Glynis Johns is Dead

[Art]

British actress who worked up to the end of the last century was 100.

She was always a favorite of mine, today she is mostly remembered for her role as the feminist mother in "Mary Poppins" but was nominated for an Academy Award as a feisty bar keeper in "The Sundowners" with Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr. I believe I first saw her in "The Court Jester" which also starred Danny Kay and Angela Lansbury in the mid 1950s when I was seven or so in Orange Texas. I also thought she was pretty good in "No Highway in the Sky," one of her many "good girl" movies, with Jimmy Stewart, Marlena Dietrich and Jack Hawkins.

She was an incredibly accomplished dancer and pretty decent singer as well. She was certified to as a dance instructor in the UK at age 10. Stephen Sondheim wrote "Send in the Clowns" in "A Little Night Music" especially for her, she won a "Tony" for that one. I wanted to see that show, with her in it, while I was working in New York City in the early/mid 1970s but never got around to it, oh well. Her obituary reports that when asked what it was like to turn 100 she said "I don't care, I look good for my age at any age," well definitely cheeky at any age .