Last update: 05.01.2024 | 0:24
Actress Glynis Jones, one of the stars of the classic movie “Mary Poppins” passed away at the age of 100. Jones was a Welsh actress, singer, dancer and pianist. In the 1964 Walt Disney Studios classic, she played Winfried Banks, the women’s rights activist and the mother of the Banks family to whom Mary Poppins is sent to act as a governess.
Jones won a Tony Award, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1960 for her performance in The Sunset Men, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Peddler’s Report.
She first appeared as a child as a ballerina on stages. At the age of 15, she made her first appearance in a motion picture, “Southern Riding” alongside Ralph Richardson and Edmund Gwen. At the age of 18, she participated in Michael Powell’s war drama “49 parallels”. In World War II, Jones played in the British spy film “The Adventures of Tartu” and in the drama “Perfect Strangers”.
Actors David Tomlinson, Glynnis Jones, Matthew Gerber, Karen Doutris in a scene from the movie “Mary Poppins” (Photo: Donaldson Collection, Getty Images)
In the 1950s, Jones appeared in the Walt Disney production “The Sword and the Blade” in the role of Queen Mary Tudor of France, in the comedies “The Court Clown” and “The Ticket” and in the dramas “The Magic Box” alongside her father Marvin Jones, “Another Place, Another Time” and “State Secret”.
In 1960, Jones was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Fred Zinman’s The Sunset Men. In 1962, Jones was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in George Cukor’s literary erotic drama The Peddler’s Report.
In 1964, as mentioned, Jones played the role of women’s rights activist Winifred Banks in the classic musical film “Mary Poppins”. In 1973, Jones won a Tony Award for her performance in the musical “A Little Night Music” where she sang the ballad “Send in the Clowns” written by Stephen Sondheim especially for her.
In 1998, Jones was recognized by “The Walt Disney Company” as one of the Disney Legends. Her last film appearance was in 1999 in the movie “Superstar”.
Jones was married four times. To the English actor Anthony Forwood, to the hero of the Second World War David Foster, to the businessman Cecil Henderson and to the writer Eliot Arnold. Her only son, Gareth Forwood, passed away in 2007 at the age of 62.
