South African and British actress and singer Glynis Johns has died at the age of 100. In France, she is best known for having played in “Mary Poppins”.
The actress and singer Glynis Johns died at the age of 100 this Thursday, January 4, 2024. The South African and British actress died in a retirement home in Los Angeles, her agent revealed to the American press. The one who was one of the last representatives of “Old Hollywood”. Since the death ofOlivia de Havilland in 2020, she was the oldest American actress nominated for an Oscar.
Glynis Johns was particularly known in France for having played in the film Mary Poppins in 1964. If she did not play the nanny with magical powers in the Disney movie, it was she who played Mrs. Winifred Banks, mother of the two children in Mary Poppins’ care. We can notably hear her, in the feature film, embodying the song “Suffragette Sisters”.
Glynis Johns leaves behind a great career spanning 59 years, having appeared in no less than 35 films and series, reports Allociné. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Horizons without borders (1960). She was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama in 1963, for her role in Guilty Liaisons.
A career on the stage
The South African and British actress and singer was also a face of the American scene: she won a Tony Award for her role as Desiree Armfeldt in the musical A Little Night Musicin 1973. She notably sang the title “Send in the Clowns” written by Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim.
In the cinema, it was Elizabeth Taylor who played her role four years later, but Glynis Johns returned to the stage in Los Angeles to reincarnate Desiree Armfeld in a revival of the play in 1991.