Family of Glynis Johns, one of the world’s oldest actors, makes demand for her 100th birthday
As one of the last living stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age, Glynis Johns is also one of the few legends who thinks she has been forgotten.
The actress, who turns 100 on October 5, has had a long and successful career that includes 30 plays, 60 movies, and many awards.
Even though the prolific star made a lot of important contributions to the industry, she was never given the prestigious British title that other entertainers get.
Now, on her 100th birthday, her family is asking the government to honor her with this honor.
Read on to find out more about the beautiful 100-year-old and what her family wants.
Glynis Johns was born on October 5, 1923, and was an actor and ballerina. She spent most of the 1930s performing in London theaters.
Johns’s first movie role was in South Riding in 1938. Since then, she has been in a huge number of movies, including Miranda in 1948, The Sundowners in 1960 (for which she was nominated for an Oscar), and The Chapman Report in 1962 (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe).
She was in Disney’s 1964 hit movie Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke as the beloved but clumsy mother Winifred Banks. This is probably the role she is most famous for.
From being a child star to a glamorous leading lady in soap operas, sitcoms, and horror movies, she had a great career.
She worked with famous actors like Frank Sinatra, Roger Moore, Deborah Kerr, Richard Attenborough, Jane Fonda, and Christopher Plummer.
Johns was born in South Africa and has also been in a number of TV shows, including her own show Glynis in 1963, as a bad guy on Batman, as Diane’s (Shelley Long) mother on Cheers, as a cruise passenger on the Love Boat, and on Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury, with whom she shared the screen for the first time in the 1955 movie The Court Jester.
Johns was a major star on stage, screen, and TV for decades, but she was never given the title of Dame, which is equivalent to Knight, like many other British actresses of her time.
And her family is arguing about the matriarch who has lived longer than all four of her husbands.
Thomas Forwood, her 48-year-old grandson, told MailOnline :
“I am so happy that my grandmother is going to make it to this important birthday, and we send her many congratulations.”
“Glynis had a great career that lasted many decades. She was very talented and could play a lot of different roles on stage and in movies.”
Almost everyone will have seen her work and know her voice and face because she’s in so many important works.
Forwood, a screenwriter who lives in Paris, said:
“It would be fitting for the UK government to officially recognize her cultural contribution by making her a Dame at this time.”
Not only Johns’ grandson wants her to be recognized, but so do many other people. Chris Bryant, a British Labour MP who is pushing for her to become a Dame, said,
“Glynis deserves recognition for her stellar and incredibly long-lasting career on both stage and screen.”
Some of the best actors of her time, like Angela Lansbury, Judi Dench, Joan Collins, and Maggie Smith, put her in the same category.
Bryant also said that the Lock up Your Daughters! star would be “a lifetime ambassador for the creative arts.”
While this is going on, Johns is enjoying his retirement in a Beverly Hills nursing home.
The last time we saw her was in Superstar, a 1999 Saturday Night Live comedy movie with Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon. Even though she hasn’t been seen by the public since she turned forty-five, she still has a lot of fans around the world, and people are showing their support online.
“I love her so much!” says one netizen. Someone else writes, “This shouldn’t be a petition; this should have been granted decades ago. What a great gift that would be.” The legend of Glynis lives on.”
There are three people who are shocked that she hasn’t been made Dame yet. “How is this possible?” “She is a gem!”
Forwood tells his grandmother, who is 100 years old, that she deserves to join the honorary order of Dames, which includes actors such as Dame Joan Collins, Dame Penelope Keth, Dame Maureen Lipman, and Dame Olivia de Haviland (1960–2020). She got her honors two weeks before she turned 101.
“I wouldn’t want to downplay their accomplishments, but I think it’s clear that Glynis has been forgotten in this case.” If the government could skip the usual slow steps involved in these matters and make up for lost time by making her a Dame right away, that would be fitting.
“I can’t see this being anything but a popular and deserved move,” says Forwood.
First, we want to wish Glynis Johns a happy birthday! It would be the best gift for her 100th birthday if she could join the Order of Dames.
Tell your friends about this story and let us know what you think about this great actor. Let’s start a movement to get her made a Dame!
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