Matinee Classics - Julie Newmar Biography & Filmography

Julie Newmar ACTOR

PHOTOS

JULIE NEWMAR BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Julie Newmar was born on August 16th, 1933 in Los Angeles, California with the birth name Julia Chatlene Newmeyer. Her mother, Helen was a star of the Follies during the 1920's and her father, Don played professional football with the LA Buccaneers.

As a young girl, she began taking piano and dance lessons, mainly focusing on classical ballet. After graduating early from John Marshall High School, she first toured Europe wit her family dancing before settling back in Los Angeles and performing with the LA Opera.

Along with working as a dancer, she also attended UCLA to study piano, philosophy and French. Newmar then decided to travel to New York and see if she could work on a number of stage productions. It did not take long before she was appearing on Broadway in such productions as, "Silk Stockings", "Li'l Abner" and "The Marriage Go-Round".

Julie made the transition to working as a television actress with ease appearing on such shows as, "Twilight Zone" (1959), "My Living Doll" (1964), "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1966) and she portrayed Catwoman in, "Batman" (1966-1967).

Along with her television work she continued working as a stage actress appearing in such plays as, "Damn Yankees" and "Dames Sea". She remained making guest appearances throughout her career on such series as, "Fantasy Island", "Get Smart", "Bewitched", "Columbo", "Route 66", "Love, American Style", "The Love Boat", "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "CHiPs".

In addition to television roles she appeared in a number of films over the course of her career in the industry such as, "The Band Wagon" (1953) starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Ava Gardner and Oscar Lavant, "Demetrius and the Gladiators" (1954) starring Victor Mature, Susan Hayward, Ernest Borgnine, Anne Bancroft, Debra Paget, Richard Egan, Jeff York, Michael Rennie and in clips from "The Robe", Woody Strode, Cameron Mitchell, Richard Burton and Jean Simmons, "The Rookie" (1959) starring with Tommy Noonan, Peter Marshall and Joe Besser, "For Love or Money" (1963) starring alongside Kirk Douglas, Mitzi Gaynor, Thelma Ritter, Gig Young, William Bendix, Leslie Parrish, Dick Sargent and William Windom, "Mackenna's Gold" (1969) starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Eli Wallach, Telly Savalas, Ted Cassidy, Burgess Meredith, Raymond Massey, Lee J. Cobb, Edward G. Robinson, Keenan Wynn and Camilla Sparv, "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!" (1995) starring Patrick Swayze, Stockard Channing, John Leguizamo and Wesley Snipes, "If..Dog..Rabbit" (1999) starring Matthew Modine and David Keith and "Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt" (2003) starring Adam West and Burt Ward as themselves and Frank Gorshin and Lee Meriwether.

Along with an acting career she was also a very intelligent lady and developed an invention called, "Nudemar" which was a type of pantyhose that provided fanny support. She also began working in real estate.

Newmar married only one time to J. Holt Smith in 1977 and they had one son, John who was born with down syndrome as well as being deaf. The marriage ended in divorce in 1983.

In 2008 she was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease which is a disease having to do with nerves normally an inherited neurological disorder that currently has no cure.