Originally born in Riverside, she left her former boyfriend Lance Baldwin, for Jimmy Cooper and a new life in Newport Beach. When she became pregnant with Marissa at the age of eighteen, Julie married Jimmy. Four years later, they had a second daughter, Kaitlin.
She may have come across as a gold-digger once, but Julie Cooper has a heart of soul and is a very kind person. Despite being described as a comedic character, Julie has always been aware of her appearance, but unlike her younger daughters. She is tall, beautiful and voluptuous. She loves to date older men but only married her husband Jimmy for his money. Throughout the series, Julie hangs out with her best friend and next door neighbour, Kirsten Cohen and has various relationships with Caleb Nicol, Luke Wood, Lance Baldwin, Neil Roberts, Spencer Bullit, Gordon Bullit and Frank Atwood.
In season one, Julie is presented to us, as the classic woman, who would do anything for money. After meeting Jimmy Cooper, a rich family man, Julie falls in love with him and at eighteen years old, becomes pregnant, shortly after, the two get married and Julie gives birth to their first daughter, Marissa Cooper. After living for many years in poverty and have arrived in high society all in a sudden, it changed Julie, infact, she not longer the Riverside girl who was before, now has become a classy woman, wicked, manipulative and calculating, which has remained with Jimmy, only for his money, spending and spreads as her wishes, for her own and his daughters. But, when Jimmy stole money from his clients' trust funds, Julie soon divorced from him, claiming she deserved better. She soon had a passionate love affair with her daughter's ex-boyfriend, Luke Ward. She also begins to date Kirsten's father, Caleb Nichol.
Once she married Caleb Nichol, she became one of the most powerful women in Newport. Her husband made her CEO of his company, the Newport Group, and in order to give it a new look, Julie decided to launch a magazine, Newport Living.
Her fame would soon come back to haunt her, however, when her ex-lover Lance came back into her life. He threatened to release a copy of an adult video she had participated in years earlier, if she did not give him $500,000. When her husband Caleb dismissed her concerns and didn't pay him, Lance released the tape at a party originally intended for the magazine launch.
Outraged and embarrassed, Caleb filed for divorce. According to the marriage agreement, Julie was entitled to a sum of 3 million dollars if and only if she had been married for a period of one year. When Caleb tried to file for the divorce the two had only been married for a period of 11 months and 27 days. In addition to the divorce, Caleb fired Julie as CEO of his company. This was done shortly after he received pictures of Julie kissing Lance at his motel room. The timing of Caleb's attacks would essentially leave her with nothing from the marriage.
Left with the possibility of being poor once again, Julie began to devise plans to regain the life she once had. Lance had offered to kill Caleb, but Julie refused the offer. When Caleb pushed her too far by filing for divorce only days before their one-year anniversary, Julie decided to finish the job herself and attempted to give him an overdose of sleeping pills in his drink. Caleb realized and craftily played at her conscience until she found herself unable to deliver his death blow. Minutes later, he died anyway because of a heart attack.
Julie tries far to blame Ryan for the shooting in which Marissa had played his brother, Trey. Her plan fails and still turns away from Marissa. Despite the news of the second marriage with Jimmy Cooper, who she is in love with again, this reconnects her and Marissa. Julie does not know, however, that Jimmy actually wants to get his hands on the legacy of Caleb Nichol to pay a debt. When she discovers that Caleb has gone bankrupt, Jimmy escapes from Newport to escape the loan sharks that brutally beat him. Julie is once again alone and uncertain of her future. Julie sends her daughter to her best friend, Summers, and goes to live in a grimy trailer on the outskirts of Newport Beach. She meets Charlotte Morgan while organizing a charity event for the wealthy residents of Newport. She learns that Charlotte is a scammer when she finds fake credit cards and ID’s in her purse. Charlotte convinces Julie to keep up with the scam, where the women would pocket the money donated and split it 50/50, as she is broke. Charlotte would have fled by taking the blame and Julie could have restarted her life in luxury. Julie realizes that she and Kirsten have a very strong bond to their friendship and decides to cancel everything last minute. At first Kirsten is upset but then recognizes that Julie is her only real friend and decided to go into business with Julie starting a new dating agency - The Newmatch. Meanwhile Julie’s youngest daughter Kaitlin is back from boarding school and wants to stay with her and Marissa. However, after the incident involving one of Marissa’s friends Johnny Harper, Kaitlin decides to return to boarding school but before leaving tells Julie she felt abandoned by her and their relationship is strained. Julie starts dating the charming surgeon Neil Roberts, the father of Summer. Neil eventually asks Julie to marry and settle down with him. Julie decides to move in with Neil. Also to keep an eye on Marissa and her relationship with Kevin Volchok, a dangerous boy from Newport Union. Julie goes to Volchok's apartment and tells him that Marissa is only with him because her life isn't on track right now and she is going to realize that she has been making bad decisions. At first Marissa blames her for being a bad mother but then she realizes that Julie is right. When Marissa, on her graduation day, died a more understanding woman, she accepts her daughter's decision. On the day of departure Julie explains to Marissa that if she made mistakes she did them for her and that she just wanted to give her a better life than hers. The girl moved says (for the first time in the whole series) to love her and to be proud of being his daughter for the courage that Julie shows in every situation. Finally, the young woman recommends to her sister Kaitlin, who has now settled in Newport, to take care of her mother. Relationships have definitely strengthened but fate wants Marissa to die that same night, in an accident caused by Volchok on purpose.
After the death of her daughter Marissa, Julie wants to find the man who killed her. She thus takes on a private investigator and provides the information received from the man to Ryan. The information leads Ryan and Seth to chase Volchok to Mexico. Sandy and Kirsten decide to chase their son. Sandy is angry with Julie for sending Ryan and Seth on a "homicidal mission" and banishes her from the Cohen Thanksgiving dinner. Once Volchok is arrested, Julie comes to Cohen's home, apologizing to Sandy, who decides to let her in. Before dinner, Julie and Ryan decide to go to the pool house to talk about Marissa and to remember her.
After Volchok is in jail, Julie finally is able to start over. She breaks up with Neil and manages to stay in his house, living with Kaitlin, Taylor and eventually Summer, while he moves to Seattle. Soon thereafter, she begins have one night stands with younger men, for example with her German personal trainer or Kaitlin's tennis instructor Spencer Bullit, with whom she starts to transform NewMatch into an whorehouse, but also with his father Gordon Bullit from Texas.
When Frank Atwood returned to Newport to see his son, she welcomes him with an open heart and falls in love with him. She hides their relationship for a long time, but then they start to date officially. Kaitlin doesn't really like having Frank as a stepdad and tries to convince her mother to marry Bullit, but in the end she decides to continue dating Frank.
During the earthquake she is locked with her daughter in an ice cream parlour, but she's not harmed. In the last episode of the series, Julie is pregnant with Frank's child. By the end of the series, however, she decides to remain single in order to be able to get away on her own for once in her life. So Julie decides not to marry Bullit, or even to accept Frank's marriage proposal. However the three, manage to maintain a friendly relationship. She then starts college and gets an undergraduate degree.
Julie: Why this guy? He launched a magazine called The Ugly Americans.
Carter: Look, I just don't think the world needs more proclamations about how Mukluks are the new Uggs.
Kirsten: Our bar's not that low.
Julie: He's right about Mukluks. Write that down.
Lance: Actually, I have something for you.
Julie: Yeah? Last time you gave me something I drank cranberry juice for a week.
Julie: Alex, and I'm not saying this to be mean. Because you actually seem like a nice enough girl, and... I like your pants. But you're this week's yard guy.
Julie: She's only really been in love once, and he looked a little different in a wife beater.
Julie: A hundred years ago, a boyfriend convinced me to let him film me. In the act. I was young, living on rum, and I needed the money.
Caleb: Is there anything else?
Julie: Well I made an adult film in the 80s with an ex-boyfriend whos is now threatening to to release it on the internet unless I pay him half a million dollars. And I would really like to redo the kitchen.
Julie: Kirsten crushes Carter!
Julie: You can go on with your life, Cal. But I am never leaving this room. My Howard Hughes phase starts now.
Kirsten: My dad doesn't exactly talk to me about his romantic life.
Julie: I figured
(Takes a drink)
Julie: Oh my gosh. How much vodka did you put in this?
Kirsten: Normal amount. Little less.
Julie: Uh, okay...where's Sandy?
Kirsten: Out.
Julie: Okay, did something happen, did you two have a fight?
Kirsten: No. Yes. Oh god I don't know, it seems like we've been fighting since September.
Julie: Look Kirsten I know that I'm probably the last person in the world you want to bear your soul to but it's got to be better than getting smashed in the middle of the day what happened?
Kirsten: What happened? The boys left for the summer, Sandy and I stopped communicating, Rebecca Bloom came along and made things worse...and then Carter.
Julie: He was cute.
Kirsten: Something happened between me and Sandy, this wall came between us and Cater just made me feel less alone...like Sandy used to and now he's gone.
: Caleb: You have been monitored to one degree or another since before we were married. The affair you had with your former-husband. The tryst with that high-schooler... Luke.
Julie: Oh my god.
Caleb: I mean, your daughter's boyfriend. What will people think?
Julie: C'mon. It's okay for a prosecutor and defense attorney to have lemonade together. We're all human beings here.
Jimmy: I'm not so sure with these guys.
Julie: Let's play hot/cold, hm? Two million. Seven million. I have at least three million coming from my pre-nup. You blinked! Does one blink mean yes?
Kirsten: We should take out half these tables so we can have more flow.
Julie: We should also talk to them about the music. The last event I did here they had us on a Kenny G loop.
Charlotte: Oh, what? You think you're back in society now so you don't need the money? Wake up, Julie. These people are never going to accept you. You don't have any friends here!
Julie: Wrong. I have Kirsten. And I won't do this to her. Now, I think it's time you left, don't you? This town's only really big enough for one manipulative bitch. Take care, sweetie.
Kirsten: Who wants a stripper doing their laundry?
Julie: Sandy, I don't think I'm in favor of low income housing.
Kirsten: Julie, you live in a trailer park.
Julie: And I'm highly motivated to change my circumstances. If you make being poor too comfortable, what's the incentive to get rich? Believe me, if anyone should know.
Julie: You know what I'm really craving? Sweet corn ravioli. Or do you think that will be too heavy with the crab cakes?
Kirsten: What I think is that you don't find this business very interesting.
Julie: I'm sorry, Kiki. I've just been eating a lot of Ramen lately.
Kirsten: How was your date?
Julie: Oh it was awful. We totally didn't click, we had nothing to talk about, his tongue was like sandpaper.
Kirsten: I'm sorry to hear that.
Kirsten: Julie, I have an idea for a new business.
Julie: Oh my god! A high class call girl operation. I love it!
Julie: I told you, Gus. I am not going to your Christmas party. Even if you are deep frying a ham.
Kirsten: I came to see how you were.
Julie: I'm great. Some of the neighbors are having a cock fight in an hour using stray dogs. It's a holiday tradition. My money's on the feisty Weimaraner.
Kirsten: Good. 'Cause I'm awful.
Julie: I'm spitting Skoal into a can, drinking wine from a bottle I unscrewed, and living in a home that—if I wanted to—I could put in reverse. I'm beyond awful.
Julie: It's not like I could have the other Newpsies over for pop tarts and cock fights.
Julie: Well, yes. But not... live live. Um. We're more like refugees. We're only half a mile from the beach and, well... it's Tiffany blue!
Julie: I'll be okay, Kiki. I'm like the Gulf Region. At this point, what's one more hurricane?
Julie: Tonight we launch Newport's first exclusive dating service: New Match. Because whether you're gay, straight, single, divorced, nearly-divorced. In a world of wealth and luxury, the only thing really worth pursuing is a soul mate.
Julie: I know you've been married for, like, 200 years, but you must remember something about dating.
Julie: I'm impressed. You're sneakier than I thought, Kirsten Cohen.
Kirsten: Well, being around you all these years, it's rubbed off.
Neil: She's pretty.
Julie: Pear-shaped. But pretty.
Neil: Oo. Look at her. Nice... smile.
Julie: Yeah. Adult braces.
Julie: It's my own fault. I let you do the scheming. Clearly not your wheelhouse. From now on if someone needs to be manipulated we put me in charge.
Julie: I tried taking your advice, KiKi. And quite frankly, it sucked. From now on we do things the Julie Cooper way.
Kirsten: Julie Cooper, be careful.
Julie: Go away Gus. I told you, I don't want to play strip pinochle.
Neil: You play strip pinochle?
Julie: Long story. What are you doing here?
Neil: I stopped by to thank you for fixing me up with Laura. She's a wonderful woman.
Julie: Well good. I'm glad it worked out with the two of you. If you'll excuse me I have a Hot Pocket in the microwave and a wine cooler with my name on it. So, good luck.
Julie: What? What do you want?
Neil: You.
Julie: Excuse me?
Neil: You can be manipulative, you can be aggressive. I've known you to stretch the truth on occasion. But the fact is, when I'm not around you, I miss you.
Julie: You do?
Neil: What can I say? I've fallen for you.
Julie: Well this just may be your lucky night. I have an extra Hot Pocket.
Julie: Sit here and be tested as wife/mother material while I'm worried about my daughter's future. I get it, okay? It's not what you expected. I failed. Fine. But right now I need to think about Marissa.
Neil: Julie, I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you were being tested. I— I was wrong. And you've hardly failed. I think Marissa is very lucky to have you as her mom.
Julie: Keep that grimey paw away from me. Unless you wanna see what ten years of cardiobar can do to your face.
Julie: Listen up, Tommy Lee. You're just the latest in a series of experiments my daughter likes to make when acting out. So enjoy it. Because right here, right now is as good as it gets for you. Soon Marissa's gonna wake up and realize she is so much better than you and your life.
Volchok: You think she's gonna come running back to you.
Julie: Marissa knows that I will be there for her whenever she decides to come home because I am her family. Not some punk with a smirk, three brain cells, and a good coke connection. You tell her that.
Julie: Marissa, honey, you know it's not too late to go with you. I promise I won't embarrass you. I can pretend to be part of your entourage. Or your Scientology guide.
Marissa: Mom, you don't have to worry, okay?
Julie: Kids go crazy at college. You've seen Girls Gone Wild.
Julie: Okay, did a priest just break in here and perform an exorcism?
Neil: I don't know, but she's definitely out of the woods.
Neil: Honey, I don't get it. You throw all of these parties with the dating service.
Julie: Well, I have Kirsten then. She's my wing woman.
Neil: So invite Kirsten. And Sandy. He can network with the doctors and she can... wing woman.
Julie: Ever since Caleb died, the only way I've been able to navigate through these Newpsie-infested waters is with you by my side.
Julie: I just want you to know, everything I ever did—good, bad or otherwise—I did it for you. So that you could have a better life than I had. And I know I wasn't perfect. I mean, the thing with Luke, and, trying to frame Ryan for attempted homicide, I—
Marissa: Mom, I love you. Just know that.
Julie: Oh, sweetheart. That's all I wanted. I love you too.
