Julie London, (born Julie Peck) was one of the top female vocalists during the 1950's and early '60's, her most famous recording being Cry Me A River, released in 1955. She was born on September 26, 1926 in Santa Rosa, California, to Jack and Josephine Peck, a song and dance team in vaudeville and radio. In 1929, the family moved to San Bernardino, where Julie's parents had a radio show, on which she occasionally appeared. In 1941, they moved to Los Angeles, where Julie left school and went to work as an elevator operator in a department store. She began singing during this time with the Matty Malnech Orchestra. In Los Angeles, she met Jack Webb, then in the Marine Corps, and Sue Carol, an actor/agent and wife of Alan Ladd. Carol obtained a screen test for Julie, which started her on a movie career. Julie's roles during the first few years were bit parts. She soon reached star status by playing leading roles in such movies as A Question Of Adultery, Task Force, and The Fat Man. In 1947 she married Webb, who was just breaking into dramatic acting on radio. With marriage, she temporarily gave up her movie career to become a full-time wife and mother, and they had two daughters, Stacy and Lisa. In November, 1953, London and Webb divorced, and she received custody of the children. With the breakup of her marriage, Julie entered a brief period during which, she has said, she had a lack of self confidence. In 1954 this changed when she met Bobby Troup, a jazz musician and songwriter. Under his guidance she began a serious singing career in 1955. Her first singing engagement was the 881 Club in Los Angeles. In 1955 she cut her first album, Julie is Her Name. Included on this LP was her most successful hit: Cry Me A River. Over three million copies of the album and single were sold. The single remained on Billboard charts for 13 weeks, and the LP for 20. Julie was voted one of the top female vocalists of 1955, 1956, and 1957. On New Year's Eve, 1959, she became Mrs. Bobby Troup.
    Julie's vocal style has been described as being sultry, sexy, "come-hither", intimate, breathy, warm, smoky, haunting, husky, sullen, sad, suggestive and seductive. She self-described her voice in a LIFE magazine article in 1957, as "It's only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of oversmoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate." The majority of her album covers were graced by sultry, yet sophisticated pictures of Julie - the cover of her first album, Julie Is Her Name being, at the time, thought of as so sexy that it was described as "...generating enough voltage to light up a theater marquee". The album Calendar Girl is graced with 12 "cheesecake" photos of Miss London - one for each month of the year, with an additional large photo for the "thirteenth" month on the inside of the foldout cover. (see LP discography)
    At the same time as her singing career took off, Julie's movie career was also "resurrected". In 1956 she starred as an alchoholic singer in the film "The Great Man". From there, she went on to star, or co-star in more movies for United Artists and MGM, including: Man Of The West (lobby card photo), Voice In The Mirror, The Wonderful Country, The George Raft Story, and The Third Voice. (see Filmography). During the film Voice In The Mirror, Julie became a songwriter, composing the title song for the movie. She has also appeared on numerous television shows as both actress and singer (which I am still trying to compile). In 1971, she began playing one of her best-known roles as Nurse Dixie McCall on the TV Show Emergency, (which also featured Bobby Troup, as Dr. Joe Early). After Emergency, Julie did one last film: Survival On Charter #220 before retiring from show business. In Bobby Troup's words: "She is not a Julie London fan. She honestly doesn't realize how good she is. She's never really been a performer, she doesn't have that need to go out and please an audience and receive accolades. She's always been withdrawn, very introverted. She hated those big shows. I couldn't wait to do them, and she was only glad when they were over."
    During the late 50's and into the 60's, Julie did some international tours in such locales as Brazil and Japan. While in Japan, she recorded a Japanese-only television program with Bobby Troup and his band, which has been preserved, and with enough hunting, can still be found on video tape. Julie essentially quit recording when the Liberty label folded in 1968. Her last recording was in 1981, for the movie Sharky's Machine, in which she performed My Funny Valentine for the soundtrack. She now resides, with her long-time husband, Bobby Troup, inEncino, California. They have seven children between them, through previous and their own marriages.  
    I regret to add that Bobby Troup passed away from congestive heart failure at the age of eighty years old in February of 1999. I have received numerous email messgaes from fans expressing their condolences to Julie and the family.