Glynis Johns

At 100 years old, Glynis Johns has this physical status:

Johns made her stage debut as a child ballerina in 1935, playing Ursula in Buckie's Bears; this production lasted from 27 December 1935 to 11 January 1936 at the Garrick Theatre. Her proficiency in dance led her to be cast in several children's plays throughout the 1930s, notably during the Christmas holidays. She was spotted by a manager and subsequently cast in her first major stage production, as Napoleon's daughter in the 1936 short play St Helena at The Old Vic; she was in productions of The Children's Hour and The Melody That Got Lost the same year. Following this, she was cast in Elmer Rice's 1937 production Judgement Day, J. M. Barrie's 1937 play A Kiss for Cinderella, and Esther McCracken's 1938 play Quiet Wedding, in which she played the bridesmaid Miranda Bute at Piccadilly Theatre, London.

Johns made her screen debut in 1938 with the film adaptation of Winifred Holtby's novel South Riding. She had small roles in David Evans' 1938 crime film Murder in the Family and in Brian Desmond Hurst's 1938 black-and-white crime film Prison Without Bars and 1939 thriller On the Night of the Fire.

Johns' stage and film work in the late 1930s laid the foundation for her film career in the 1940s. She averaged one and a half films a year throughout the decade, starting in 1940 with Under Your Hat, in which she played Winnie, a supporting character to Jack Hulbert's Jack Millett and Cicely Courtneidge's Kay Millett in this musical comedy spy film. Johns' scene in the 1941 British historical drama The Prime Minister as Miss Sheridan did not make the final cut, though her role in the 1941 British and Canadian war drama film 49th Parallel, in which she replaced Elisabeth Bergner as Anna, earned her a National Board of Review Award for Best Acting and international acclaim. She continued with supporting roles as Paula Palacek in the 1943 British spy film The Adventures of Tartu, Gwyneth in the 1944 British drama film The Halfway House, Dizzy Clayton in the 1945 British drama film Perfect Strangers, for which Radio Times' Robyn Karney said she was "excellent", and starring roles as Millie in the 1946 British comedy film This Man Is Mine and Judy in the 1947 British drama film Frieda.

For her role as Miranda Trewella in Ken Annakin's eponymous 1948 black and white comedy film, in which she causes havoc in a London household, David L. Vineyard on MysteryFile writes that "Johns is a revelation: long platinum hair, Khirghiz eyes, and that breathless voice, perfect for this sexy romp," with ScreenOnline's Matthew Coniam adding that "Miranda... is played ideally by Glynis Johns... a strikingly unusual actress facially reminiscent of Gloria Grahame, with a melodic, purring voice." Johns starred in two films the following year: Dear Mr. Prohack as Mimi Warburton and Third Time Lucky as Joan Burns. Of the latter, Flint on Letterboxd wrote that "Glynis is as winningly winsome as ever, her husky tones approximating a British Jean Arthur."

On stage, she reprised her role as Miranda Bute in Richard Bird's play Quiet Weekend, which ran from 22 July 1941 to 29 January 1944 at Wyndham’s Theatre in London. Following this, she appeared in Peter Pan at the Cambridge Theatre in 1943, I'll See You Again in 1944, and Fools Rush In in 1946.

In the 1950s, Johns enjoyed more film roles than any decade preceding. Her successes in Miranda (1948), Third Time Lucky (1949) and others made her a household name, both in Britain and America; director Ken Annakin was an early admirer of Johns' work.

In 1950, she starred in Sidney Gilliat's drama thriller film State Secret with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Jack Hawkins; as Lisa Robinson, she was Fairbanks' love interest; the two cause havoc in a fictitious East-European country and ultimately flee to America to start their new life together. Johns supported Richard Todd in Flesh and Blood the following year and having previosuly declined parts in Hollywood productions, beacuse of her loving devotion to British cinema, appeared in the Hollywood-financed No Highway in the Sky, directed by Henry Koster. She co-starred with David Niven in Appointment with Venus (1951) for director Ralph Thomas, and was one of several names in the 1951 anthology film Encore and John Boulting's Technicolour biographical drama film The Magic Box of the same year. In The Card (1952), she was Alec Guinness' main love interest, dance teacher Ruth Earp, for which The New York Times' Bosley Crowther writes that "Miss Johns' self-propelling young lady is a bundle of feminine guile."

Johns was reunited with Richard Todd for two swashbucklers made for Walt Disney: The Sword and the Rose (1953), directed by Ken Annakin, and Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1953). At the same time, she made Personal Affair, a British drama film starring Gene Tierney and directed by Anthony Pelissier, in which Johns pursues her Latin teacher, Leo Genn's Kay Barlow. The following year, Johns had the starring role in J. Lee Thompson's drama film The Weak and the Wicked, playing upper-class prisoner Jean Raymond, for which she was widely praised. Johns did another for Annakin, The Seekers (1954), in which she portrayed Marion Southey, fiance to Jack Hawkins' Philip Wayne, then co-starred with Robert Newton in The Beachcomber (1954). For both these films, she was paid £12,500 a picture.

Ralph Thomas' 1954 Technicolor comedy film Mad About Men starred Johns alongside actors Donald Sinden and Anne Crawford in this sequel to Miranda. Johns starred in the 1955 comedy Josephine and Men and supported Danny Kaye in the musical-comedy medieval romance costume drama film The Court Jester of the same year, playing Jean with "cunning precision". Annakin used her again in Loser Takes All (1956) and she was one of the many actors who made cameos in Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Alongside Cameron Mitchell, Johns starred in the 1957 Technicolor melodrama film All Mine to Give, based on the novel by Dale Eunson and his wife Katherine Albert. Johns returned to Britain to make Another Time, Another Place (1958) with Lana Turner and starred as Kitty Brady in Shake Hands with the Devil (1959), in which she was "wonderful as always".

In the West End, Johns starred in two 1950 productions: Fools Rush In at the Fortune Theatre and The Way Things Go at the Phoenix Theatre. On Broadway, Johns played the title role in Herman Shumlin's 1952 play Gertie. Johns returned to Broadway in 1956 to play the title role in a production of Major Barbara and stayed to make the melodrama All Mine to Give in 1957.

In 1960, Johns starred in Godfrey Grayson's mystery film The Spider's Web, a screen adaptation of the 1954 play Spider's Web by Agatha Christie. She had a supporting role in The Sundowners (1960), for which Variety wrote that "Glynis Johns is a vivacious delight", with The New York Times' Bosley Crowther adding that her role as Mrs. Firth (which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress) was "played richly" and with effervescence. Johns starred in the remake of The Cabinet of Caligari (1962) as the easily-offended and oft-frightened Jane Lindstrom, and was one of several stars in George Cukor's 1962 Technicolor drama film The Chapman Report. She supported Jackie Gleason in George Marshall's 1963 adaptation of the eponymous Corinne Griffith memoir Papa's Delicate Condition, a role described by Jeffrey Kauffman as "neatly understated".

Mary Poppins (1964) is considered Walt Disney's crowning live-action achievement, and is the only one of his films which earned a Best Picture nomination during his lifetime. In it, Johns plays Winifred Banks, the wife of George Banks, mother of Jane and Michael, and member of Emmeline Pankhurst's "Votes for Women" suffrage movement, to which she is completely dedicated. When first approached by Walt Disney, Johns thought it was to play the title role of Mary Poppins, not Mrs. Banks. To ensure she accepted, he explained the mishap over lunch and arranged for the Sherman Brothers to write her a musical number: the song "Sister Suffragette", a pro-suffrage protest song pastiche, was written in 1964 with her in mind. "Johns is endearing as the mother," writes The Hollywood Reporter's James Powershappy in 1964, "happy as a lark at getting chained to a lamp post for the cause... she comes in strongly as a singing actor."

The following year, Johns was cast in Henry Koster's DeLuxe Color family–comedy Dear Brigitte as the aesthete Vina, wife of James Stewart, whom she had first acted with 14 years earlier in No Highway in the Sky. She appeared in various character roles in the 1968 American comedy film Don't Just Stand There!, written by Charles Williams, and the 1969 British comedy film Lock Up Your Daughters, directed by Peter Coe.

Johns was cast in 1961 in the ABC/Warner Bros. crime drama The Roaring 20s. She portrayed Kitty O'Moyne, an Irish immigrant who falls overboard into the harbour as she arrives in the United States. In the episode episode A Game for Alternate Mondays of the 1962–63 television season, Johns guest-starred in the CBS anthology series The Lloyd Bridges Show, playing widow Leah Marquand, with Leslye Hunter as her daughter Isabella. In the autumn of 1963, she and Keith Andes starred as a married couple in her eponymous CBS television series Glynis, in which she played a mystery writer and Andes a criminal defence attorney. Due to pressure from NBC's The Virginian and Bill Cullen's The Price Is Right game show on ABC, the programme was cancelled after thirteen episodes. In 1965, when CBS reran the series as a summer replacement for The Lucy Show, Glynis ranked #6 in the Nielsen ratings. In 1967, Johns appeared in 4 episodes of the Batman television series as villainess Lady Penelope Peasoup, one half of the Ffogg duo with Rudy Vallée as Lord Marmaduke Ffogg.

Johns was in Too True to Be Good on Broadway in 1963 and The King's Mare at the Garrick Theatre in 1966. From 1969, she turned increasingly to stage work, appearing in A Talent to Amuse (1969) and Come as You Are (1969–70).

In the 1970s, Johns' career focus was on the stage. Following her appearance in Nöel Coward's Marquise (1972), Johns starred in two more Coward plays in the early 1970s: from 27 January 1970 to September 1970, she was in Come As You Are at London's New Theatre and Strand Theatre, and from 6 March 1972 to 12 March 1972, she was in Marquise at the Bristol Hippodrome in England.

In 1973, Johns was in the original cast of A Little Night Music, written by Stephen Sondheim, which premiered at 18:30 on 25 February at the Shubert Theatre in New York. The song "Send In the Clowns" was written with her in mind. Commenting on director Harold Prince in a 1973 interview, she says he "‘has eyes in the back of his head and a real driving force, a life force. And with it goes a great deal of loge. He calls us “crew” and himself “captain,” and he's heartbroken when opening night is over, simply because he doesn't want to be away from us. I think he falls in love with his company.’" For her role as Desiree Armfeldt, she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. As Anthony Tommasini put it in The New York Times: "Stephen Sondheim composed his most famous song, "Send In the Clowns," for an actress with virtually no voice, Glynis Johns, and few genuine singers have performed it as effectively."

Following this, Johns starred in Joseph Hardy's production of Ring Round the Moon at the Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles, from 1 April 1975 to 10 May 1975, with stage actor Michael York. From 17 March 1976, she starred in Peter Dews' production of 13 Rue de l'Amour at the Phoenix Theatre in London with film and stage actor Louis Jourdan. This production was held at the Theatre Royal in Norwich; it closed on 8 May 1976. From 1977 to March 1978, Johns starred as Alma Rattenbury in a production of Cause Célèbre at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London and Leicester Haymarket Theatre.

Johns' film roles of the 1970s included playing Myfanwy Price in Andrew Sinclair's 1972 drama film Under Milk Wood, Eleanor Critchit in Roy Ward Baker's 1973 anthology horror film The Vault of Horror, Swallow in the 1974 short film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and Mrs. Amworth in the 1977 British-Canadian horror anthology film Three Dangerous Ladies, a reprisal of the role. Of her original performance as Mrs. Amworth in the eponymous 1975 short film, Ian Holloway on Wyrd Britain writes that "the titular lady" is "played with flamboyant aplomb by the fabulous Glynis Johns."

Johns appeared in Noël Coward's comic play Hay Fever as Judith Bliss from 4 August 1981 to 10 October 1981 at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford and the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. This was her fourth role in a Noël Coward production. From 20 November 1989 to 20 May 1990, she starred as Lady Catherine Champion-Cheney in W Somerset Maugham's Broadway romance The Circle at the Ambassador Theatre in New York.

During the first season of NBC's hit sitcom Cheers, Johns guest-starred as Diane Chambers' mother, Helen Chambers, an eccentric dowager who, due to a stipulation in Diane's late father's will, will lose all her money unless Diane is married by the next day.

During 1988–89, she played Trudie Pepper, a senior citizen living in an Arizona retirement community, in the television sitcom Coming of Age on CBS.

Johns appeared in just three roles throughout the 1990s, as the grandmother in each. She played the camera-toting grandmother in the 1995 Sandra Bullock hit While You Were Sleeping and the waspish Grandma Rose in Ted Demme's 1994 black comedy film The Ref. Of this role, Caution Spoilers' Sarah notes that "Glynis Johns as the awful Rose is terrific". Her last film appearance to date was as the grandmother of Molly Shannon's Mary Gallagher in the 1999 film Superstar.

On stage, Johns starred as Myrtle Bledsoe in the premiere of Horton Foote's A Coffin in Egypt from June to July 1998 at the Bay Street Theatre in New York.

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