Practically perfect cast
QUESTION Other than Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, what happened to the rest of the cast of the film Mary Poppins?
THE supporting cast of Mary Poppins, released in 1964, featured some distinguished actors who had mixed fortunes, both before and after making the film.
David Tomlinson, who played Mr Banks, was born in Henley-on-Thames, about 50km west of London, in 1917. He made his film debut in Garrison Follies in 1940 and became typecast as the ‘silly ass’. After Mary Poppins, most of his subsequent films were aimed at children. Two for Disney, The Love Bug in 1969, and Bedknobs And Broomsticks in 1971, were very well received.
Tomlinson suffered an early tragedy when his wife, Mary, committed suicide in 1943 by jumping from a New York skyscraper with her two young sons from her first marriage. He retired from acting aged 63 in 1980 after his last film, The Fiendish Plot Of Fu Manchu, starring Peter Sellers.
Glynis Johns, who played Mrs Banks, was born in South Africa, in 1923 and made her film debut aged 15, in South Riding. Her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the 1948 hit comedy Miranda, and she became one of Britain’s top female stars of the Fifties. She was Oscar nominated in the supporting actress category for The Sundowners in 1960, but lost out to Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry.
Johns turned to the stage and her greatest triumph was as Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony award in 1973. Stephen Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song Send In The Clowns to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to Elizabeth Taylor. Her last film appearance was in Superstar in 1999.
She married four times and had one son. She once said that being a star had not been easy, making her ill, exhausted and depressed. Now in her mid-90s, she is enjoying her retirement.
Jane Banks was played by Karen Dotrice. Born in Guernsey in 1955, she is the daughter of actor Roy Dotrice (her sister Michele rose to fame in the Seventies as Betty Spencer, the long-suffering wife of Frank Spencer in the TV sitcom Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em). Mary Poppins was the second of a trio of films Karen made for Disney, the others being The Three Lives Of Thomasina in 1963 and The Gnome-Mobile in 1967. She played the maid, Lily Hawkins, in the final series of the Seventies TV hit Upstairs, Downstairs, and was Robert Powell’s leading lady in the third screen version of The Thirty Nine Steps. She is married to her second husband, TV producer Ned Nalle, and is a mother of three. She had a cameo role in Mary Poppins Returns as the elegant lady on Cherry Tree Lane.
Matthew Garber, who played Michael Banks, was born in 1956 in Stepney, London. He appeared in the three Disney films alongside Karen Dotrice, but then gave up acting. During a trip to India in 1977 he contracted hepatitis, and died of pancreatitis aged only 21.
Ellen, the Banks family maid, was played by the renowned character actress Hermione Baddeley, who was born in 1906. She appeared alongside Doris Day in Do Not Disturb and Frank Sinatra in Marriage On The Rocks, both released in 1965. She later had great success with the US TV comedy series, Maude, winning a Golden Globe in 1976 for the role of Nell Naugatuck. She died in 1986, aged 79.
In a second Mary Poppins link to Upstairs, Downstairs, her sister, Angela Baddeley, played the Bellamy family cook, Mrs Bridges, to great acclaim.
John Rutherford, Sevenoaks, Kent.
QUESTION Where does the phrase ‘the powers that be’ come from?
THIS phrase appears in the Bible, Romans 13 vs.1-2: ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: The powers that be are ordained of God.’ It is a controversial passage as its author, Paul, writing to believers in Rome, is exhorting them to adhere to the authority of those in charge, even if the government is wicked, because God has ordained it so.
On the face of it, Paul appears to be promoting the discredited doctrines of divine right and passive obedience. In reading Romans 13, it is important to keep the historical context in mind. The Roman Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome some time between AD41 and 54 because of agitation sparked by ‘Chrestus’ (whether this is referring to Christ is under debate). Though the Jews had returned, the political situation was still potentially volatile.
Moreover, Paul may also have been concerned about the possible influence of a group of radical Jews known as Zealots, who opposed the rule of Rome.
Paul may have been giving practical advice on how a believer should survive under tyranny. Neil German, by email.
QUESTION Is it true that a Uboat was sunk by a toilet malfunction?
A BROKEN toilet began events that led to the sinking of the German submarine U-1206 off Scotland in 1945.
U-1206 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the Nazi Kriegsmarine. She was laid down on June 12, 1943, in Danzig and went into service on March 16, 1944, equipped with a new type of toilet to allow the submarine to dive deeper than standard U-boats.
Unlike Allied submarines, German toilets discharged their contents directly into the sea instead of into a holding tank. U-1206 had high-pressure toilets that could be used at greater depths than standard toilets – or ‘heads’, as sailors call them.
On April 6, 1945, U-1206 left Kristiansand in Norway to carry out a patrol in the North Sea. On April 14, while cruising at a depth of 60metres and 15km or so off the port of Peterhead, a leak caused large amounts of water to flood into the boat.
The crew had been having trouble operating the new system. An engineer tried to resolve the problem, but opened the wrong valve. This flooded the submarine’s batteries, producing a cloud of poisonous chlorine gas.
The captain was forced to surface his vessel. The crew was frantically blowing fresh air into their U-boat when they were spotted by Allied aircraft. Being unable to dive, Captain Schlitt decided to scuttle his vessel. Three crew members drowned when U-1206 went down and 37 were rescued and taken captive. David E Boyce, by email.
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