Every Disney Hero Has
a Voice
Mrs. Banks & Mary Tudor
Glynis Johns ~ Disney Legend
October 5th, 1923
Best
known to Disney fans as feminist Winifred Banks in the Academy Award-winning
"Mary Poppins," actress Glynis Johns is everyone's favorite sister
suffragette. Like many a moviegoer, Walt Disney loved her sparkling screen
persona and personally asked Glynis to play the lively and witty role. His
choice of casting was right on as film critic Leonard Maltin pointed out in his
book, "The Disney Films," "She lights up the screen the minute
she appears (in "Mary Poppins")," he wrote. "She makes
every minute count and her amusing suffragette song is most enjoyable."
Born
October 5, 1923, in Pretoria, South Africa, Glynis made history when she
received a degree to teach dance by age 10. By 12, she won 25 gold medals for
dance in England and by 13, appeared in her first film, "South
Riding." She played her first adult role in a Ministry of Information
film, "49th Parallel" (U.S. title "The Invaders"), starring
Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, and Raymond Massey. And by 19, she was the
youngest actress to play the lead role in the theatrical production of
"Peter Pan."
In the
early 1950s, she became associated with The Walt Disney Studios, when it began
to produce live-action films in England. She starred as the capricious Mary
Tudor in "The Sword and the Rose" in 1953, co-starring Richard Todd,
followed by "Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue," in which she played Helen
Mary MacGregor, the spirited wife of a Scottish freedom fighter. In 1964, a
decade later, she returned to Disney, to star in "Mary Poppins,"
which amassed 13 Academy Award nominations, and garnered five Oscars.
Glynis
also starred in such television shows as "General Electric Theatre,"
"The Cavanaughs," as well as her own series, "Glynis."
Other programs include "Batman," "Cheers," and "Murder
She Wrote," starring Angela Lansbury.
Among her
career highlights, in 1960, Glynis won an Academy Award nomination in the
category of Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Firth in the motion
picture "The Sundowners," starring Robert Mitchum. And in 1973, she
received a Tony Award for her stunning stage performance as Desiree Armfeldt in
Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music." In all, she has performed
in more than two dozen theatrical productions and more than 50 feature films,
including Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" starring Paulette Goddard,
"Dear Brigette" with James Stewart, and "The Secret Garden"
co-starring Derek Jacobi.
In 1994,
Glynis returned to The Walt Disney Studios to co-star in the Touchstone comedy
"The Ref" with Kevin Spacey, followed by Hollywood Pictures' box
office smash hit "While You Were Sleeping" starring Sandra Bullock.
Glynis Johns (born 5 October 1923) is a South African-born
Welsh stage and film actress, dancer, pianist and singer (notably of "Send
in the Clowns", which she originated in Stephen Sondheim's A Little
Night Music, and "Sister Suffragette" which was written for her
for Walt Disney's musical motion picture, Mary Poppins written by the Sherman
Brothers).
Early life
Johns was born in Pretoria, South Africa, the daughter of
Alys Maude (née Steele-Payne), a pianist, and Mervyn Johns (1899–1992), the
British stage and film actor. Her roots are in West Wales, and she was born in
Pretoria while her parents were performing on tour there. She attended Clifton
High School in Bristol for a short time.
Career
Johns made her first stage appearance in Buckie's Bears
as a child ballerina at the Garrick Theatre in 1935. She made her 1938 film
debut in the movie version of Winifred Holtby's novel South Riding. In
1944, she appeared with her father in Halfway House and in 1948 starred
as a mermaid in Miranda (Johns later reprised the role in a 1954 sequel,
Mad About Men). In 1952, she co-starred in the movie version of Arnold
Bennett's novel The Card. She was voted by British exhibitors the tenth
most popular local star at the box office in 1951 and 1952.
She made a successful transition to Hollywood, appearing
in Personal Affair (1953) starring Gene Tierney and in The Court
Jester (1956) as Danny Kaye's love interest. The following year, she
starred in the especially sad Christmas film All Mine to Give. Johns
received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the 1960
film The Sundowners. One of her best-known film roles was that of Winifred
Banks, the children's mother, a suffragette, in Mary Poppins (1964). Her
last film appearance was in the 1999 film Superstar.
Johns also appeared on television and on stage, most
memorably in the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's musical A
Little Night Music. The song "Send in the Clowns" was reportedly
written with her in mind. In 1973, she won a Tony award for her role in the
musical. She later appeared in London in Cause Célèbre by Terence
Rattigan. She played opposite Rex Harrison in his final acting role in a
Broadway revival of W. Somerset Maugham's play The Circle in 1990.
(Harrison's death in his New York apartment from cancer ended the show's run.)
Johns starred in the premiere of Horton Foote's A Coffin in Egypt in
1998 at the Bay Street Theatre as Myrtle Bledsoe.
In the 1962-1963 television season, Johns guest starred
in the CBS anthology series The Lloyd Bridges Show. In the fall of 1963,
she and Keith Andes starred as a married couple in her eponymous CBS television
series Glynis, in which she appears as a mystery writer and Andes plays
a criminal defense attorney. The program was cancelled after thirteen episodes.
From
1988 to 1989, Johns played Trudie Pepper, a senior citizen living in an Arizona
retirement community, in the sitcom Coming
Of Age, opposite Alan Young, Phyllis Newman, and Paul Dooley; the show
lasted one season on CBS.
Personal life
Johns has been married four times. Her first husband was Anthony
Forwood (1942–1948), with whom she had her only child, Gareth Forwood
(1945–2007), an actor.
Filmography
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Theatre (selected)
- 1936-36 St Helena, Old Vic
- 1937 Judgement Day, Embassy and Strand
- 1938 Quiet Wedding, Wyndham’s
- 1941 Quiet Weekend, Wyndham’s
- 1943 Peter Pan (Peter), Cambridge Theatre
- 1950 Fools Rush In, Fortune
- 1950 The Way Things Go, Phœnix
- 1952 Gertie (title role), Broadway
- 1956 Major Barbara (title role), Broadway
- 1963 Too True to Be Good, Broadway
- 1966 The King’s Mare, Garrick
- 1969-70 A Talent to Amuse, Phoenix Theatre
- 1969-70 Come As You Are, New Theatre
- 1971-72 Marquise, The Hippodrome, Bristol
- 1973 A Little Night Music (Tony Award for best musical
actress), Broadway
- 1975 Ring Round the Moon, Los Angeles
- 1976 13 Rue de l’Amour, Phœnix
- 1978 Cause Celebre (Best Actress Award, Variety Club), Her
Majesty's Theatre
- 1980-81 Hay Fever, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
- 1980-90 The Boy Friend, Toronto
- 1989-90 The Circle, Broadway
- 1998 A Coffin in Egypt, Bay Street Theatre
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