EXCLUSIVE: Family of world’s oldest actress Glynis Johns call on government to give her damehood on eve of her 100th birthday
The family of the world’s oldest screen actress, Glynis Johns, have called on the government to give her a Damehood – on the eve of her 100th birthday.
Johns appeared in countless films, including Mary Poppins, alongside everyone from Roger Moore to Sandra Bullock, and later in TV shows including Batman, Cheers and Murder She Wrote.
Johns was nominated for an Oscar, won a Bafta and Tony, and since the deaths in recent years of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Olivia de Haviland, has become the world’s oldest living screen star – and she turns 100 next month (5th Oct).
Her family believe this is an occasion to mark – by finally making her a Dame.
Because unlike numerous other Brit actresses of her generation or younger – including Joan Collins, Penelope Keth, Maureen Lipman and Joanna Lumley – she has never been honoured.
Icon: The family of the world’s oldest screen actress, Glynis Johns, have called on the government to give her a Damehood – on the eve of her 100th birthday
Career: Johns appeared in countless films, including Mary Poppins (pictured in Mary Poppins, 1964)
Her closest living relative, grandson Thomas Forwood, told MailOnline: ‘I am so delighted that my grandmother is set to make it to this landmark birthday and we send her many congratulations.
‘Glynis enjoyed a fabulous career over many decades during which she showed her immense talent and versatility in a range of parts on screen and stage.
‘Almost everyone will have seen her work and be familiar with her face and voice – she’s in so many pieces that people hold dear.
‘Everyone in the family is immensely proud of her achievements.
‘It would be fitting on this occasion for the UK government to formally acknowledge her cultural contribution by making her a Dame.’
Mr Forwood, 48, a screenwriter based in Paris, went on: ‘I look at other actors like, for example, Dame Joan Collins or Dame Penelope Keth, Dame Maureen Lipman or Dame Joanna Lumley, who have been honoured in this way.
‘And while I would never seek to diminish their achievements, I do feel that in this context it’s clear that Glynis has been overlooked.
‘It would be fitting if the government could bypass the usual slow processes involved in these things and make up for lost time by making her a Dame immediately.
Success: Johns was nominated for an Oscar, won a Bafta and Tony, and since the deaths in recent years of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Olivia de Haviland, has become the world’s oldest living screen star (pictured with Angela Lansbury in 1982)
Honour: Her family believe her upcoming 100th birthday this is an occasion to mark – by finally making her a Dame (pictured in Mary Poppins)
‘I cannot see this being anything but a popular and deserved move.’
Glynis now lives in a retirement care home in Beverly Hills and has not had a public profile since she entered her nineties – but she has an army of fans among film enthusiasts.
Among them is veteran Labour MP Chris Bryant, who has held the shadow brief for both the Arts and Culture, Media and Sport, who has backed calls for Johns to get a gong on the occasion of her 100th birthday.
He told MailOnline ‘Glynis certainly deserves recognition for her stellar and incredibly enduring career on both stage and screen. She bears comparison with some of the greatest actors of her era – I’m thinking of people like Angela Lansbury, Judi Dench, Joan Collins and Maggie Smith. ‘But unlike all those who all received damehoods, Glynis for some reason has never been honoured.
‘It does feel like she’s been wrongly missed out and it would be fitting to acknowledge this on the occasion of her landmark birthday.’
Film writer Richard Luck, who writes for magazines including Empire, Rolling Stone and GQ and has written books on Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah, told MailOnline: Hers is a fascinating career not least because it’s had so many phases.
From child star to bright-eyed teen; from glamorous leading lady to middle-aged character actress; every possible genre of film, every type of television programme from soap opera to sitcom; Batman villainess, Love Boat passenger, Diane’s mother in Cheers – I’m sure you’d agree that it’s quite the CV.
‘All that’s missing is a damehood. And I think I speak for a lot of people when I say it’s hard to believe she doesn’t already have one .’
Limelight: Glynis now lives in a retirement care home in Beverly Hills and has not had a public profile since she entered her nineties (pictured in 1948)
Glynis, whose 100th birthday falls on Thursday October 5th, was actually born in South Africa but made her stage debut in London just weeks later – when she was carried on during a London performance by her proud grandmother.
Her father, Mervyn Johns, was a household name actor appearing in numerous early British films, her mother was concert pianist and her grandmother a virtuoso violinist.
With her bright-eyed charm and trademark husky Glynis would go on to be a staple star of stage, film and TV for decades.
She joined the London School of Ballet at five where she would win a series of gold medals. Angela Lansbury, who died last year, was in the class two years below Johns.
Her first film part came in 1938 in the Yorkshire-set drama South Riding – which was remade for TV with Anna Maxwell Martin in David Morrissey in 2011.
Other film roles followed including the 1939 thriller On the Night of the Fire in which she appeared opposite Ralph Richardson.
She continued to act throughout the war, notably in the highly-regarded ghost story The Halfway House, 1944, in which she appeared with her father.
She also starred opposite Deborah Kerr and a young Roger Moore the following year in the drama Perfect Strangers.
Beloved: With her bright-eyed charm and trademark husky Glynis would go on to be a staple star of stage, film and TV for decades
She also worked on the West End stage continually during the Blitz as bombs fell across London.
By the end of the forties she was becoming one of the UK’s most recognisable and popular stars, a status that was confirmed by her role as a mermaid in the smash early rom com Miranda, and its sequel, Helter Skelter. It was said to have inspired the later Daryl Hannah hit Splash.
In Dear Mr Prohack in 1951 she was the love interest of Dirk Bogarde. This was to lead to a strange twist in her personal life – her husband Anthony Forwood (father of Thomas) would later leave her and move in with Bogarde as his lover the following year.
Johns’ career flourished through the fifties as she appeared in countless films in both the UK and Hollywood.
She appeared alongside the biggest stars of the day: James Stewart, David Niven, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Sinatra, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, David Niven, Danny Kaye, Lana Turner, Jack Hawkins, Richard Todd, Richard Attenborough, Alec Guinness and Diana Dors,
In 1960 she was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the Australian drama The Sundowners also starring Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov – and again her own father, Mervyn Johns.
But the part she is probably best known for came in 1964 when she played the suffragette mother character in Disney’s Mary Poppins. The film was a huge hit and her character an enduring favourite.
Success: Johns’ career flourished through the fifties as she appeared in countless films in both the UK and Hollywood (pictured in 1954)
In the sixties she was hailed by a prominent producer as ‘London theatre’s favourite daughter’
In the seventies, Stephen Sondheim wrote his most famous song, Send in the Clowns, with her in mind. He said her voice had the quality of ‘a rumpled bed’ which suited the song. She won a Tony award for her part in the musical it came from, A Little Night Music.
She also appeared alongside the then most famous couple in the world, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, in a film version of Under Milk Wood.
In the eighties, she played the mother of Shelley Long’s character Diane in long running hit comedy Cheers alongside Ted Danson – and appeared alongside her former schoolmate Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote. She even guested on Scooby Doo.
She continued to work well into the 1990s, appearing on stage in the West End and on Broadway.
Her final film part came alongside Will Ferrell in the 1999 comedy Superstar.
She married four times, outliving each husband as well as her only son. Her closest surviving relative is her only grandchild, Thomas, who himself is a father.
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