list_text=          Best known to Disney fans as feminist Winifred Banks in the Academy Award-winning "Mary Poppins," actress Glynis Johns is everyone's favorite sister suffragette. Like many a moviegoer, Walt Disney loved her sparkling screen persona and personally asked Glynis to play the lively and witty role. His choice of casting was right on as film critic Leonard Maltin pointed out in his book The Disney Films "She lights up the screen the minute she appears (in "Mary Poppins")," he wrote. "She makes every minute count and her amusing suffragette song is most enjoyable."
          Born October 5, 1923, in Pretoria, South Africa, Glynis made history when she received a degree to teach dance by age 10. By 12, she won 25 gold medals for dance in England and by 13, appeared in her first film, "South Riding." She played her first adult role in a Ministry of Information film, "49th Parallel" (U.S. title "The Invaders"), starring Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard and Raymond Massey. And by 19, she was the youngest actress to play the lead role in the theatrical production of "Peter Pan."
          In the early 1950s, she became associated with The Walt Disney Studios, when it began to produce live-action films in England. She starred as the capricious Mary Tudor in "The Sword and the Rose" in 1953, co-starring Richard Todd, followed by "Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue," in which she played Helen Mary MacGregor, the spirited wife of a Scottish freedom fighter. In 1964, a decade later, she returned to Disney, to star in "Mary Poppins," which amassed 13 Academy Award nominations, and garnered five Oscars.
          Glynis also starred in such television shows as "General Electric Theatre," "The Cavanaughs," as well as her own series, "Glynis." Other programs include "Batman," "Cheers" and "Murder She Wrote," starring Angela Lansbury. 
          Among her career highlights, in 1960, Glynis won an Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. Firth in the motion picture "The Sundowners," starring Robert Mitchum. And in 1973, she received a Tony Award for her stunning stage performance as Desiree Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim’s "A Little Night Music." In all, she has performed in more than two dozen theatrical productions and more than 50 feature films, including Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" starring Paulette Goddard, "Dear Brigette" with James Stewart and "The Secret Garden" co-starring Derek Jacobi.
          In 1994, Glynis returned to The Walt Disney Studios to co-star in the Touchstone comedy "The Ref" with Kevin Spacey, followed by Hollywood Pictures' box office smash hit "While You Were Sleeping" starring Sandra Bullock.&