Posted on 01/04/2024 8:30:25 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Glynis Johns, the husky-voiced British actress most widely known for her role as a suffragette who reconnects with her children thanks to a magical nanny in the blockbuster 1964 movie musical "Mary Poppins," has died at the age of 100.
Johns, a versatile film and stage veteran who won a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in the Stephen Sondheim musical "A Little Night Music" and was nominated for an Oscar for the 1960 film "The Sundowners," died of natural causes at an assisted living facility in the Los Angeles area, said her manager, Mitch Clem.
She appeared in dozens of films in a movie career that spanned more than 60 years but her role in "Mary Poppins" as Winifred Banks, the distracted suffragette mother who seems to care more about her cause than her two children, was the one for which she will be most remembered.
With an appealing blend of music and fantasy, "Mary Poppins" stands as one of the most enduringly popular films made by Walt Disney, with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in the starring roles backed by winning performances in key supporting parts by Johns and David Tomlinson as her rigid banker husband.
Donning a blue dress with white gloves, a straw hat and a sash stating "Votes for Women," Johns sings the song "Sister Suffragette," declaring, "We're clearly soldiers in petticoats, and dauntless crusaders for women's votes."
The movie was nominated for 13 Oscars and won five. Andrews, as the nanny who flies with the help of an umbrella and brings together the family, won as best actress.
Johns also played a flirtatious mermaid in "Miranda" (1948), and then appeared in dual roles in the 1954 mermaid sequel, "Mad About Men" (1954). She said she had no problem with the mermaid outfit.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Glynis Johns was an accomplished stage actress as well. Sondheim penned the bittersweet song "Send in the Clowns" especially for Johns, who sang it in the original Broadway production of "A Little Night Music."
She was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her role as a hotel keeper in the Australian-set adventure "The Sundowners" alongside Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov.
I thought she was super-attractive. I loved her voice when I saw her in Mary Poppins, at age 9.
RIP Glynis Johns.
The age of musicals. I recall my dad took all of us to this movie as well as Music Man, and Sound of Music. Loved all three.
Her father played Bob Cratchet in the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. The Alistair Sims version.
Oh wow ! That’s the definitive, best version.
Do you like to kick kittens, too?
No kicking allowed...I throw them waaaaay up in the air 9 times.
I was most fortunate and got to see Camelot in NYC in 1962 with Richard Burton and also the Sound of Music a few days later...but there was no comparison.
There you go.
Got to see Richard Harris in Camelot also...such awesome talent.
Lady Penelope Peasoup, R.I.P.
Was that with Julie Andrews?
After seeing Camelot...they simply weren't comparable.
Yes, Glynis appeared with Julie Andrews in “Mary Poppins”.
All these posts and no one mentions her show back in the day, but I found it ... Glynis, on CBS, 1963. I was 10 but I remember her husky voice and alluring demeanor. Rest easy pretty girl.
Z
she was in a movie called “ALL OURS TO GIVE”....sad damn movie...
100, wow. Almost as old as Madonna.
She was super in “The Sundowners”, an excellent film with R. Mithum and Deborah Kerr
That man, Richard Burton could read from a phone book and it would sound like Shakespeare.
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