Glynis Johns
(1923-present)

Aged 101

Glynis Margaret Payne Johns (born 5 October 1923) is a South African-born British former actress, dancer, musician and singer. Recognised as a film and Broadway icon, Johns has a career spanning eight decades, in which she appeared in more than 60 films and 30 plays. She is the recipient of awards and nominations in various drama award denominations, including the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, the Laurel Awards, the Tony Awards, the Drama Desk Awards, and the Laurence Olivier Awards, within which she has won two thirds of her award nominations. As one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood and classical years of British cinema, she has several longetivity records to her name. Born in Pretoria, South Africa while her parents were on tour, Johns made several appearances on stage throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s. Her family returned to the United Kingdom, where she was educated in London and Bristol. She was hailed for her dancing skills and typecast as a stage dancer from early adolescence, making her screen debut in 1938 with the film adaptation of Winifred Holtby's posthumous novel South Riding. She rose to prominence in the 1940s following her role as Anna in the war drama film 49th Parallel (1941), for which she won a National Board of Review Award for Best Acting, and starring roles in Miranda (1948) and Third Time Lucky (1949). The 1951 black-and-white aviation drama film No Highway in the Sky, a joint British-American production, was Johns' first role in Hollywood cinema. She continued throughout the following decades with starring roles in the United Kingdom and abroad, including The Weak and the Wicked (1954), Mad About Men (1954), The Court Jester (1955), The Sundowners (1960), The Cabinet of Caligari (1962), The Chapman Report (1962), and Under Milk Wood (1972). Renowned for the breathy quality of her husky voice, Johns sang songs written specifically for her both on screen and stage, including "Send In the Clowns", composed by Stephen Sondheim for Broadway's A Little Night Music, in which she originated the role of Desiree Armfeldt and for which she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and "Sister Suffragette", written by the Sherman Brothers for Walt Disney's musical motion picture Mary Poppins, in which she played Winifred Banks and for which she won a Laurel Award for Best Female Supporting Performance. In 2016, with the death of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Johns became the oldest living Batman cast member. With the death of Olivia de Havilland in 2020, she became the oldest living and longest surviving Academy Award nominee in any acting category. Similarly, Johns is currently the oldest living and longest surviving Disney Legend, having been honoured in 1998.

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