She died on Thursday at the age of 100 in an assisted living home in Los Angeles, her longtime manager Mitch Clem told CNN and other media outlets in the United States and Britain. “Today is a dark day for Hollywood. We mourn not only our dear Glynis, but also the last sparks of Hollywood’s golden age,” he wrote.
In the Oscar-winning Disney musical “Mary Poppins” (1964) with Julie Andrews, Johns shone in the role of the energetic mother and women’s rights activist Winifred Banks. She hires the nanny played by Andrews, who ends up with the rich London family with her umbrella and uses a lot of imagination to turn the lives of the children Michael and Jane upside down. In the film, Johns sings the song “Sister Suffragette.”
Born in 1923 in what is now South Africa, Johns came from a family of actors. She appeared on stage for the first time in a ballet when she was just twelve years old. Her first film role was in “South Riding” in 1938. In a career spanning more than 60 years, she has appeared in dozens of films, television films and plays.
In 1960 she was nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actress for her role in the family drama “The Sundowners” alongside Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum. In 1973, she received a Tony Award for the role of Desiree Armfeldt in the Broadway play “A Little Night Music.” There she sang the classic “Send In the Clowns”.
On her 100th birthday, she appeared quite quick-witted in an interview with the US broadcaster ABC 7. Age didn’t make any difference to her, she said at the time: “I looked very good at any age.”
