Mary Poppins actress, Glynis John, dies at 100

Actress Glynis John has died at the age of 100.

 

The British actress was popular for her role as a suffragette who reconnects with her children thanks to a magical nanny in the blockbuster 1964 movie musical “Mary Poppins.”

 

Johns, a versatile film and stage veteran who won a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in the Stephen Sondheim musical “A Little Night Music” and was nominated for an Oscar for the 1960 film “The Sundowners,” died of natural causes at an assisted living facility in the Los Angeles area, said her manager, Mitch Clem.

 

She appeared in dozens of films in a movie career that spanned more than 60 years but her role in “Mary Poppins” as Winifred Banks, the distracted suffragette mother who seems to care more about her cause than her two children, was the one for which she will be most remembered.

 

 

Johns also played a flirtatious mermaid in “Miranda” (1948), and then appeared in dual roles in the 1954 mermaid sequel, “Mad About Men” (1954).

 

She was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her role as a hotel keeper in the Australian-set adventure “The Sundowners” alongside Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov.

 

Johns had one son who predeceased her.