The actress Glynis Johns, who played Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins, has died aged 100.
Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died of natural causes at an assisted living home in Los Angeles on Thursday.
He said: “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood. She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”
“My heart is heavy today with the passing of my beloved client Glynis Johns. Glynis powered her way through life with intelligence, wit and a love for performance, affecting millions of lives.
“She entered my life early in my career and set a very high bar on how to navigate this industry with grace, class and truth. Your own truth.
“Her light shone very brightly for 100 years. She had a wit that could stop you in your tracks, powered by a heart that loved deeply and purely.
“Today is a sombre day for Hollywood. Not only do we mourn the passing of our dear Glynis, but we mourn the end of the golden age of Hollywood.”
The actress was known in the industry as a perfectionist, telling the Associated Press in 1990: “As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level.
“The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it. To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real.”
Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony in 1973.
Stephen Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song, Send in the Clowns, to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part to Elizabeth Taylor in the 1977 film version.
“I’ve had other songs written for me, but nothing like that,” Johns told the Associated Press. “It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given in the theatre.”
Johns was the fourth generation of an English theatrical family. Her father, Mervyn, had a long career as a character actor, and her mother was a pianist.
She was born in Pretoria, South Africa, while her parents were visiting the area on tour. She was a dancer at 12 and an actor at 14 in London’s West End.
Her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the title role of the 1948 hit comedy Miranda.
Other highlights include playing the mother in Mary Poppins – the movie that introduced Julie Andrews – in which she sang the rousing tune Sister Suffragette.
She also starred in the 1989 Broadway revival of The Circle, W Somerset Maugham’s romantic comedy about love, marriage and fidelity, opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger.
Johns lived around the world and had four husbands. The first, Anthony Forwood, was the father of her only child, Gareth Forwood, an actor who died in 2007.
Source: The Telegraph
BDST: 1101 HRS, JAN 05, 2024
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