'Mary Poppins' actress Glynis Jones dies at 100

Glynis Jones, actress of the 1964 film Mary Poppins, died at the age of 100 on Thursday, January 4. The translator was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in October 1923, but held British citizenship. His agent, Mitch Klem, confirmed his death.

Jones won a Tony Award for Best Actress in 1973 for her role as Desiree Armfeldt in “A Little Night Music,” a Broadway musical. The actress was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Sundowners (1961) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for The Chapman Report (1963).

But perhaps her most famous role was as the matriarch and suffragist in Mary Poppins, the Walt Disney musical in which she shared the screen with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Her portrayal of Jane and Michael Banks' mother, who enlists the services of a magical nanny, Mary Poppins (Andrews), to care for her two children, earned her a Laurel Award for Best Supporting Actress.

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“Walt Disney himself chose her to play the career-defining role of Winifred Banks in the Oscar-winning film Mary Poppins. Her casting was spot-on, as film critic Leonard Maltin noted in his book Disney Movies: ‘She lights up the screen the moment she appears.'” [en Mary Poppins],” he wrote. “She makes every minute count and her suffragette song is so much fun,” a post from an official Walt Disney Company account said.

In a statement sent to Variety, Clem said that with his death, the golden age of Hollywood comes to an end. Jones was the oldest performer at the Disney Legend Awards, the Disney Hall of Fame that honors those who have contributed the most to the company.

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With his death, Dick Van Dyke, who co-starred with him in the movie “Mary Poppins,” at the age of 98, became the oldest actor at the Disney Legend Awards. Jones was also the oldest actor nominated for an Oscar since 2020, when Olivia de Havilland died.