Julie Christie Turns 85! Celebrate the ‘Dr. Zhivago’ Star’s Birthday With 9 Fun Facts

IN SEARCH OF GREGORY, Julie Christie, 1969, JLC 003 O/S, — Everett Collection

Julie Christie, who was born on April 14, 1940, made an instant impression on anyone who saw her as Lara in the 1965 classic Doctor Zhivago. That blonde bob, those furs, that faraway, haunted look in her eye — she was an instant style icon. Who among us didn’t want to imitate her? Throughout her long and storied career in movies, the Academy Award-winning Christie has always maintained that same level of mystery, of individuality — and though she is mostly retired these days (she began moving away from Hollywood in the ’80s, and her most recent film role was as the narrator of the 2017 UK drama The Bookshop), she still stands as not just an icon of ’60s and ’70s glamour, but as an actress who fought to have success on her own terms.

As Christie turns 85 years old, let’s do our best to get to know her in all her unique, creative, beautiful glory.

1She was born on a tea plantation in India

Julie Christie was born at Singlijan Tea Estate in Chabua, Assam, India on Apr. 14, 1940 to parents Rosemary, a Welsh painter, and father Frank St. John-Christie, who ran the plantation. At the age of six, she was sent back to the UK to attend school; she went on to be educated in schools around in England and France, giving her that inimitable worldly air we all know and love.

2She dated Warren Beatty for years

HEAVEN CAN WAIT, Julie Christie, <a href=

Beatty was well known for being a playboy in the years before he married Annette Bening in 1992, but there was a long stretch when he and Julie Christie were an item. The two lived together between 1967 and 1974, and went on to collaborate on movies like Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978) long after they had ended their relationship. Beatty once described Christie as “the most beautiful and at the same time the most nervous person I had ever known.”

3 She was almost the first Bond girl

Terry Fincher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Christie was seriously considered for the first Bond movie Dr. No in 1962, but Ursula Andress was chosen instead. Supposedly, Andress was picked over Christie because producers worried that Christie was not physically voluptuous enough for the role.

4She was considered 1967’s most influential fashion icon by TIME

25th April 1966: Julie Christie, English actress.

Evening Standard/Getty Images

TIME was so impressed with Christie’s day-to-day fashion back in 1967 that they wrote about the actress at the time, “What Julie Christie wears has more real impact on fashion than all the clothes of the ten Best-Dressed women combined.”

5She speaks three languages.

As if she wasn’t already cool enough, Julie Christie is fluent in English, French, and Italian.

6She turned down the role of Lara several times

The actress might be best known for her role as Lara in Doctor Zhivago, but she really had to be convinced to take on the part. The role had already been passed on by Jane Fonda, and producers supposedly considered Sophia Loren but decided she was “too tall“; Christie then turned down the role not once or twice but several times, before eventually relenting. At the time, it was considered one of the most coveted roles in Hollywood.

7She is a dedicated animal rights activist and lives on a farm in Wales

Christie eschewed living in the spotlight many years ago, instead choosing to spend her time living on her farm in Wales and her home in Ojai, California. She is also a dedicated activist for animal rights, environmental protection, and many more impressive causes. She is also a vegetarian.

8Christie has been in five Oscar Best Picture nominees

18th April 1966: British actress Julie Christie holds the Academy Award she won for her role in the film '<a href=

The 85-year-old star has been in a total of five Oscar nominees for Best Picture: Doctor Zhivago and Darling, both in 1965, Nashville from 1975, Heaven Can Wait from 1978, and Finding Neverland from 2004. Christie won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Darling.

Despite all this success, Christie has eagerly carved out a life away from the spotlight. As she told the New York Times in 2007 of her 1960s Hollywood star self, “I have no connection with that person at all. That person has gone.”

9She’s been with her husband Duncan Campbell for almost 50 years

Christie first moved in with journalist Duncan Campbell back in 1979, and the two have been together ever since. They were quietly married in a private ceremony some time in the early 2000s, though in true Julie Christie form, she doesn’t like to share details.