Glynis Johns, the star of stage and screen best known for playing Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins, has died aged 100.
The Tony Award-winning British actor died at an assisted living home in Los Angeles, her manager Mitch Clem confirmed to The Associated Press. No cause of death was given.
Rising to fame in the 1940s, Johns was considered to be one of the last major stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Making her screen debut in 1938, she amassed more than 60 film appearances and 30 in the theatre throughout her eight-decade career, picking up Oscar and Golden Globe nominations along the way.
To most, however, she is known as Winifred Banks, the “Sister Suffragette”-singing matriarch of Disney’s 1964 Mary Poppins musical film.
On stage, Johns was known for the instantly recognisable husky tone of her voice. She originated the character of Desiree Armfeldt – and the musical theatre standard “Send in the Clowns” – in Stephen Sondheim’s musical A Little Night Music in 1973. For the role, she won a Tony and Drama Desk award.
Born in South Africa in 1923 to actor Melvyn Johns and concert pianist Alyce Steele-Wareham, Johns was raised in the UK where she displayed a natural talent for ballet. Hailed as an expert in the craft at a young age, she began teaching when she was just 10 years old.
Growing up surrounded by performers, Johns made her acting debut in the West End aged eight, and continued to perform throughout the 1930s.
Her screen debut came in 1938 in Victor Saville’s South Riding, before her career really took off in the 1940s.
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