Glynis Johns Dies: ‘Mary Poppins’ Star & Oldest Living Oscar Acting Nominee Was 100
Glynis Johns, most known for playing the high-spirited Mrs. Winifred Banks in Disney’s Mary Poppins, has died. She was 100 years old.
Johns’ publicist, Mitch Clem, told ABC Eyewitness News that the legendary actor died of natural causes on Thursday, January 4. She was living in an assisted living facility.
Before she played the suffragette in the 1964 Julie Andrews classic, Johns starred in another Disney film called The Sword and the Rose. She was named a Disney Legend in 1998 alongside Mary Poppins co-star Dick Van Dyke. Andrews was named one in 1991, with David Tomlinson (Mr. George Banks) being added in 2002 and Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber (Jane and Michael Banks) being added in 2004. With the death of Betty White in 2021, Johns became the oldest living Disney Legend. With the death of Olivia de Havilland in 2020, she became the oldest living Oscar nominee for acting.
Karen Dotrice, Glynis Johns, Matthew Garber, David Tomlinson in Mary Poppins (Everett Collection)
Johns was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Sundowners in 1961. In 1963, she received a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination for her performance in The Chapman Report.
Johns is also a Broadway legend. She starred as Desiree Armfeldt in the original Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical A Little Night Music, which opened in 1973. She famously sang “Send in the Clowns” in the show and she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance. Sondheim tailored “Send in the Clowns” to Johns’ voice and told Sondheim biographer Meryle Secrest that “nobody can sing it as well as she.”
“I’ve had other songs written for me, but nothing like that,” Johns told Associated Press in 1990. “It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given in the theater.” She lost the role of Desiree in the 1977 film adaptation to Elizabeth Taylor. Johns also starred in the musicals Gertie, Major Barbara, and Too True to Be Good in the 1950s-1960s. Her final Broadway show was 1989’s The Circle.
On TV, Johns was known for her guest star role as Diane’s mom, Helen Chambers, in Cheers. She played Trudie Pepper in Coming of Age and starred in the 1963 series Glynis, in which she played a mystery writer who becomes an amateur sleuth thanks to her husband’s career as a lawyer. She also was a guest star in episodes of Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, The Cavanaughs, and more, in addition to appearing in multiple episodes of the 1960s Batman live-action series, in which she played Lady Penelope Peasoup.
Johns was born in October 1923 into a theatrical family and began performing on the stage at age 12 and on film in her teen years. Early film credits include Miranda, State Secret, the Miranda sequel Mad About Men, Dear Brigitte opposite James Stewart, and more. Her later film roles include While You Were Sleeping and Superstar — the latter of which was her last on-screen scripted role.
Johns was married several times, first to actor Anthony Forwood. Their son, Gareth Forwood, was born in 1945 and died in 2007. Johns and Forwood divorced in 1948, and he went on to be with his longterm partner, Dirk Bogarde, until Bogarde’s death in 1988. Johns later married businessmen David Foster (not the music producer) and Cecil Henderson and author Elliott Arnold. All of the marriages ended in divorce.
Johns retired from acting in her 70s. “Later on, I wanted to lead what I thought of as a ‘normal’ existence, but I soon found I wasn’t as normal away from the theater as in it,” she once told The New York Times (via Washington Post). “Acting is my highest form of intelligence, the time when I use the best part of my brain. I was always told, by my married friends, for example, that I could apply that intelligence to something else, some other aspect of living, but I can’t. I don’t have the same flair in other things.”
