Born in Pretoria, South Africa, husky-voiced actress Glynis Johns was
the daughter of British stage actor Mervyn Johns. She made her stage
debut at the age of 12 and her film career began shortly after in Victor
Saville's South Riding (1938), in which she played Ralph
Richardson's headstrong daughter. She continued in strong supporting
roles that displayed her versatility such as Michael
Powell and Emeric
Pressburger's WW2 feature The
49th Parallel (1941) and post-war Ealing drama Frieda
(1947). She also appeared alongside her father in another Ealing production;
the eerie The Halfway
House (1943).
Johns graduated to more playful light comedy roles, memorably as the
alluring mermaid in Miranda
(1948). She became a familiar face in British cinema throughout the
1950s with such notable assignments as State Secret (1950), The
Card (1952), The
Beachcomber (1954) and Shake Hands with the Devil (1959). She received
her sole Academy Award nomination for The Sundowners (1960) but her
best-remembered role may well be the musical suffragette in Disney's
Mary Poppins (1964). In 1963 she appeared in her own short-lived US
sitcom titled 'Glynis'. During the 70s and 80s the film roles dried
up but she won a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in 'A Little Night
Music'. In the 1990s she resurfaced in cinema roles often portraying
an eccentric or cantankerous senior citizen.
