Wednesday, November 02, 2016

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Glynis Johns

Artist:Glynis Johns
Song:Sister Suffragette
Album:Mary Poppins: Special Edition





Actress Glynis Johns is not a musical performer. But her two best known performances happen to be in musicals. She won a Tony For her performance in the 1973 Broadway musical A Little Night Music. And she appeared in the 1964 film Mary Poppins. She was born Oct. 5, 1923 in Pretoria, South Africa but she grew up in Wales. Her father was actor Mervyn Johns and her mother was concert pianist Alys Steele. Glynis first appeared on stage in 1935 and her film debut was in 1938. She moved to the US in the 50s and she got a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the 1960 film The Sundowners. That got Walt Disney's attention at a time when he was working on turning the Mary Poppins books into a film. Meanwhile Glynis appeared in the ABC TV series The Roaring 20s and the CBS series Glynis. When Disney was casting Mary Poppins, there was concern that Julie Andrews would be unable to star due to pregnancy. So he brought in Glynis as a backup. But she didn't know that. She thought she was playing Mary Poppins. The way Disney and songwriters The Sherman Brothers got around that is they told her that Sister Suffragette was written for her. It was Glynis' big song in the movie. The soundtrack is available in a Special Edition with a second CD of bonus tracks. Glynis other big musical role was in the 1973 Broadway production of A Little Night Music for which she was nominated for a Tony award. Glynis continued to work in films and on stage. Among other things, she played Shelley Long's mother in Cheers. She seems to be retired. Her last film was in 1999. here's Glynis Johns performing Sister Suffragette in the 1964 film Mary Poppins.

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