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Julie Newmar
Julie Newmar
	Newmar in 1965
Born	Julia Chalene Newmeyer; August 16, 1933 (age 91); Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupations	Actress; dancer; singer; businesswoman; writer;
Years active	1952–present
Known for	Catwoman in Batman; The Marriage-Go-Round (play, film adaptation)
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Spouse	J. Holt Smith (m. 1977; div. 1984)
Children	1
Awards	Inkpot Award (2014)
Website	www.julienewmar.com

Julie Newmar (born Julia Chalene Newmeyer; August 16, 1933) is an American actress, dancer, and singer known for a variety of stage, screen, and television roles. She is also a writer, lingerie designer, and real estate mogul. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Katrin Sveg in the 1958 Broadway production of The Marriage-Go-Round, and reprised the role in the 1961 film version. In the 1960s she starred for two seasons as Catwoman in the television series Batman (1966–1967). Her other stage credits include Ziegfeld Follies in 1956, Lola in Damn Yankees! in 1961 and, in 1965, as Irma in regional productions of Irma la Douce.

Newmar appeared in the music video for George Michael's 1992 single "Too Funky" and had a cameo as herself in the 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Her voice work includes the animated feature films Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016) and Batman vs. Two-Face (2017), for which she reprised her role as Catwoman, fifty years after the original television series.

Early life

Newmar was born in Los Angeles, California, on August 16, 1933,^[3]^[4] as the eldest of three children born to Don and Helene (née Jesmer) Newmeyer. Her father was head of the physical education department at Los Angeles City College, and had played American football professionally in the 1920s with the 1926 Los Angeles Buccaneers of the National Football League. Her Swedish-French mother was a fashion designer – who used Chalene as her professional name – and later became a real-estate investor.^[5]

Newmar has two younger brothers: Peter Bruce Newmeyer, who was killed in a skiing accident, and John A. Newmeyer, who became a writer, epidemiologist and winemaker.^[6]^[7] She began dancing at an early age, and performed as a prima ballerina with the Los Angeles Opera when she was 15.^[8]

Career

Early work and stage career

George Maharis with guest star Newmar in *Route 66* (1962)

Newmar appeared in bit parts and uncredited roles in films as a dancer, including a part as the "dancer-assassin" in Slaves of Babylon (1953) and the "gilded girl" in Serpent of the Nile (1953), in which she was clad in gold paint. She danced in several other films, including The Band Wagon (also 1953) and Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954). She also worked as a choreographer and dancer for Universal Studios beginning at the age of 19.^[9]^[10] Her first major role, billed as Julie Newmeyer, was as Dorcas, one of the brides in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (also 1954). She was also the female lead in a low-budget comedy, The Rookie (also 1959).^[11]

Newmar made her Broadway debut in 1955 as Vera in Silk Stockings, starring Hildegarde Neff and Don Ameche.^[12] In the following year she created the role of Stupefyin' Jones (a three-minute cameo) in the Broadway production of Li'l Abner. She stayed with the production for its entire run from November 1956 through July 1958,^[13] and also appeared in the film version, released in 1959. A few months later, The Marriage-Go-Round opened on Broadway, with Newmar in the role of Swedish vixen Katrin Sveg, for which Newmar won the 1959 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.^[14] She later re-created this role for the 1961 film adaptation, starring James Mason and Susan Hayward. In 1961, she appeared in the Sam Spewack play Once There Was a Russian, which lasted only one performance.^[15] She later starred opposite Joel Grey in the national tour of Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, staying with the tour from March to October 1963.^[16] In 1973, Newmar was slated to return to Broadway in the David Rabe play Boom Boom Room, opening on November 8, 1973, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. Director Julie Bovasso fired Newmar during rehearsals, and she was replaced by her understudy, Mary Woronov.^[17] Bovasso was then replaced as director during previews.^[18]

Television work

Newmar's fame stems mainly from her television appearances. Her statuesque form and height made her a larger-than-life sex symbol, most often cast as a temptress or Amazonian beauty, including an early appearance in a sexy maid costume in The Phil Silvers Show. She starred as Rhoda the Robot in the television series My Living Doll (1964–1965), and is known for her recurring role in the 1960s television series Batman as the villainess Catwoman. (Lee Meriwether played Catwoman in the 1966 feature film, and Eartha Kitt portrayed Catwoman in the series' final season.) Newmar modified her Catwoman costume—now in the Smithsonian Institution—and placed the belt at the hips instead of the waist to emphasize her hourglass figure.^[19]

In 1962, Newmar appeared twice as the motorcycle-riding, free-spirited heiress Vicki Russell in Route 66, filmed in Tucson ("How Much a Pound Is Albatross") and in Tennessee ("Give the Old Cat a Tender Mouse"). She guest-starred in The Twilight Zone as the devil in "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville", F Troop ("Yellow Bird" in 1966) as a girl kidnapped as a child and raised by Native Americans, Bewitched ("The Eight-Year Itch Witch" in 1971) as a cat named Ophelia given human form, The Beverly Hillbillies as a Swedish actress who stays with the Clampetts to learn their accents and mannerisms for a role, and Get Smart as a double agent, posing as a maid, assigned to Maxwell Smart's apartment. In 1967, she guest-starred as April Conquest in an episode of The Monkees ("Monkees Get Out More Dirt", season 1, episode 29), in which the main characters all fall in love with her, and played the pregnant Capellan princess, Eleen, in the Star Trek episode "Friday's Child". In 1969, she played a hit woman in the It Takes a Thief episode "The Funeral is on Mundy" with Robert Wagner. In 1983, she reprised the hit-woman role in Hart to Hart, Wagner's later television series, in the episode "A Change of Hart". In the 1970s she had guest roles in Columbo and The Bionic Woman.

Later roles

Newmar appeared in several low-budget films during the next two decades. She guest-starred on TV, appearing in The Love Boat, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, CHiPs, and Fantasy Island. She was seen in the music video for George Michael's "Too Funky" in 1992, and appeared as herself in a 1996 episode of Melrose Place.

In 2003, Newmar appeared as herself in the television movie Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt alongside former Batman co-stars Adam West, Burt Ward, Frank Gorshin, and Lee Meriwether.^[20] Julia Rose played Newmar in flashbacks to the production of the television series.^[21] However, due to longstanding rights issues over footage from the Batman TV series, only footage of Meriwether taken from the feature film was allowed to be used in the television movie.^[22] In 2016, she provided the voice of Catwoman in the animated film Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders. In 2017, she reprised her role in the animated sequel Batman vs. Two-Face. Newmar also appeared on The Home and Family Show in May 2016, where she met Gotham actress Camren Bicondova who portrays a younger Selina Kyle.^[23]

In 2019, Newmar played the role of Dr. Julia Hoffman (replacing the late Grayson Hall) in the audio drama miniseries Dark Shadows: Bloodline.^[24]

Inventor and entrepreneur

In the 1970s, Newmar received two U.S. patents for pantyhose^[25] and one for a brassiere.^[26] The pantyhose were described as having "cheeky derriere relief" and promoted under the name "Nudemar". The brassiere was described as "nearly invisible" and in the style of Marilyn Monroe.^[27]

Newmar began investing in Los Angeles real estate in the 1980s. A women's magazine stated, "Newmar is partly responsible for improving the Los Angeles neighborhoods on La Brea Avenue and Fairfax Avenue near the Grove."^[28]

Personal life

After a broken engagement to novelist Louis L'Amour^[5] and romances with comedian Mort Sahl^[29] and actor Ken Scott,^[30] Newmar married J. Holt Smith, a lawyer, on August 5, 1977, and moved with him to Fort Worth, Texas, where she lived until their divorce in 1984.^[1] She has one child, John Jewl Smith (born February 25, 1981), who has a hearing impairment and Down syndrome.^[31]

Newmar has Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, an inherited neurological condition that affects one in 2,500 Americans.^[32]

A legal battle with her neighbor, actor Jim Belushi, ended amicably with an invitation to guest-star in his sitcom According to Jim in an episode ("The Grumpy Guy") that poked fun at the feud.^[33]

An avid gardener, Newmar initiated at least a temporary ban on leaf blowers with the Los Angeles City Council.^[34]

Newmar has been a vocal supporter of LGBT rights; her brother, John Newmeyer, is gay.^[8] In 2013, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing organization in Los Angeles.^[8]

Newmar is a classically trained pianist.^{[citation needed]}

In popular culture

In 2012, Bluewater Comics released a four-issue comic miniseries titled The Secret Lives of Julie Newmar.^[35]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	She's Working Her Way Through College	Julie	Uncredited
1952	Just for You	Chorine	Uncredited
1953	The I Don't Care Girl	Beale Street Blues Dancer	Uncredited
1953	Call Me Madam	Ocarna Dancer	Uncredited
1953	Serpent of the Nile	Gilded Girl
1953	The Farmer Takes a Wife	Dancer	Uncredited
1953	Gentlemen Prefer Blondes	Chorus Girl	Uncredited
1953	The Band Wagon	Salon Model / Chorine in Girl Hunt Ballet	Uncredited
1953	Slaves of Babylon	Dancer-Assassin
1953	The Eddie Cantor Story	Showgirl	Uncredited
1954	Demetrius and the Gladiators	Primary Specialty Dancer	Uncredited
1954	Seven Brides for Seven Brothers	Dorcas Gaylen
1954	Deep in My Heart	Vamp	Uncredited
1959	Li'l Abner	"Stupefyin'" Jones
1959	The Rookie	Lili Marlene
1961	The Marriage-Go-Round	Katrin Sveg	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer
1963	For Love or Money	Bonnie Brasher
1969	Mackenna's Gold	Hesh-Ke
1969	The Maltese Bippy	Carlotta Ravenswood
1970	Seduction of a Nerd	Mother Ferns	Also known as Up Your Teddy Bear
1971	The Feminist and the Fuzz	Lilah McGuinness	Television film
1972	A Very Missing Person	Aleatha Westering	Television film
1974	Fools, Females and Fun	Carla Dean	Television film
1977	Terraces	Chalane Turner	Television film
1983	Hysterical	Venetia
1984	Love Scenes	Belinda
1985	Streetwalkin'	"Queen Bee"
1985	Evils of the Night	Dr. Zarma
1988	Deep Space	Lady Elaine Wentworth
1988	Body Beat	Miss McKenzie	Also known as Dance Academy
1989	Ghosts Can't Do It	Angel	Nominated – Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress
1990	Nudity Required	Irina
1994	Oblivion	Miss Kitty
1995	To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar	Herself
1996	Oblivion 2: Backlash	Miss Kitty / Ariel Gwen Shana
1999	If... Dog... Rabbit...	Judy's Mother
2003	Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt	Herself / Arizona Bar Owner	Television film
2010	Beautiful Darling	Herself	Documentary
2012	Bettie Page Reveals All	Herself	Documentary
2012	The Mechanical Bride	Herself, The Narrator	Documentary
2013	Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age	Herself	Documentary
2016	Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders	Catwoman (voice)
2017	Batman vs. Two-Face	Catwoman (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1957	The Phil Silvers Show	Suzie	Episode: "The Big Scandal"
1959	Omnibus		Episode: "Malice in Wonderland"
1960	Adventures in Paradise	Venus	Episode: "Open for Diving"
1961	The Defenders	Brandy Gideon Morfoot	Episode: "Gideon's Follies"
1962	Route 66	Vicki Russell	2 episodes
1963	The Twilight Zone	Miss Devlin	Episode: "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville"
1963	The Danny Kaye Show	Herself	Episode: "1.12"
1964	The Greatest Show on Earth	Willa Harper	Episode: "Of Blood, Sawdust, and a Bucket of Tears"
1964–1965	My Living Doll	Rhoda Miller	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star – Female
1965	Vacation Playhouse	Kris Meeker	Episode: "Three on an Island"
1966–1967	Batman	Catwoman / Minerva Matthews / Miss Klutz	13 episodes
1966	The Beverly Hillbillies	Ulla Bergstrom	Episode: "The Beautiful Maid"
1966	F Troop	Cinthia Jeffries / Yellow Bird	Episode: "Yellow Bird"
1967	The Monkees	April Conquest	S1:E29, "Monkees Get Out More Dirt"
1967	Star Trek: The Original Series	Eleen	Episode: "Friday's Child"
1968	Get Smart	Ingrid	Episode: "The Laser Blazer"
1969	It Takes a Thief	Susannah Sutton	Episode: "The Funeral Is on Mundy"
1970	McCloud	Adrienne Redman	Episode: "Portrait of a Dead Girl"
1970–1972	Love, American Style	Various Roles	4 episodes
1971	NBC Children's Theatre	Herself	Episode: "Super Plastic Elastic Goggles"
1971	Bewitched	Ophelia	Episode: "The Eight Year Itch Witch"
1973	Columbo	Lisa Chambers	Episode: "Double Shock"
1975	The Wide World of Mystery		Episode: "The Black Box Murders"
1975	McMillan & Wife	Luciana Amaldi	Episode: "Aftershock"
1976	The Bionic Woman	Claudette	Episode: "Black Magic"
1976	Monster Squad	Ultra Witch	Episode: "Ultra Witch"
1978	Jason of Star Command	Queen Vanessa	2 episodes
1979	The Love Boat	Marla Samms	Episode: "The Reunion/Haven't I Seen You?/Crew Confessions"
1980	Buck Rogers in the 25th Century	Zarina	2 episodes
1982	The Powers of Matthew Star	Nian	Episode: "The Triangle"
1982	CHiPs	Cora Dwayne	Episode: "This Year's Riot"
1983	Fantasy Island	Doralee	Episode: "King of Burlesque/Death Games"
1983	Hart to Hart	Eve	Episode: "A Change of Heart"
1984	High School U.S.	Stripper	TV pilot
1985	Half Nelson	Herself	Episode: "The Deadly Vase"
1995	Hope & Gloria	Herself	Episode: "Whose Poppa?
1996	Melrose Place	Herself	Episode: "Triumph of the Bill"
1998	Maggie	Catwoman	Episode: "If You Could See What I Hear"
2006	According to Jim	Julie	Episode: "The Grumpy Guy"
2010	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Martha Wayne (voice)	Episode: "Chill of the Night!"