GLYNIS JOHNS
(5 October 1923 - 4 January 2024)
The British actress Glynis Johns, whose career spread over some eight decades, has died in Los Angeles. In October 2023 she celebrated her 100th birthday. Although she made over sixty films and appeared in more than thirty stage productions, she may well be best remembered for just two outstanding performances – that of Mrs Banks, the suffragette in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins, and Desiree Armfeldt in the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music in which she introduced the song ‘Send in the Clowns’.
Glynis Margaret Payne Johns was born in Pretoria in South Africa where her parents, the Welsh actor Mervyn Johns and his wife, the concert pianist Alyce Steele-Wareham, happened to be at the time of their daughter’s birth. On their return to the UK, five-year-old Glynis joined the London Ballet School and found success immediately, winning many gold medals. Glynis was only eight when she made her London debut at the Phoenix theatre in Elmer Rice’s Judgement Day. She acted and danced in children’s plays and was then cast as Napoleon’s daughter in St Helena at the Old Vic. She entered films in 1938 playing Ralph Richardson’s daughter in South Riding, was in Alexander Korda’s The Thief of Bagdad, Under Your Hat with Cicely Courtneidge and The Prime Minister with John Gielgud.
Glynis Johns made a great impression as Anna in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 49th Parallel in 1941, for which she received an award from the National Board of Review. After that she played the mermaid in Miranda, appeared with her father, Mervyn Johns in The Halfway House and was a substantial part of British films in State Secret with Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Flesh and Blood with Richard Todd, and No Highway with James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. She was also in Encore, a collection of stories by W. Somerset Maugham. In 1954 Johns was the star of The Weak and the Wicked as a girl imprisoned with others played by Diana Dors, Jane Hylton and Rachel Roberts. She performed opposite Danny Kaye in The Court Jester, and in 1956 was one of the many stars in Mike Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days. Fred Zinneman’s The Sundowners, set in Australia, gave her a best supporting actress Oscar nomination. Being in Mary Poppins sealed her US success. She had already appeared on American television from the 1950s and in 1963 had her own series, Glynis, although it lasted for just one season.
Her work on the London stage included Richard Bird’s Quiet Weekend, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, playing Anne of Cleves in The King’s Mare, and later on she had the role of Alma Rattenbury in Terence Rattigan’s Cause Célèbre which won her a Variety Club award. Her Broadway debut was in Enid Bagnold’s comedy Gertie, but her greatest success was in A Little Night Music, Sondheim’s adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s film Smiles of a Summer Night. At the last minute before the opening, Desiree’s character needed another song and so was born, literally overnight, ‘Send in the Clowns’, the composer-lyricist’s biggest hit. It won Glynis Johns a Tony and her performance is still the best version.
Glynis Johns’ first husband was the actor Anthony Forwood. They had a son, the actor Gareth, but they divorced when he was three. Forwood then became manager and companion to Dirk Bogarde. Johns was only engaged to Encore producer Anthony Darnborough. In 1952 to 1956 she was married to Royal Navy officer David Foster. In 1960 she wed the businessman Cecil Henderson, only to divorce two years later. Her fourth husband from 1964 was the writer and US Air Force Captain Elliott Arnold (they divorced in 1973). She blamed her career for breaking up her marriages. All her husbands predeceased her and her only son died in 2007, aged 62.
What is there left to say about the glorious Glynis except that she had the most deliciously and seductively husky voice that spoke volumes in any role she played? That voice and her innate talent combined to make her one of Britain’s most admired actors.
MICHAEL DARVELL