Glynis Johns, Tony Winner for 'A Little Night Music,' Dies at 100

Glynis Johns, Tony Winner for ‘A Little Night Music,’ Dies at 100

In a trans-Atlantic career that endured for more than 60 years, she was also known for her role in the hit 1965 Disney movie “Mary Poppins.”



Glynis Johns in 1962. Her trans-Atlantic career endured for more than 60 years. Paramount Pictures/De Carvalho Collection, via Getty Images

By Anita Gates
Jan. 4, 2024
Updated 6:21 p.m. ET

Glynis Johns, the British actress who in a trans-Atlantic career that endured for more than 60 years won a Tony Award for her role in “A Little Night Music,” giving husky, emotion-rich voice to the show’s most memorable number, “Send In the Clowns,” and played an exuberant Edwardian suffragist in the Disney movie classic “Mary Poppins,” died on Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 100. … The death, at an assisted living facility, was confirmed by her manager, Mitch Clem.

Ms. Johns was 49 and on the brink of her fourth divorce when the Stephen Sondheim musical “A Little Night Music” opened at the Shubert Theater in February 1973. The New York Times described her character, Desirée Armfeldt, as “a slightly world‐weary and extremely lovewise actress in turn‐of‐the‐century Sweden.”

The critics adored her. To Clive Barnes of The Times, “the misty-voiced and glistening-eyed Glynis Johns was all tremulous understanding.” … To Walter Kerr, also writing in The Times, she was “that cousin of bullfrogs and consort of weary gods”; she was “discreet, dangerous … and gratifyingly funny.”

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Ms. Johns, right, in 1964 as a suffragist in “Mary Poppins,” with Hermione Baddeley. Walt Disney Pictures, via Everett Collection

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