by In the childhood memories of more than one generation, Glynis Johns, who has died aged 100, will be best remembered as the Edwardian housemother in Walt Disney’s hugely popular musical Mary Poppins (1964). Winifred Banks, married to George W Banks (David Tomlinson), is the mother of Jane and Michael, the children in the care of the magical nanny played by Julie Andrews. Winifred, a voting rights protester, gives a spirited rendition of the song Sister Suffragette: “Our daughters’ daughters will adore us. And they will sing in a grateful chorus: ‘Well done, sister suffragette!’” as the children’s former nanny tries to resign.
But the hoarse-voiced actress had other reasons for achieving fame thanks to her more than 60 films and 30 theater productions. In 1973, Stephen Sondheim composed the song Send in the Clowns for Johns when she was cast in the lead role in the first production of his musical, A Little Night Music, on Broadway. And she had gained initial stardom in British cinema as a mermaid.
In the title role of the film comedy Miranda (1948), she travels from Cornwall to London and causes romantic complications among the Chelsea group. Although the film’s whimsy may now seem forced, it was a huge commercial success in its time, making Johns a leading figure in British cinema. Miranda returned in a rather late sequel, Mad About Men (1954).
By this time, Johns had almost completely transitioned from stage to film, where she was primarily associated with lightweight, alternately fluffy and feisty roles. One of her most attractive opportunities came in the thriller State Secret (1950, released as The Great Manhunt in the US), playing a cabaret performer in a fictional Balkan country and bravely singing Paper Doll in a completely made up.
It says something about her youthful qualities that at the age of 30 she was able to play a teenage schoolgirl in the melodrama Personal Affair (1953). The same year she starred in two fantastic British Walt Disney productions, as Mary Tudor in The Sword and the Rose, and as Rob Roy’s heroine wife, and then made her first Hollywood film, the Danny Kaye comedy The Court Jester. . , in 1955. The following year she made a cameo in the star-studded film Around the World in 80 Days.
At this time, Johns alternated between American and British films, usually in subordinate roles, but a rewarding one came in The Sundowners (1960), set in Australia, as a cheerful waitress who falls in love with a visiting Englishman played by Peter Ustinov. It earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. Her biggest billing came in a stylish horror film, The Cabinet of Caligari (1962). By this time she was well-known enough to American audiences to star in 1963’s Glynis, a television comedy series that lasted only one season.
In 1966, Johns returned to the London stage in The King’s Mare, as Anne of Cleves in Keith Michell’s Henry VIII. Her Welsh heritage came into play when she took on the role of Myfanwy Price in a film version of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood (1971), starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole, and two years later came her big break on Broadway as Desiree. Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, which earned him a Tony Award.
Glynis came from show business: her mother, Alice Steele (née Wareham), was a concert pianist who performed under the name Alys Steele-Payne, and her father was the prolific character actor Mervyn Johns. He was a particular stalwart of Ealing Studios films: father and daughter appeared together in an Ealing drama, The Halfway House (1944).
Although her vocal intonations indicated that she was Welsh, Glynis was born in Pretoria, South Africa, where her parents were on tour. She was reportedly brought to the stage at the age of three weeks, and it wasn’t long before she was appearing there in a professional capacity, making her acting debut at London’s Garrick Theatre, as a dancer in a revue called The Bears of Buckie (1935).
Educated at Clifton Grammar School, Bristol, and South Hampstead Grammar School and London’s Cone School of Dancing, she quickly graduated to youth acting roles in both theater and film. Her first appearance on screen came at the age of 14, as the troubled daughter of politician Ralph Richardson in South Riding (1938), and on stage she was the younger sister, another Miranda, in the comedies Quiet Wedding (1938). and Quiet Weekend (1941) by Esther McCracken. ).
That year gave him the opportunity to appear in the film 49th Parallel, starring Leslie Howard and Laurence Olivier in a spy thriller aimed at bolstering US support for World War II. When, after the war, the possibility of playing a mermaid occurred to her, she was able to take advantage of her theatrical versatility: “I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was fine. “I swam like a porpoise.”
Johns returned to the London stage in 1977, as Terence Rattigan’s choice to play murderess Alma Rattenbury in his well-received dramatization of the Rattenbury case, Cause Célèbre. Her acting appearances became sporadic, although in 1989 she starred with Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger on Broadway in Somerset Maugham’s The Circle.
She occasionally guest-starred on American television series such as Murder She Wrote and The Love Boat, and played Diane’s wealthy mother Helen Chambers in the first series of Cheers (1983) and Trudie Pepper in the comedy Coming of Age (1988). – 89). At the time of her last films, While You Were Sleeping (1995) and Superstar (1999), she was a grandmother with character.
Johns was married and divorced four times. Her first husband, from 1942 to 1948, was the actor Anthony Forwood. Her son, Gareth, also an actor, died in 2007. Marriages followed to two businessmen: David Foster, from 1952 to 1956, and Cecil Henderson, from 1960 to 1962. She was married to Elliott Arnold, a novelist, from 1964 to 1973. and He is survived by a grandson and three great-grandchildren.
• Glynis Margaret Payne Johns, actress, born October 5, 1923; died on January 4, 2024
