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Born October 5, 1923 in Pretoria, South Africa while her Welsh parents were on tour, Glynis Johns was the daughter of actor Mervyn Johns (1899-1992) and pianist Alice Maude Steele (1901-1970).

A trained dancer, pianist, and singer as well as actress, Johns made her first stage appearance as a child ballerina in Londonโ€™s Garrick Theatre in 1935. She made her film debut in 1938โ€™s South Riding and continued in British films largely unnoticed through 1941. In 1942, she married actor Anthony Forwood with whom she had her only child, actor Gareth Forwood (1945-2007). In 1943, she received excellent notices for her portrayal of a resistance fighter and martyr to the cause in The Adventures of Tartu retitled Sabotage Agent for the U.S. market. Other important roles during this period were as Deborah Kerrโ€™s friend โ€œDizzyโ€ in 1945โ€™s Perfect Strangers AKA Vacation from Marriage and as the titled mermaid in 1948โ€™s Miranda. She and Forwood divorced in 1948. He later became Dirk Bogardeโ€™s manager and life partner. She would later marry three times, her last marriage ending in divorce in 1964.

1951โ€™s No Highway in the Sky in support of James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich was an international success, resulting in Johns being brought to the U.S. to play the title role in the 1952 Broadway play Gertie. In Hollywood, she starred opposite Richard Todd in two Disney live-action features, 1953โ€™s The Sword and the Rose and 1954โ€™s Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue.

1955โ€™s The Court Jester opposite Danny Kaye was her biggest hit of the decade. She also made audiences and critics alike sit up and take notice with her performances in 1957โ€™s All Mine to Give, 1958โ€™s Another Time, Another Place and 1959โ€™s Shake Hand with the Devil. Her performance in 1960โ€™s The Sundowners earned her what would be her only Oscar nomination.

In 1962, Johns received the best notices of the all-star cast of The Chapman Report playing a sexually promiscuous suburban housewife with a young stud on the side. In 1963, she was properly demure again as Jackie Gleasonโ€™s wife in Papaโ€™s Delicate Condition and starred in the 13-episode TV series, Glynis. In 1964, she had her best-known screen role in Mary Poppins.

In 1967, she appeared as Lady Penelope Peasoup in four episodes of Batman. In 1972, she appeared in Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Oโ€™Toole. In 1973, she had her greatest stage success in A Little Night Music for which Stephen Sondheim wrote โ€œSend in the Clownsโ€ especially for her. The performance won her a Tony.

Much on TV in the intervening years including a role on Murder, She Wrote with lifelong friend Angela Lansbury, Johns had two memorable late career supporting turns in 1994โ€™s The Ref and 1995โ€™s While You Were Sleeping.

With the death of Olivia de Havilland in 2020, Johns became the oldest living Oscar nominee Retired since 1999, she lives quietly in a retirement complex in Los Angeles at 99.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE COURT JESTER (1955), directed by Norman Panama, Melvin Frank

The best and most successful of Johnsโ€™ early Hollywood films was this delightful bit of nonsense about a hapless carnival performer (Danny Kaye) who masquerades as a court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler (Cecil Parker) who has overthrown the rightful king. The complicated, but very funny plot, features Johns (as Kayeโ€™s love interest), Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury, Mildred Natwick, Robert Middleton, Edward Ashley and many more. There are eight songs and rhymes galore including this unforgettable one which ends: โ€œThe pellet with the poison’s in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!โ€

THE SUNDOWNERS (1960), directed by Fred Zinnemann

This warm, wonderful film about a migrant family in Australiaโ€™s Outback in the early twentieth century starred Robert Mitchum as the husband and sheep herder, Deborah Kerr as the wife and farmhand cook and Michael Anderson, Jr. as their teenage son and tar boy. The terrific supporting cast is led by Johns as an extremely pleasant barmaid and innkeeper who loves menโ€™s company and knows how to deal with them and Peter Ustinov as a highly educated but slightly mysterious Englishman. It was nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture, Actress (Kerr), Supporting Actress (Johns), Director and Adapted Screenplay.

MARY POPPINS (1964), directed by Robert Stevenson

Thirteen Oscar nominations and five wins were accorded Disneyโ€™s live-action musical comedy with minimal animation, the film that launched the screen career of Julie Andrews and gave her an Oscar of her very own. The score is by the Sherman Brothers who wrote the song โ€œSister Suffragetteโ€ especially for Johns to sing as the loving but often absent British mother who needs a nanny to take charge of her two children while she is out marching for womenโ€™s rights. She also gets to sing the showโ€™s exuberant final song, โ€œLetโ€™s Go Fly a Kiteโ€ as she and her family learn to make it on their own.

THE REF (1994), directed by Ted Demme

This was one of the better Christmas comedies to come out of Hollywood in the last quarter century. Denis Leary had top billing as a cat burglar forced to take a dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas Eve. Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey are the parents and Robert J. Steinmiller, Jr. the son. Johns doesnโ€™t have much screen time as Spaceyโ€™s frighteningly funny castrating mother, but she has some of the best lines including the zinger she gives Leary when he says to her โ€œYou know what, lady? Iโ€™d like to tie you to the back of a fโ€ฆing truckโ€, โ€œYou havenโ€™t got the balls.โ€ That was Mrs. Banks thirty years on.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING (1995), directed by Jon Turteltaub

Mistaken identity drives this charming romantic comedy in which Sandra Bullock is a Chicago token collector who saves mugging victim Peter Gallagher from an oncoming train. Visiting the comatose Gallagher in the hospital, she is mistaken for his fiancรฉe which causes all sorts of problems for Gallagherโ€™s brother, Bill Pullman, who is falling in love with the entrancing Bullock. Peter Boyle, Jack Warden and Johns co-star. She doesnโ€™t have much screen time, but as usual Johns makes every second count as Pullman and Gallagherโ€™s delightfully sweet grandmother with a heart condition that doesnโ€™t allow for a lot of excitement.

GLYNIS JOHNS AND OSCAR

  • The Sundowners (1960) nominated โ€“ Best Supporting Actress

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