Family of Glynis Johns, one of the world’s oldest actors, makes demand for her 100th birthday
One of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Glynis Johns also happens to be one of the few legends who feels she has been overlooked.
The centenarian, who celebrates her milestone birthday on October 5, has a storied career that includes 30 plays, 60 films, and multiple awards.
Despite her significant contributions to the industry, the prolific star was previously overlooked for a prestigious British title bestowed on other entertainers, and now her family is calling on the government to mark her 100th year with their request.
Keep reading to learn more about the 100-year-old starlet and what her family wants.
Born on October 5, 1923, Glynis Johns, an actor and ballerina, spent much of the 1930s playing to audiences on theatre stages across London.
Since she made her big screen debut in the 1938 film South Riding, Johns appeared in countless films, including 1948’s Miranda, 1960’s The Sundowners–a performance that earned her an Oscar nod–and her Golden Globe-nominated appearance in 1962’s The Chapman Report.
But the part she is probably best known for was as Winifred Banks, the beloved and bumbling mother in Disney’s 1964 box office hit Mary Poppins, where she starred opposite Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke.
Her fabulous career has seen her evolve from a child star to a glamorous leading lady in genre-crossing titles from soap operas to sitcoms and horror, where she starred alongside legendary actors like Frank Sinatra, Roger Moore, Deborah Kerr, Richard Attenborough, Jane Fonda and Christopher Plummer.
The South African-born Johns also appeared in several TV series like her eponymous 1963 show Glynis, as a villain on Batman, the mother to Diane (Shelley Long) on Cheers, a cruise passenger on the Love Boat, and Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury, whom she first shared the screen within the 1955 film The Court Jester.
Despite being a staple star of stage, film, and TV for decades, Johns–unlike numerous other British actresses of her generation–was never honored with Damehood, a title equal to Knight.
