Mad about Glynis
The key footnote of last week’s news for film lovers was the death, at the grand age of 100, of Glynis Johns, daughter of Welsh actor, Mervyn. Despite being possessed of palpable charm and intelligence, she never quite made it to the status of a Margaret Lockwood or Joan Greenwood and found herself prematurely relegated to secondary roles, such as playing second fiddle to Lana Turner in Another Time, Another Place, or Deborah Kerr in The Sundowners, or again, most notably, to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins.
Her breakout part was as the girl in 49th Parallel, a wartime drama about U-boat crewmen in Canada. The standout role of Miranda the mermaid came in 1948, to be followed by the (colour) sequel Man about Men in 1954, films which showcased that special twinkle in her eye that meant only one thing: the joy of sex. And she did make it in Hollywood, too, with films like The Court Jester (with Danny Kaye) and The Chapman Report, though like her contemporary Claire Bloom she chose carefully.
She had a husky voice, which again oozed sex appeal, and could sing, as with Sister Suffragette, a number written specially for her in Mary Poppins. By the early 70s in Lock Up Your Daughters and Under Milk Wood she was still sexy, but approaching fifty she decided to concentrate on stage roles (Coward, Shaw, and Sondheim’s A Little Night Music). This was on top of much TV work stateside during the 1960s, and in spite of suffering from stage fright all her life.
Somehow, however, we never really got enough of Glynis. Was she just too quirky to be a Sylvia Syms leading blonde, those eyes too big? Was she too short? Did her voice get her typecast in comedic roles? Someone should make a study of the matter. What is beyond doubt is that she brought the promise of fun and pleasure in equal measure, and could play the ingénue like no other.
On the death of Olivia de Havilland in 2020 she became the oldest living Hollywood legend, thanks to her work with Disney. She died in a rest home in Hollywood, surviving all four of her husbands.
