Julie Newmar

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Julie Newmar

Julie Newmar
Birth name Julie Chalene Newmeyer
Born August 16, 1933 (age 73)
Flag of United States Los Angeles, United States
Notable roles Catwoman in Batman

Julie Newmar, born Julie Chalene Newmeyer on August 16, 1933 in Los Angeles, United States, is an American actress, dancer and singer.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Julie Newmar was born 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 and real estate investor. Her first appearances, before she changed her name, were as the "dancer-assassin" in Slaves of Babylon (1953) and as "the gilded girl" in Serpent of the Nile (1953) in which she was clad only in gold paint. She also danced in several other 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.

Her first major role, billed as "Julie Newmeyer", was as one of the brides in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Her show-stopping 90-second Broadway appearance as "Stupefyin' Jones" in 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. Newmar re-developed the stock character role of the sexy Swedish vixen and won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Newmar starred as the sexy 'Rhoda the Robot' in the short-lived cult TV series My Living Doll. She is best known for her 13-episode recurring role on the 1960s TV series Batman as the villainous Catwoman (portrayed in the related 1966 feature film by Lee Meriwether and in the series' final season by Eartha Kitt). In 1967, she guest starred as April Conquest in an episode of The Monkees and as a pregnant princess named Eleen in the Star Trek episode "Friday's Child." She appeared on stage with the late Anthony Newley in a national tour of Stop the World - I Want to Get Off, and as "Lola" in Damn Yankees!. She also guest-starred on such iconic 60s TV shows as The Twilight Zone, F-Troop, The Beverly Hillbillies and Get Smart.

Julie Newmar as Catwoman in Batman
Julie Newmar as Catwoman in Batman

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Newmar appeared in several low-budget films. She guest-starred on TV shows including The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, CHiPs, Fantasy Island, and Melrose Place. She also appeared in George Michael's videoclip Too Funky in 1992.

[edit] Marriage

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.[1].

[edit] Trivia

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  • On November 2, 2004, Julie Newmar was sued by next-door neighbor and TV comedian, 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.

Julie Newmar countered that she was the victim of a boorish and arrogant James Belushi.

However, as of January 2006, the dispute was settled, and she later appeared on an episode of James Belushi's sitcom, According to Jim in an episode ("The Grumpy Guy") that poked fun at the feud.

[edit] Quotation

  • "Tell me I'm beautiful, it's nothing. Tell me I'm intellectual, I know it. Tell me I'm funny and it's the greatest compliment in the world anyone could give me." — Julie Newmar, New York Times interview.

[edit] Pantyhose Inventor and Real Estate Investor

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."[2]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television Work

[edit] External links

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