Julie Walters, CBE (born 22 February 1950) is an English actress and novelist.
Early life
Walters was born as Julia Mary Walters in Smethwick, Birmingham, the daughter of Mary Bridget (née O'Brien), a postal clerk of Irish Catholic extraction, and Thomas Walters, a builder and decorator.[1][2][3] The youngest of three children and only girl,[4] Walters had an early education at a convent school[5] and later at Holly Lodge Grammar School for Girls on Holly Lane in Smethwick, although she was asked to leave at the end of her lower sixth due to her "high jinks". In an interview with Alison Oddey, Walters said about her early schooling: "I was never going to be academic, so [my mother] suggested that I try teaching or nursing [...] I'd been asked to leave school, so I thought I'd better do it."[6] Her first job was in insurance at the age of 15.[7] At 18 she trained as a nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham and worked on the Ophthalmic, Casualty and Coronary Care wards during the 18 months she spent there.[8] She fell madly in love with her first proper boyfriend who then left to study sociology in Manchester. Walters decided to leave nursing and follow her boyfriend to Manchester and study English and Drama at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) and pursued a career in the performing arts. Walters worked for the Everyman Theatre Company in Liverpool in the mid 1970s, alongside several other notable performers: Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, Jonathan Pryce, Willy Russell and Alan Bleasdale.
Early life
Walters was born as Julia Mary Walters in Smethwick, Birmingham, the daughter of Mary Bridget (née O'Brien), a postal clerk of Irish Catholic extraction, and Thomas Walters, a builder and decorator.[1][2][3] The youngest of three children and only girl,[4] Walters had an early education at a convent school[5] and later at Holly Lodge Grammar School for Girls on Holly Lane in Smethwick, although she was asked to leave at the end of her lower sixth due to her "high jinks". In an interview with Alison Oddey, Walters said about her early schooling: "I was never going to be academic, so [my mother] suggested that I try teaching or nursing [...] I'd been asked to leave school, so I thought I'd better do it."[6] Her first job was in insurance at the age of 15.[7] At 18 she trained as a nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham and worked on the Ophthalmic, Casualty and Coronary Care wards during the 18 months she spent there.[8] She fell madly in love with her first proper boyfriend who then left to study sociology in Manchester. Walters decided to leave nursing and follow her boyfriend to Manchester and study English and Drama at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) and pursued a career in the performing arts. Walters worked for the Everyman Theatre Company in Liverpool in the mid 1970s, alongside several other notable performers: Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, Jonathan Pryce, Willy Russell and Alan Bleasdale.
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