Glynis Johns, While You Were Sleeping Actor, Dead At 100

Glynis Johns grew up in the performing arts due to family ties to entertainment, and she took her work as an actor very seriously. In 1990, she was quoted as telling The Associated Press, "As far as I'm concerned, I'm not interested in playing the role on only one level. The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it. To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real" (via AP News).

Johns also wasn't just an actor for the screen. She worked as a stage actor as well, snagging a Tony in 1973 for her performance as Desiree Armfeldt in the original Broadway cast of "A Little Night Music." AP News reported that Stephen Sondheim — who died in 2023 — wrote the show's song "Send in the Clowns" for her specifically, which Johns called, "the greatest gift I've ever been given in the theater." Johns joined a Los Angeles-based cast of "A Little Night Music" almost two decades after that initial run, playing the mother of the main character. 

Another entertainment industry legend, Betty White, passed away in December 2021 a few weeks before her own 100th birthday. Her thoughts on turning 100 became bittersweet after she passed. However, when KABC asked Johns how it felt turning 100 back in October 2023, the British star said, "It doesn't make any difference to me." When the outlet said that at least we would always have her performances, she said, "What a lovely thought. That's what I hoped."