She was a jazz singer and actress born Julie Peck in Santa Rosa, California to a family where her parents performed on vaudeville and they moved to San Bernadino, California when she was three years old. Her parent had a radio show and it was on there that she began her singing career.
When she was 14 years the family moved to Hollywood, California and she began to performed in Los Angeles at various nightclubs. At the same time she studied at the Hollywood Professional School and graduated from there in 1945.
She worked as an elevator operator while still at high school and it was on one of her shifts that she was spotted by the talent agent Sue Carol, who was married to the actor Alan Ladd. She had a screen test and ended up signing a contract. She also worked in a menswear store as a clerk and was spotted, this time by the photographer Henry Waxman who worked for Esquire magazine. His work assisted in her becoming a pin-up girl during WWII as he had taken various photos of her that were published in Esquire magazine in 1943. The following year, still at high school, she made her film debut in 1944’s Nabonga that starred Buster Crabbe.
After she had left school she appeared in many more films that included 1947’s The Red House, Task Force in 1949 and Return of the Frontiersman in 1950. By this time she had married the actor Jack Webb in 1947 and opted not to renew her contract with the studio so she could devote her time to their family, they had two daughters.
In 1954 she and Jack Webb got divorced and she went back to her acting career. She appeared in The Fighting Chance in 1955 but that same year she had been spotted by the record producer Simon Waronker who had heard her singing jazz in a Los Angeles club. She had been recommended to him by the pianist and actor Bobby Troup and was signed up to Liberty Records, later sometimes nicknamed “The Liberty Girl”. She went on to record 32 albums, with the first being Julie Is Her Name in 1955 which produced the Top 10 chart song “Cry Me a River” that she sang in the 1956 film The Girl Can’t Help It. It reached No.9 in the US and No. 22 in the UK and became a gold record. This and other recordings led to her being named the most popular female vocalist in 1955, 1956 and 1957 by Billboard.
Although she was now more known as a jazz singer, her acting career continued as well and she appeared in 1957’s Drango, 1958’s Man of the West and 1959’s The Wonderful Country. In 1959 she married the jazz composer, songwriter and musician Bobby Troup, going on to have a daughter and twin sons.
Into the next decade she released Julie….At Home and Around Midnight in 1960, with the latter performed with a larger backing band. That same year she also turned to television to act in episodes of series such as Rawhide and Laramie. The next year she released Whatever Julie Wants then Love Letters in 1962 and The End of the World in 1963. In 1964 she recorded an hour long show for Japanese television and in 1965 released All Through the Night. Also in 1965 she appeared in episodes of I Spy and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1969 she released her final album Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.
From the 1970s she continued her career as an actress and appeared in the TV series Emergency! as Nurse Dixie McCall with her ex-husband Jack Webb from 1972. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1974 and appeared in the series for all 128 episodes until it was cancelled in 1977 after 6 years and then in two of the TV movie specials. Although being offered a position as an executive producer she declined and retired to spend more time with her family.
Her final musical recording was singing a cover version of “My Funny Valentine” for the 1981 soundtrack of Sharky’s Machine.
Her husband, Bobby Troup, died in 1999 and that same year she was diagnosed with lung cancer, having been a chain smoker since she was a teenager and previously suffered a stroke in 1995. She did not pursue treatment and in October 2000 she died from a cardiac arrest, having been taken to the Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was 74 years old.
She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles and her recording of “Cry Me a River” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
Sources:
- https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/oct/20/guardianobituaries.filmnews1
- https://www.udiscovermusic.com/artist/julie-london/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_London
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0518728/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/julie-london-mn0000247966#biography
- https://www.metacritic.com/person/julie-london/?filter-options=tv
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8598012/julie-london
- https://www.triviatribute.com/julielondon.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_Me_a_River_(Arthur_Hamilton_song)
- https://www.npr.org/2013/01/30/170656489/the-mix-50-great-jazz-vocals
- https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/julie_london
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/julie-london-mn0000247966#credits
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/36863-Julie-London