Glynis Johns Biography
Born: October 05, 1923
Throaty-voiced, kittenish leading lady Glynis Johns was the daughter of British stage actor Mervyn_Johns; she was born while her father and concert-pianist mother were on a tour of South Africa. Enrolled in the London ballet school at age 6, Johns had by age 10 progressed to the point that she was certified to teach ballet. At 12, she made her stage debut in the role of Napoleon's daughter in Saint Helena; at 13, she was cast in the pivotal role of the spiteful schoolgirl in the London production of Lillian_Hellman's The Children's Hour. This led to her first film, 1937's South_Riding, in which she played another petulant, foot-stamping adolescent. Johns graduated to coquettish leading roles in the 1940s, most famously as the alluring mermaid in Miranda (1946). Her best-known Hollywood assignments include the roles of Maid Jean in Danny_Kaye's The_Court_Jester (1956) and the suffragette Mrs. Banks in Disney's Mary_Poppins (1964) (Johns was the only cast member to have the foresight to demand a portion of the royalties for the Poppins soundtrack record). In 1963, she starred in Glynis, a lukewarm TV comedy/mystery series. Eight years later, she won a Tony award for her performance in Broadway's A_Little_Night_Music. Still active into the 1990s, Glynis Johns was recently seen as a belligerent in-law in The_Ref (1994) and as a deliciously dotty aunt in While_You_Were_Sleeping (1995). Hal Erickson, Rovi
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