In the childhood memories of more than one generation, Glynis Johns, who has died aged 100, will be remembered as the Edwardian matriarch of the hugely popular Walt Disney musical Mary Poppins (1964). Winifred Banks, married to David Tomlinson’s George W Banks, is the mother of Jane and Michael, children in the care of magical nannies played by Julie Andrews. Winifred, a suffragist protester, gives a stirring rendition of the song Sister Suffragette: “Our daughters’ daughters will admire us. And they will sing in a grateful chorus: ‘Well done, Sister Suffragette!’” – as the children’s previous nanny tries to quit.
But the husky-voiced actor had other claims to fame, with more than 60 films and more than 30 stage productions to his credit. In 1973, Stephen Sondheim composed the song Send in the Clowns for Johns when she starred in the first production of his musical A Little Night Music on Broadway. And she first gained fame in British cinema with her role as a mermaid.
In the title role of the comedy Miranda (1948), she travels from Cornwall to London and causes romantic complications on the Chelsea set. Although the film’s whimsical tone now seems strained, it was a huge commercial success in its time and established Johns as one of the best actors in British films. Miranda returned with a much-delayed sequel, Mad About Men (1954).
By then, Johns had moved almost entirely from the stage to films; here she was associated mostly with lightweight roles, but sometimes with bubbly and feisty roles. One of his most appealing opportunities was in the thriller State Secret (1950, released in the US as The Great Manhunt), in which he starred as a cabaret performer in an imaginary Balkan country and gamely sang Paper Doll in a completely invented language.
It says something about her youthful qualities that, at the age of 30, she could play a young schoolgirl in the melodrama Personal Affair (1953). That same year, she starred in two fictional Walt Disney British productions, The Sword and the Rose, as Mary Tudor and Rob Roy’s heroine wife, and made her first Hollywood film, the Danny Kaye comedy The Court Jester. The following year, he had a small role in the star-studded film Around the World in 80 Days.
At the time, Johns was alternating between American and British films, often in secondary roles, but a rewarding one came in the Australian-set The Sundowners (1960) as a cheerful bartender who takes a shine to a visiting Englishman, played by Peter Ustinov . This earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. Top billing came from the stylish horror film The Cabinet of Caligari (1962). By this time she was well enough known to American audiences to star in Glynis, a TV sitcom that lasted only one season in 1963.
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 was revealed when she took on the role of Myfanwy Price in the film version of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (1971), starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole, and two years later she achieved major Broadway success as Desiree. Armfeldt’s performance in A Little Night Music 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 particularly a stalwart of Ealing Studios films: father and daughter starred together in The Halfway House (1944), an Ealing drama.
Although her vocal intonations suggest she is Welsh, Glynis was born in Pretoria, South Africa, where her parents were on tour. She was reportedly introduced to the stage at the age of three weeks and it wasn’t long before she appeared professionally there, making her debut as a dancer in a revue at the Garrick Theater in London. Buckie’s Bears (1935).
He was educated at Clifton High School, Bristol and South Hampstead High School, and the Cone School of Dance in London, quickly graduating to junior acting roles in both theater and film. Her screen debut came at the age of 14 as politician Ralph Richardson’s troublesome daughter in South Riding (1938), and she appeared on stage as the teenage sister, another Miranda, in Esther McCracken’s comedies Silent Wedding (1938) and Silent Weekend (1941). output. ).
That year brought the opportunity to star in the 49th Parallel, a spy thriller aimed at increasing support for World War II in the United States, starring Leslie Howard and Laurence Olivier. When the possibility of playing a mermaid arose after the war, she was able to capitalize on her theatrical versatility: “I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so I had a pretty good tail. “I swam like a porpoise.”
Johns returned to the London stage in 1977 when Terence Rattigan chose to play the murderer Alma Rattenbury in Cause Célèbre, his acclaimed dramatization of the Rattenbury case. Acting appeared sporadically, although she appeared on Broadway in 1989 in Somerset Maugham’s The Circle opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger.
She occasionally made guest appearances in US television series such as Murder She Wrote and The Love Boat, playing Diane’s wealthy mother Helen Chambers in the first series of Cheers (1983) and Trudie Pepper in the sitcom Coming of Age (1988-). He revived me. 89). She was a characterful grandmother in her last films, While You Were Sleeping (1995) and Superstar (1999).
Johns was married and divorced four times. Her first husband, from 1942 to 1948, was actor Anthony Forwood. Their son Gareth, also an actor, died in 2007. Marriages to two businessmen followed: David Foster from 1952 to 1956 and Cecil Henderson from 1960 to 1962. She was married to novelist Elliott Arnold from 1964 to 1973. She is survived by one grandchild and three great-grandchildren.
• Glynis Margaret Payne Johns, actor, born October 5, 1923; died January 4, 2024