Mary Poppins and Sundowners actress Glynis Johns dies aged 100

Award-winning actress Glynis Johns – a star of Mary Poppins and The Sundowners – has been described by her manager as ‘last of the last of old Hollywood’.

British actress Glynis Johns, who famously played Mrs Banks in the 1964 film Mary Poppins, has died aged 100.

Her manager Mitch Clem said she died of natural causes and was living at an assisted living home in West Hollywood, California, at the time of her death.

Johns also played the Australian Outback pub manager Mrs Firth in the 1960s movie The Sundowners, about a 1920s rural family that also starred Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov.

Glynis Johns at Lincoln Centre in New York in 1987. Picture: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

“Today’s a sad day for Hollywood. She is the last of the last of old Hollywood,” he said.

“My heart is heavy today with the passing of my beloved client Glynis Johns.

“Glynis powered her way through life with intelligence, wit and a love for performance, affecting millions of lives.

“She entered my life early in my career and set a very high bar on how to navigate this industry with grace, class and truth. Your own truth.

Glynis Johns in the Mary Poppins film.

“Her light shined very brightly for 100 years. She had a wit that could stop you in your tracks powered by a heart that loved deeply and purely.

“Today is a sombre day for Hollywood. Not only do we mourn the passing of our dear Glynis, but we mourn the end of the golden age of Hollywood.”

Johns was recruited by Walt Disney himself to play Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins, in which she sang the song Sister Suffragette.

Glynis Johns #RIP#MaryPoppins
pic.twitter.com/2TeGeCc8e7

— Pip Tomson (@PipTomson) January 4, 2024

Before playing Mrs. Banks, Johns appeared two other Disney movies released in 1953: The Sword and the Rose and Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue.

Johns went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the 1960 film The Sundowners.

Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony in 1973.

Stephen Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song, Send in the Clowns, to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part to Elizabeth Taylor in the 1977 film version.

Glynis Johns as a mermaid in 1948 film Miranda.

Actress Glynis Johns.

The actress was known in the industry as a perfectionist, telling the Associated Press in an 1990 interview: “As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level.

“The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it. To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real.”