | |
| Awards | Best Featured Actress in a Play | |
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Julie Newmar (born August 16, 1933) is an American actress, dancer and singer. Her most famous role is Catwoman in the Batman television series.
Biography
Early life
Newmar was born Julie Chalene Newmeyer in Los Angeles, California, the eldest of three children. She graduated from John Marshall High School. Her mother, Helen Jesmer, was a Ziegfeld Follies dancer; her father, Donald Newmeyer, was a teacher, real estate investor and a former pro football tackle for the Los Angeles Buccaneers, which was based in Chicago for one season in 1926.
Before she changed her name, she was a "dancer-assassin" in Slaves of Babylon (1953) and the "gilded girl" in Serpent of the Nile (1953) in which she was clad only in gold paint. She danced in several films including The Band Wagon and Demetrius and the Gladiators and was a ballerina with the Los Angeles Opera. She also worked as a choreographer and dancer for Universal Studios.
Career
Stage and film
Her first major role, billed as "Julie Newmeyer", was as one of the brides in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Her 90-second Broadway appearance as the leggy "Stupefyin' Jones" in the musical Li'l Abner in 1956 led to a reprise in the 1959 film version.
Newmar also appeared on Broadway in the non-musical 1961 play, The Marriage-Go-Round, which starred Claudette Colbert. She re-developed the stock character role of the sexy Swedish vixen and won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress. Later she appeared on stage with Anthony Newley in a national tour of Stop the World - I Want to Get Off and as "Lola" in Damn Yankees!.
Television
Much of Newmar's fame stems from her television career, especially her roles in certain well-remembered television series. Newmar starred as "Rhoda the Robot" in the short-lived TV series My Living Doll (1964-1965). She is best known for her 13-episode recurring role on the 1960s TV series Batman]] as the "purrfect" villainess, Catwoman (portrayed in the related 1966 feature film by Lee Meriwether and in the series' final season by Eartha Kitt).
In 1962, the actress made two appearances as motorcycle-riding, free-spirited heiress Vicki Russell in the TV series Route 66, filming on location in Tucson, Arizona ("How Much a Pound is Albatross") and in Tennessee ("Give the Old Cat a Tender Mouse"). She also guest-starred on such iconic TV shows as The Twilight Zone (1959), F-Troop, The Beverly Hillbillies and Get Smart. In 1967, she guest starred as April Conquest in an episode of The Monkees and as a pregnant princess in the Star Trek episode "Friday's Child." She had guest roles in 1970s series such as of Columbo and The Bionic Woman
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Newmar appeared in several low-budget films. She also guest-starred on TV shows including The Love Boat, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Hart to Hart, CHiPs, and Fantasy Island. She was seen in George Michael's video clip Too Funky in 1992 as well as appearing as herself in a 1996 episode of Melrose Place.
The 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar pays homage to the actress; Newmar herself makes a cameo appearance near the film's end.
Entrepreneur
Newmar invented and marketed her own brand of pantyhose, "Nudemar," in the 1970s & 1980s. She holds three U.S. patents: 3,914,799 and 4,003,094 for "Pantyhose with shaping band for Cheeky derriere relief" and 3,935,865 for "Brassiere." After further education at UCLA in the early 1980s, Newmar began investing in Los Angeles real estate. As an article about the actress has noted, "Newmar is partly responsible for improving the Los Angeles neighborhood at La Brea Avenue and Beverly Boulevard."
On November 2 2004, Julie Newmar was sued by her next-door neighbor, actor James Belushi, for the sum of $4,000,000. Belushi claimed that she had been harassing him and actively trying to force him to move through such acts as destroying his property, blaring loud music directed at his home and bad-mouthing him to neighbors. Newmar countered that she was the victim of a boorish and arrogant Belushi. However, as of January 2006, the dispute was amicably settled. Newmar appeared on Belushi's sitcom According to Jim in an episode ("The Grumpy Guy") that poked fun at the feud.
Personal life
After a relationship with the novelist Louis L'Amour in the early 1950s, Newmar married J. Holt Smith (born 1942), a lawyer, on August 5, 1977. The marriage was dissolved in 1984. They had one child, John Jewl Smith, who is deaf and has Down Syndrome. According to a 2006 interview the actress gave journalist Jane Wollman Rusoff, Newmar, who was 46 at the time of her pregnancy, "opted against tests to determine whether the baby might be born with Down Syndrome or other disorders." The child was born five weeks premature and with two inoperable holes in his heart.
External links
- Julie Newmar at All Music Guide
- Julie Newmar at the Internet Broadway Database
- Review Review Julie Newmar on Internet Movie Database
- Julie Newmar fansite
- Julie Newmar website with latest news via Ron Smith
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