Julie Newmar

Infobox actor
birthname = Julie Chalene Newmeyer
name = Julie Newmar


imagesize =
caption = Julie Newmar at the 2007 Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Ribbon of Hope Celebration
birthdate = birth date and age|1933|8|16
birthplace = Los Angeles, California
birthname = Julie Chalene Newmeyer
occupation = Actor, singer, dancer
spouse = J. Holt Smith (1977-1983)
tonyawards = Best Featured Actress in a Play

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

tage and film

Her first major role, for which she was 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

).

In 1962, Newmar appearaned twice 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 iconic TV shows "The Twilight Zone", "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 "" episode "Friday's Child". She had guest roles in 1970s series "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. [http://www.womenswallstreet.com/topics/topic.aspx?aid=918&p=2 Holy Catsuit! To the Original Catwoman, Her Son is the Cat’s Meow (Cont'd)] ]

Filmography

References

External links

*amg name|id=2:52439|name=Julie Newmar
*ibdb name|id=54483|name=Julie Newmar
*imdb name|id=0628325|name=Julie Newmar
*tvtome person|6556
* [http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/8035/index.html Julie Newmar fansite]
* [http://www.julienewmar.com Official Newmar website with latest news via Ron Smith]
* [http://archive.dailycents.com/topics/topic.aspx?aid=918&p=1]