Julie Kavner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Julie Kavner
Kavner in 1974
Born	Julie Deborah Kavner (1950-09-07) September 7, 1950 (age 74) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	San Diego State University (BA)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1973–present
Known for	Marge Simpson of The Simpsons
Partner(s)	David Davis (1976–2022)

Julie Deborah Kavner (born September 7, 1950) is an American actress. She is super famous for being the voice of Marge Simpson on the cartoon show The Simpsons. But before that, she was known for playing Brenda Morgenstern, the younger sister in the TV show Rhoda. She even won an Primetime Emmy Award for her role in Rhoda!

Julie Kavner also voices other characters on The Simpsons. She does the voices for Marge's mom, Jacqueline Bouvier, and Marge's sisters, Patty and Selma Bouvier. People often describe her voice as a special "honeyed gravel voice."

She started her acting career in 1974 on Rhoda. Later, in 1987, Julie joined The Tracey Ullman Show. This show had short cartoons about a funny family, and the producers asked Julie to be the voice of Marge. These short cartoons became the super popular show The Simpsons!

Julie is known for being very private. She even has a rule in her contract that she doesn't have to promote The Simpsons on video. For her amazing work as Marge, she won another Primetime Emmy Award in 1992. She was also nominated for an Annie Award for her voice work in The Simpsons Movie (2007).

Early life

Julie Kavner was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 7, 1950. She was the second daughter of Rose, who was a family counselor, and David Kavner, who made furniture. Julie grew up in Southern California.

She always knew she wanted to be an actress. She said, "There was nothing else I wanted to do, ever." She went to Beverly Hills High School, but she didn't really like it. She tried out for plays but didn't get many parts. Her art teacher, John Ingle, later said that Julie was great at making things up on the spot (improvisation).

After high school, Julie went to San Diego State University. She studied drama and acted in several plays. She became known for her ability to do both funny and serious roles. After college in 1971, she worked as a typist at a university.

Career highlights

Starting out in TV

In 1973, Julie tried out for a role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She didn't get that part, but a year later, the character Rhoda got her own show called Rhoda. Julie was then cast as Brenda Morgenstern, Rhoda's sister. This was her first professional acting job!

Rhoda was on TV from 1974 to 1978. Julie was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards for playing Brenda, and she won one in 1978. She also got four Golden Globe Award nominations.

After Rhoda, Julie appeared in other TV shows and movies. She also acted in several plays. The famous director Woody Allen saw her on Rhoda and thought she was amazing. He later offered her a role in his 1986 movie Hannah and Her Sisters. Julie says this movie helped her career a lot.

Julie then joined The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. She played many different characters on this show. She loved it because it allowed her to try out many different kinds of roles. She said she didn't just copy people, but she really tried to understand her characters. She earned four more Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her work on this show.

The world of The Simpsons

Kavner in 2009

Julie Kavner became super famous for being the voice of Marge Simpson on The Simpsons. This show is still going strong today! The Tracey Ullman Show had short cartoons about the funny Simpson family. The creators needed voices for these cartoons. They asked Julie and another actor, Dan Castellaneta, to voice Marge and Homer.

Julie's voice is very unique. She says it's because she has "a bump on [her] vocal cords." Even though Marge is her most famous character, Julie's favorite characters to voice are Marge's sisters, Patty and Selma Bouvier. She thinks they are "really funny and sad at the same time." The show's creator, Matt Groening, told Julie to make them sound like they "suck the life out of everything." Patty and Selma both have raspy voices, but Patty's is a bit deeper. Julie also voices other female members of the Bouvier family, like Marge's mom, Jacqueline.

Julie is a big fan of The Simpsons and the characters she voices. But she is very private. Her contract says she doesn't have to promote The Simpsons on video. She also doesn't do Marge's voice in public. She believes that publicity "destroys the illusion" and that "People feel these are real people."

Nancy Cartwright, who voices Bart Simpson, wrote in her book that Julie is a warm person. She said Julie is a hard worker who is always professional and rarely late for recording sessions. Julie doesn't do many interviews about her work on the show. She once explained on a TV show that doing Marge's voice in a live setting would break the magic of the character.

In 1992, Julie won another Primetime Emmy Award for her voice work as Marge in the episode "I Married Marge". In 2004, Julie and Dan Castellaneta won a Young Artist Award for being the Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series. She was also nominated for an award for her performance in The Simpsons Movie in 2007. Critics praised her emotional performance in the movie. Some scenes, like Marge's video message to Homer, were recorded over 100 times!

Other acting roles

Many of Julie's roles have been described as playing a "woman who is supportive, sympathetic, or self-effacingly funny." But Julie started to dislike playing these kinds of roles. She said, "If it smacks of Brenda Morgenstern, I won't take the job."

In 1990, she had a supporting role in the movie Awakenings. She played a nurse who becomes friends with Robin Williams' character. In 1992, Julie starred in This Is My Life. This was her first main role in a movie. She played Dottie Ingels, a comedian who starts to neglect her family as her career takes off. Julie said she liked the role because Dottie was "really selfish."

Julie has often appeared in movies by Woody Allen. She was in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), and Deconstructing Harry (1997), among others. Woody Allen said she is "a naturally funny person." Julie loves working with him, saying she always wants to do anything he makes.

She has also done voice-over work in movies like The Lion King 1½ (2004) and Dr. Dolittle (1998). She also worked with Tracey Ullman again on the TV series Tracey Takes On.... In 2006, she played the mother of Adam Sandler's character in the movie Click. She hasn't appeared in a non-Simpsons role since Click.

Personal life

Julie Kavner is Jewish. She has lived in Manhattan, New York City, since around 1992. She lives a very private life. She rarely makes public appearances and doesn't like to be photographed while working. She was in a relationship with producer David Davis from 1976 until he passed away in 2022.

In 1983, a magazine called Current Biography said Julie was a big athlete and a pescetarian (someone who eats fish but not other meat). In a 1992 interview, she said she thought about retiring, but she felt she would always find a script she loved too much to stop acting.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Julie Kavner para niños