Julia Foster

[Rowdon]

Julia Foster was also working a lot at the same time, and I often associate them - it can't only be because of 'My Axelford's Angel', which IMDB claims is the only time they've been seen together ... Am I wrong in thinking they worked together in other plays?

Julia Foster also seems to have cut way back on appearances these last years.

[stuart.scot]

Julia did appear in one of the first Esure ads with Micheal Winner. I thought her brilliant when she had a change of image, cutting her long blonde hair short, and starred as John Stride's wife in the detective series that was a protatype for the big American hit Hart To Hart. It's just a pity TWA isn't as well remebered as HTH, because IMO it deserves to.



I did wonder if she sang her own vocals in Half A Sisxpence, or was she dubbed

[cornershop15]

Julia was very well-known when I was a child/teenager, as a TV personality as much as an actress. Her series Wilde Alliance, which I really liked at the time, has just been released on DVD and I can't wait to see it again. I remember she was in a drama a few years later called Late Starter (1985), with Peter Barkworth, who was also a household name when I was growing up in the 1970s. This has always stuck in the mind because I didn't see either of them for years afterwards, so I always realised their careers were slowing down at this point.



After Late Starter the only time I saw Peter was as a guest in Heartbeat, while it took a bit of time for me to realise that Julia was the woman in the original "Calm down, dear" advert with Michael Winner. She's the one who said "You've just bumped into my brand new car". It's her son, Ben Fogle, who's the more familiar face to TV audiences these days. I like him but do miss seeing his mother as often as I did thirty years ago.

[didi-5]

Julia Foster was great in The System and Half a Sixpence. These days she is more known as Ben Fogle's mother (that ghastly trailer for Celebrity Parents SOS says it all).

[CaptainWaggett]

Julia Foster was great in The System and Half a Sixpence. These days she is more known as Ben Fogle's mother (that ghastly trailer for Celebrity Parents SOS says it all).

I suspect she's probably best known for appearing in Michael Winner's insurance ads

[GRAEME]

Julia did appear in one of the first Esure ads with Micheal Winner. I thought her brilliant when she had a change of image, cutting her long blonde hair short, and starred as John Stride's wife in the detective series that was a protatype for the big American hit Hart To Hart. It's just a pity TWA isn't as well remebered as HTH, because IMO it deserves to.

I doubt that Hart To Hart owed much to TWA - rather that both owe more than a little to The Thin Man!

[didi-5]

Was it Julia who was the pregnant missy in The Bargee as well?

[smudge]

Was it Julia who was the pregnant missy in The Bargee as well?

T'were indeed....

Smudge

[cully]

I suspect she's probably best known for appearing in Michael Winner's insurance ads

Captain, wash your mouth out with soap and water! Julia Foster was a major star in the 1960s and we all loved her!

[RogerThornhill]

She was excellent as Gilda in Alfie.

[billy farmer]

The front cover of the December 21st - 27th 1968 issue of TV Times featuring Julia Foster with her daughter Emily Jane.

[Windyridge]

Bit of trivia, her second daughter is Tamara Deborah, after Deborah Kerr.

[wearysloth]

TO confront an actress and say: "My you are a very
ordinary- looking little girl" is to invite a
bludgeoning—-unless you confine your remark to
Miss Julia Foster.. Funny-Face Foster simply wallows in
compliments of that sort. -"Ooooh. You are a dear,"
she coos, patting her blonde hairpiece.

She's not so daft. Playing ordinary girls has made her one of
the busiest actresses in Britain. A case, you might say, of feet on the
ground—and hand in the till.


And I think she is about to have a major triumph. For in the
film " Half A Sixpence," the musical version of H. G. Wells's " Kipps,"
Julia is the parlourmaid sweetheart to Tommy Steele's Kipps, the
draper's assistant who inherits a fortune.

Together they will make
film history. I have just seen
a rough-cut version of the
film and can report that
Britain has produced its
first-ever smash-hit musical.

Julia's reaction : " Ooooh.
I'm so relieved to hear that.
For nine months I've lived
too close to the picture to
judge."


Furious


IT'S a wonder she's in the
picture at all. She turned
down sweetheart-roles
opposite Cliff Richard and
Frank Ifield. And when
Paramount Pictures came to
her with "Half A Sixpence"

she told them : " You're all
barmy.. I can't sing and I'm
not built like a dancer"
(she's 5ft..2in.).

Unperturbed, they sent two
songs to her agent "to see
how badly Miss Foster sings."
A week later she faced "all
the bigwigs at the St.
John's Wood home of David
Heneker, the ex-lieutenant colonel
who wrote the score.

Julia recalled: "I was
furious with myself.
Normally, I'm extremely
self-possessed behind this
baby face. But for once I
was so nervous I shouted
the lyrics instead of singing
them.

" All ^they said was:
'O.K., you've got the part..
But you'll have to dye your
ha}r brunette.' Tommy has
it in his contract that his
leading lady shall not be
-blonde. Because he's fair
himself, I suppose."

Julia has also seen the
rough-cut; film : " I was
surprised to find that at
least half the singing voice
is mine. They've dubbed in
a professional singer- only
for the notes I couldn't
reach."

But she couldn't fake the
exuberant dance sequences.
Gillian Lynne, the choreographer,
took a grip on her.
" Now there's a tough lady.
The dancing was murder—
and the din".


Settled

JULIA. at 24, has 'been
acting for nine years,
playing everything in rep.
from an eight-year-old boy
in a red wig to an 80-year-
old nurse.
Now she's settled down as
everybody's put-upon bird
in bedsitter land. She was a
pregnant, doleful creature
to Michael Caine's "Alfle,"
and has partnered Harry
"Steptoe" Corbett in
several ventures, including
one where she did a strip.

Down in Brighton, where
daddy is an estate agent, she
had to explain to her shocked
grandmother that ordinary
girls will continue to be led
astray as long as kitchen
sink playwrights prosper.

Julia hopes this will be for
a few years yet.
Her ambition is to end up
as a proletarian Edith Evans
at 80, while generations of
glamour girls have fleetingly
dazzled and disappeared.
Her pop singer husband
Lionel Morton, 27, is unmoved
at the prospect. He said :
" When she's not working she
leaves the professional actress
outside and becomes a housewife.
We don't go in for all
that backstage stuff—calling
e v e r y b o d y duckie and
darling. They only do it
because they can't remember
your name."

A Shrug


THEY have an easygoing
relationship, very
1967-ish. She earns big
money for semi-singing. He
has not sung for six months
because his ballad style is
out of fashion.
He tried opening a men's
boutique in Blackburn, his
home-town, but the squeeze
clobbered trade. He shrugs,
and says : " Well, the Queen
earns more than Prince
Philip and they aren't
upset. . . . ".

The top room in their
Chelsea home is hung with
owl-and-pussycat wallpaper
to greet their baby, due next
month.

The birth is expected in
the same week as the
" S i x p e n c e " world
premiere. Julia said : " I ' ni
having a tent dress made
and I'm going even if they
have to roll me along the
red carpet."

An extraordinary
girl, the o r d i n a ry
Miss Foster.

~Victor Davis
Daily Express
November 23rd, 1967

[billy farmer]

A TV Times article about Julia Foster and her daughter Emily Jane, from the December 21st - 27th 1968 issue of TV Times (same issue of TV Times as my previous post on this Thread).