Glynis Johns, Who Played Mrs. Banks in ‘Mary Poppins,’ Dies at 100
Glynis Johns, the upbeat leading lady with the British charm who starred as the spirited feminist mother Winifred Banks in Mary Poppins, has died. She was 100.
Johns lived in West Hollywood and died Thursday of natural causes at an assisted living facility in the area, her manager, Mitch Clem, told The Hollywood Reporter.
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A multitalented actress, dancer, pianist and singer, Johns earned a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for playing the widowed saloon and hotel owner Mrs. Firth in Fred Zinnemann’s Australia-set The Sundowners (1960).
Plus, she memorably sang “Send in the Clowns,” which Stephen Sondheim wrote just for her, in her Tony Award-winning performance as Desiree Armfeldt in the original 1973 production of A Little Night Music.
The husky voiced Johns was nominated for a Golden Globe for portraying a daffy older socialite who is stirred by the young stud she meets on the beach in a then-controversial film about sex, The Chapman Report (1962).
A year later, she starred in her own short-lived CBS sitcom, Glynis, in which she played a mystery writer and amateur sleuth, and later, she was Lady Penelope Peasoup opposite Rudy Vallee as Lord Marmaduke Ffogg on the last season of ABC’s Batman.
Walt Disney himself loved Johns’ sparkling onscreen persona and recruited her to play Mrs. Banks, who needs a nanny (Julie Andrews) to take care of her two children, in Mary Poppins (1964). In the film, she memorable performs the song “Sister Suffragette.”
Of Welsh heritage, Johns — whose father was Mervyn Johns (best known as the fearful Bob Cratchit in 1951’s A Christmas Carol) — made her early movie mark in light British fantasies. In Miranda (1948), Helter Skelter (1949) and Mad About Men (1954), she played a flirtatious mermaid who gets involved with real-life romances.
On the strength of her popularity, she ventured to Hollywood, where she portrayed Mary Tudor in The Sword and the Rose and the wife of a Scottish freedom fighter in Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue, two Disney films that also starred Richard Todd and were released in 1953.
She also played Maid Jean, Danny Kaye’s love interest, in The Court Jester (1955), also starring Angela Lansbury and Basil Rathbone.
Glynis Johns was born Oct. 5, 1923, in Pretoria, South Africa. Her mother was concert pianist Alys Steele, who gave birth to her daughter when she was on tour.
After collecting more than two dozen gold medals for dance competitions throughout England and a degree to teach ballet by age 10, Johns made her movie debut in England at age 13 in South Riding (1938), a country drama that starred Ralph Richardson. She later gained recognition for playing the title role in Peter Pan onstage at just 19.
In 1944, she appeared with her father as his daughter in The Halfway House, and they also worked together in The Magic Box (1951) and The Sundowners.
Johns co-starred with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole in Under Milk Wood (1972), an adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ fanciful story about the village of Llareggub.
She made her Broadway debut in 1952 in Gertie; starred opposite Charles Laughton in a 1956 revival of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara; and appeared with Rex Harrison in a revival of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Circle in 1989.
Johns also played Desiree’s mother in several A Little Night Music revivals.
From 1988-89, Johns portrayed a senior citizen living in an Arizona retirement community (and the wife of onetime Mr. Ed star Alan Young) in the CBS sitcom Coming of Age. More recently, she stood out as a sprightly grandmother in Denis Leary’s The Ref (1994) and had similar roles in While You Were Sleeping (1995) and Superstar (1999).
Married four times, Johns had one son, the late actor Gareth Forwood, during her marriage to Anthony Forwood. She has no survivors, Clem said.
When asked by KABC-TV entertainment reporter George Pennacchio in October what it was like to turn 100, she replied: “It doesn’t make any difference to me. I’ve looked good at every age.”
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