My Fair Lady is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on the 1938 film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion, concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phonetician, so that she may pass as a lady. Despite his cynical nature and difficulty understanding women, Higgins grows attached to her.
Frederick Loewe was an American composer. He collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner on a series of Broadway musicals, including Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, and Camelot, all of which were made into films, as well as the original film musical Gigi (1958), which was first transferred to the stage in 1973.
Dame Julie Andrews is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over eight decades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for three Tony Awards. One of the biggest box office draws of the 1960s, Andrews has been honoured with the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2022. She was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.
Mary Margaret "Peggy" Cass was an American actress, comedian, game show panelist, and announcer.
Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Henry VIII in the Broadway play Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949. He returned to Broadway portraying Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1956) where he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Julie Newmar 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 Irma in Irma la Douce in 1965 in regional productions.
Margaret Leighton, CBE was an English actress, active on stage and television, and in film. Her film appearances included Anthony Asquith's The Winslow Boy, Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, Powell and Pressburger's The Elusive Pimpernel, George More O'Ferrall's The Holly and the Ivy, Martin Ritt's The Sound and the Fury, John Guillermin's Waltz of the Toreadors, Franklin J. Schaffner's The Best Man, Tony Richardson's The Loved One, John Ford's 7 Women, and Joseph Losey's The Go-Between and Galileo. For The Go-Between, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Cathleen Nesbitt was an English actress.
Rosemary Ann Harris is an English actress. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Laurence Olivier Awards. Harris was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1986, and she won the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 2017.
Cheryl Kennedy is an English actress and singer.
Mona Lee Washbourne was an English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film Stevie (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award.
My Fair Lady is a 1964 American musical comedy-drama film adapted from the 1956 Lerner and Loewe stage musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 stage play Pygmalion. With a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and directed by George Cukor, the film depicts a poor Cockney flower-seller named Eliza Doolittle who overhears a phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, as he casually wagers that he could teach her to speak English so well she could pass for a duchess in Edwardian London or better yet, from Eliza's viewpoint, secure employment in a flower shop.
William Henry Mettam "Robin" Bailey was an English actor. He was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.
"I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" is a song from the 1956 musical My Fair Lady, with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. It was originally performed by Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins who also performed it in the 1964 film version.
"Wouldn't It Be Loverly" is a popular song by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, written for the 1956 Broadway play My Fair Lady.
Brenda Forbes was a British-born American actress of stage and screen.
Eliza Doolittle is a fictional character and the protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (1913) and its 1956 musical adaptation, My Fair Lady.
The Broadway cast recording of the musical My Fair Lady was first released April 2, 1956 by Columbia Records, with songs by Lerner and Loewe, conducted by Franz Allers, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. Columbia president Goddard Lieberson provided the $375,000 needed to stage the show in return for the rights to the cast recording.
Terry Saunders was a film and Broadway performer. She is most widely known for playing Lady Thiang in the film and stage versions of The King And I, first as a replacement on Broadway, then in the film, performing the song "Something Wonderful" in both. Saunders had five other roles on Broadway and guest starred on an episode of Make Room For Daddy. She died in 2012.
Julie Andrews is an actress, singer, and theatrical director who has had a lifelong career on the screen and stage. She made her film debut voice-dubbing the role of Princess Zeila in the 1949 animated film La Rosa di Bagdad. Her professional stage debut was in the musical comedy The Boy Friend where she played Polly Brown from 1954 to 1955. For this role, she won the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut in 1955. Then from 1956 to 1959, Andrews played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady which earned her a Tony Award nomination, the first of three that she received during her career. After this success, she played the title role in the 1957 television special Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. For this appearance, she received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Actress – Best Single Performance – Lead or Support. She received her second Tony nomination in 1961 when she originated the role of Queen Guinevere in Camelot. After this, she auditioned for the role of Eliza Doolittle in the 1964 film adaptation of My Fair Lady, losing the role to Audrey Hepburn. Instead, Andrews was cast as the title role in the 1964 musical film Mary Poppins. For this role, she received an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy Award. Her next big success was portraying Maria Von Trapp in the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music. For her portrayal, she received a second Golden Globe, another Academy Award nomination and another BAFTA nomination.
