TOKYO — Seiji Ozawa, the Japanese conductor who amazed audiences with the lithe physicality of his performances during more than four decades at the helm of the San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony and other orchestras, has died, his management office said Friday. He was 88.

The internationally acclaimed maestro, with his trademark mop of salt-and-pepper hair, led the San Francisco Symphony from 1970-76, but was likely best known as the director of the Boston Symphony for more than 30 years until departing in 2002. From 2002 to 2010, he was the music director of the Vienna State Opera.

He died of heart failure Tuesday at his home in Tokyo, according to his office, Veroza, Japan.

He remained active in his later years, particularly in his native land. He was the artistic director and founder of the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, a music and opera festival in Japan. He and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, which he co-founded in 1984, won the Grammy for best opera recording in 2016 for Ravel’s “L’Enfant et Les Sortileges (The Child and the Spells.)”

In 2022, he conducted his Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival for the first time in three years to mark its 30th anniversary. That turned out to be his last public performance.

“Music can link the hearts of people — transcending words, borders, religion, and politics. It is my hope that through music, we can be reminded that we are all of the same human race living on the same planet. And that we are united,” Ozawa said in a statement.

“It is with great sadness that I share the news of Seiji Ozawa’s passing earlier this week at the age of 88,” said San Francisco Symphony CEO Matt Spivey, who said the conductor left an “indelible mark” on both the orchestra and the city.

“Ozawa’s tenure ushered in an exciting new era at the San Francisco Symphony. He brought a modern sensibility to the organization and captivated audiences in San Francisco through his expert conducting and charismatic presence.”

At Boston, he was credited with helping the BSO become the biggest-budget orchestra in the world, with an endowment that grew from less than $10 million in the early 1970s to more than $200 million in 2002.

Ozawa was born Sept. 1, 1935, to Japanese parents in Manchuria, China, while it was under Japanese occupation.

After his family returned to Japan in 1944, he studied music under Hideo Saito, a cellist and conductor credited with popularizing Western music in Japan. Ozawa revered him and formed the Saito Kinen (Saito Memorial) Orchestra in 1984 and eight years later founded the Saito Kinen Festival — renamed the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in 2015.

Ozawa first arrived in the United States in 1960 and was quickly hailed by critics as a brilliant young talent. He attended the Tanglewood Music Center and was noticed by Leonard Bernstein, who appointed him assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1961-62 season. After his New York debut with the Philharmonic at age 25, The New York Times said “the music came brilliantly alive under his direction.”

He led the San Francisco Symphony from 1970 to 1976, splitting his time between San Francisco and Boston for part of his tenure in the Bay Area.

“Ozawa’s legacy includes the San Francisco Symphony’s first European tour in 1973, highlighted by a memorable appearance in Soviet Moscow alongside the legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich,” Spivey said. “Other significant milestones of Ozawa’s tenure included the establishment of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus in 1973 and a string of adventurous recordings, notably a popular release of William Russo’s Blues Symphony.”

He came to prominence at a time there were few nonwhite musicians on the international scene. Ozawa embraced the challenge and it became his lifelong passion to help Japanese performers demonstrate they could be first-class musicians. In his 1967 book “The Great Conductors,” critic Harold C. Schonberg noted the changing ranks of younger conductors, writing that Ozawa and Indian-born Zubin Mehta were the first Asian conductors “to impress one as altogether major talents.”

Ozawa is largely credited with elevating the Tanglewood Music Center, a music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, to international prominence. In 1994, a 1,200-seat, $12 million music hall at the center was named for him.

As Spivey noted, Ozawa’s impact extended far beyond Boston and San Francisco. “He created several international academies for young musicians and was also deeply involved in the musical landscape of his native Japan, founding the Saito Kinen Orchestra.”

Ozawa was one of five honorees at the annual Kennedy Center Honors in 2015 for contributing to American culture through the arts.

In later years, Ozawa’s health deteriorated. He canceled some appearances in 2015-16 for health reasons, including what would have been his first return to the Tanglewood music festival — the summer home of the Boston symphony — in a decade.

His passing drew notes of sadness from around the world. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Chairman Daniel Froschauer said in his comment posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Ozawa “has left a great artistic legacy with the Vienna Philharmonic. We will sorely miss Seiji Ozawa as a friend and musical partner. Our thoughts are with his family.”

Ozawa’s management office said his funeral was attended only by close relatives as his family wished to have a quiet farewell.

NEW YORK — Bob Beckwith, a retired firefighter who by chance became part of an iconic image of American unity after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has died. He was 91.

Beckwith died Sunday night in hospice care after dealing with cancer in recent years, his wife, Barbara Beckwith, said Monday.

Wearing a firefighter helmet and a respirator hanging around his neck, the Long Island resident stood atop of a smashed fire truck at the World Trade Center as President George W. Bush famously delivered a rousing speech to weary responders after hijackers crashed airplanes into the twin towers of the old World Trade Center, killing 2,753 people.

“I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon,” Bush said through a bullhorn, his arm draped around Beckwith on Sept. 14 as firefighters, police officers and others chanted “USA! USA!”

The moment, which was captured in video and photos by The Associated Press and other news outlets, became an enduring image of resilience following the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. It even landed Beckwith on the cover of Time magazine, a keepsake he proudly displayed at his home for years.

“He was just lucky. He was at the right place, at the right time, and that’s why he’s famous,” Barbara Beckwith said Monday by phone from the couple’s home in Baldwin, a suburb about 30 miles from Manhattan. “But he was a regular guy, you know? Well-liked and quiet. Just a regular Joe.”

Beckwith’s wake will be Friday, and he will be buried Saturday on Long Island, where he raised a family that includes six children, 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Bush, who remained in contact with the family over the years and even checked in as Beckwith’s health worsened, was among those who called Monday morning to send condolences, his wife said.

In a statement, the former president said Beckwith’s “courage represented the defiant, resilient spirit of New Yorkers and Americans” following the attacks.

“When the terrorists attacked, Bob suited back up and, like so many brave first responders, raced toward the danger to save and search for others,” Bush wrote Monday. “I was proud to have Bob by my side at Ground Zero days later and privileged to stay in touch with this patriot over the years.”

New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh called the famous image “both inspiring and heartbreaking” and said efforts by Beckwith and other former first responders was a “testament to their devotion” to the department.

“Bob is one of the heroes of 9/11 who stood tall for America, New York City and all New Yorkers, he spent many hours searching for the members we lost on that fateful day in 2001,” the Uniformed Firefighters Association, a union representing NYC firefighters, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

On the day that made him famous, Beckwith said he was simply looking for a good vantage point to see the president. But Bush made an unexpected detour and hopped aboard the crushed Engine Co. 76 truck where he was standing, Beckwith recalled to the AP on the 10th anniversary of the attacks in 2011.

Barbara Beckwith said her husband helped the president get up on the truck and was about to let himself down when Bush intervened, assuring his spot in history.

“The president said to him, ‘Where are you going?’,” she recounted. “You’re going to be right here with me.”

Kramer died Friday at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, according to Jason Heath, a close friend and executive director of Kramer’s nonprofit Jail Guitar Doors USA. Heath said the cause of death was pancreatic cancer.

From the late 1960s to early 1970s, no band was closer to the revolutionary spirit of the time than the MC5, which featured Kramer and Fred “Sonic” Smith on guitars, Rob Tyner on vocals, Michael Davis on bass and Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson on drums. Managed for a time by White Panther co-founder John Sinclair, they were known for their raw, uncompromising music, which they envisioned as the soundtrack for the uprising to come.

“Brother Wayne Kramer was the best man I’ve ever known,” Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello wrote on Instagram Friday. “He possessed a one of a kind mixture of deep wisdom & profound compassion, beautiful empathy and tenacious conviction. His band the MC5 basically invented punk rock music.”

The band had little commercial success and its core lineup did not last beyond the early 1970s, but its legacy endured, both for its sound and for its fusing of music to political action. Kramer, who had a long history of legal battles and substance abuse, would tell his story in the 2018 memoir “The Hard Stuff: Dope, Crime, the MC5, and My Life of Impossibilities.”

Morello is among the musicians appearing on a new MC5 album, “Heavy Lifting,” which comes out this spring and includes Kramer and Thompson from the original group. Slash, Vernon Reid and William DuVall of Alice in Chains also contributed.

“Pushing music forward, carrying a message of self-efficacy and empowerment — and just to have fun,” Kramer told Mojo magazine in December. “It’s all in the MC5. Creativity is the solution for the challenges we face.”

Thompson, 75, is now the band’s only surviving member. Tyner died in 1991 at age 46, and Smith — who was married to singer and poet Patti Smith — in 1994, also at 46. Davis, who was living in Chico, died in 2012 at age 68.

Kramer and Smith had known each other since their teens and played with various other musicians around Detroit before the core lineup was in place, in the mid-1960s. At Tyner’s suggestions, they called themselves the MC5, short for Motor City Five, and emulated the Rolling Stones, the Who, and other hard rock bands of the era.

“Kick Out the Jams” was their most famous song, and opened with an unprintable call to arms: “Kick out the jams motherf–——-!” A live album of the same name reached the top 40 in 1969, their highest-charting release. They also released the studio albums “Back in the USA” and “High Time” before breaking up at the end of 1972.

Kramer would lead various incarnations of the MC5 over the following decades, and perform with Was (Not Was) among other groups. But for a time he sank into the life of what he called “a small-time Detroit criminal.” He was arrested on drug charges in 1975 and sentenced to four years in prison. Jail Guitar Doors, which provides inmates with musical instruments, is named for a Clash song that refers to his struggles: “Let me tell you ’bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine.”

Survivors include his wife, Margaret Saadi, and son, Francis.

NEW YORK — Adele Zerilli Springsteen, the longtime legal secretary, musical muse and concert dance partner who captured countless hearts in her son Bruce Springsteen ‘s E Street Nation and beyond, has died at 98.

Bruce Springsteen announced in an Instagram post that his mother died Wednesday. He shared a video of the two of them dancing to the Glenn Miller swing-era standard “In the Mood” with the caption “Adele Springsteen — May 4, 1925-January 31, 2024.” He then quotes at length from the lyrics for “The Wish,” one of his songs that invokes her.

“I remember in the morning mom hearing your alarm clock ring. I’d lie in bed and listen to you getting ready for work, the sound of your makeup case on the sink,” the post says.

The cause and other details were not immediately revealed, but Springsteen said in 2021 that she had been struggling with Alzheimer’s disease for a decade and could no longer speak or stand.

The mother of three — and the last of three Italian-American Zerilli sisters — was a cornerstone of Bruce Springsteen’s anthem “American Land,” which honors “The McNicholases, the Posalskis, the Smiths, Zerillis too.”

The New York City native moved as a child to Freehold, never fathoming she’d someday bear offspring who’d turn New Jersey into lyrical legend.

Adele Springsteen’s joyful, spirited charm made her a fan magnet in her own right. “Video evidence of Adele rocking out onstage with Bruce dates back to 1992,” according to Rolling Stone magazine.

She was “real smart, real strong, real creative,” with a “refusal to be disheartened,” Bruce told biographer Dave Marsh.

And her influence ran deep.

She “held our family together” through years of hardship, the musician said in a 2010 Ellis Island speech, sharing the stage with his beaming mother and aunts.

“I took after my mom in a certain sense. Her life had an incredible consistency, work, work, work every day, and I admired that greatly,” he told “Uncut” magazine in 2002, praising her “noble” juggling of work and home.

“I’d visit her at her job sometimes, and it was filled with men and women who seemed to have a purpose,” he said. “I found a lot of inspiration in those simple acts.”

When Bruce was a kid, his mom scraped together some money — a story sweetly portrayed in another section of “The Wish,” which he recorded in 1987 and quoted from on Instagram Thursday.

“Little boy and his ma shivering outside a rundown music store window.

That night on top of a Christmas tree shines one beautiful star. And lying underneath a brand-new Japanese guitar.

…Well it was me in my Beatle boots, you in pink curlers and matador pants — pullin’ me up on the couch to do the twist for my uncles and aunts.”

When her boy hit the bigtime she worked much larger rooms, from America to Europe.

Though well-versed in the audience-cameo ritual “Dancing in the Dark,” she happily played the musical field.

In 2012 she danced and sang background on “Twist and Shout” at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. In March 2016, when she was 90, mother and son hip-wiggled to the raucous “Ramrod” at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

She lost her husband, Bruce’s father Douglas, who inspired songs, too, in 1998.

Survivors include their daughters, Pamela Springsteen and Virginia Shave, and a bountiful extended family.

They no doubt share the sentiments Bruce expressed that day on Ellis Island.

“Thank you, Mom,” he said. “I love you very much.”

Taylor died Thursday at an assisted living facility in San Rafael, according to her family.

No cause of death was released. “She died very suddenly,” her daughter, Laurel Conklin, said Sunday.

Conklin said her mother was born in Long Beach in 1922 and had a career in radio and television news that spanned more than 50 years.

Taylor graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California, and earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University before taking a job as a news writer and producer at CBS radio in New York.

She was one of the original members — and only woman — in a documentary unit led by Edward R. Murrow.

By 1949, Taylor was on the air doing notable interviews and conducted many over the ensuing decades, including with performer Jimmy Durante, physicist Albert Einstein and President Jimmy Carter.

Taylor earned a Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award in 1982 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990.

In addition to Laurel Conklin, Taylor is survived by two other daughters plus a stepson, a grandson and granddaughter-in-law and a great-grandson.

Actor Adan Canto, known for his role in “The Cleaning Lady” and “Designated Survivor,” has died. He was 42.

Canto died on Monday of appendiceal cancer, according to his publicist Jennifer Allen, who said in a statement sent to CNN that Canto “had a depth of spirit that few truly knew.”

“Those who glimpsed it were changed forever,” Allen’s statement read. “He will be greatly missed by so many.”

Born in Mexico and raised in Texas, Canto was a skilled actor and musician who was starring in the Fox series “The Cleaning Lady,” which was filming its third season at the time of his death. Allen said Canto had not yet begun working on the new season.

Canto also was known for his roles in “Designated Survivor,” “Narcos” and “Blood and Oil,” among other TV series. His movie oeuvre included “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Agent Game.”

“We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Adan Canto. A wonderful actor and dear friend, we were honored to have him as part of the Warner Bros. Television and FOX Entertainment families since his U.S. debut in The Following more than a decade ago,” Warner Bros. Television and FOX Entertainment said in a statement sent to CNN on Tuesday.

The statement continued, “Most recently, he lit up the screen in The Cleaning Lady with a powerful performance that showcased his artistry, range, depth and vulnerability.”

Adan’s first credit came in 2009 when he appeared in two episodes of “Estado de Gracia,” a TV series distributed in Mexico. He went on to appear in a number of Mexican TV shows and films until 2013, when he landed his breakout role in the U.S. market on Season 1 of Fox’s “The Following” alongside Kiefer Sutherland.

In 2014, Canto appeared in the Marvel superhero movie “X-Men: Days of Future Past” as the mutant Sunspot, who can channel the power of the sun.

An emerging filmmaker in his own right, Canto starred in and directed his first short film in 2014 titled “Before Tomorrow.”

Canto went on to appear in one episode of Netflix cartel series “Narcos,” and in Season 1 of the ABC series “Blood & Oil.” He reunited with Sutherland in “Designated Survivor,” appearing in all three of the show’s seasons between 2016 and 2020.

In 2021, Canto starred in his “X-Men” costar Halle Berry’s directorial debut “Bruised,” and appeared in the CIA thriller “Agent Game” in 2022 before starring in “The Cleaning Lady” that same year.

Speaking of his love for the art of acting, Canto told Anthem Magazine in 2022 that “it’s a fun job” and “a great world to be a part of.”

“I certainly give thanks every day for it. And it’s not an easy thing. It’s something that I kind of slipped into and I’m very blessed in that way. Yeah, I just can’t stop enjoying it. Every job is different,” he added.

Canto is survived by his wife, Stephanie Ann Canto, and his two young children, Roman Adler and Eve Josephine.

This story has been updated with additional information.

NEW YORK — The longtime head of National Rifle Association operated as the “King of the NRA,” spending lavishly on himself, punishing dissent and showering allies with country club memberships and no-show contracts, a lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office told jurors Monday.

Wayne LaPierre’s methods as the NRA’s executive vice president and chief executive officer allowed him to operate the powerful gun rights organization “as Wayne’s World for decades,” Assistant Attorney General Monica Connell argued in an opening statement in a civil trial scrutinizing his leadership and spending at the nonprofit.

LaPierre, who said Friday he is leaving the NRA after leading it since 1991, watched stoically from a seat along a courtroom wall as six jurors and six alternates were seated for the trial, which is expected to take six weeks. He moved to the front of the gallery as Connell spoke, her argument augmented by a slideshow showing the NRA’s leadership structure and expenses at issue in the case.

Connell said LaPierre charged the organization more than $11 million for private jet flights over the years and authorized $135 million in NRA contracts for a vendor whose owners provided him repeated access to a 108-foot (33-meter) yacht and free trips to the Bahamas, Greece, Dubai and India.

At the same time, LaPierre, 74, consolidated power and avoided scrutiny by hiring unqualified underlings who looked the other way, routing expenses through a vendor, doctoring invoices, and retaliating against board members and executives who questioned his spending, Connell said.

In one example, Connell said, the NRA’s former chief financial officer, Craig Spray, found himself unable to log into the organization’s computer system after he objected to LaPierre’s way of doing business. In a November 2020 email to organization brass, Spray took issue with the boss’ authoritarian rule, writing: “There are no ‘Wayne said’ approvals at the NRA.”

LaPierre kept quiet about gifts he received from vendors until the morning he testified in the NRA’s failed bankruptcy in Texas in 2021, Connell said. For years before that, she said, he’d been checking “no” on an internal disclosure form that asked if he’d received any gifts worth more than $300.

LaPierre’s actions and that of the “entrenched leadership” that enabled his alleged behavior “breached the trust” of the organization’s five million members, Connell said. Their conduct violated laws governing nonprofit charities and the organization’s internal policies governing travel, expenses, conflicts of interest and whistleblower protections, she said.

“They acted illegally over and over again for years,” Connell told jurors.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the NRA, LaPierre and three current or former executives in 2020, alleging they cost the organization tens of millions of dollars from questionable expenditures. In recent years, though, the organization has been beset by financial troubles, dwindling membership and infighting.

LaPierre is accused of setting himself up with a $17 million contract with the NRA if he were to exit the organization, and spending NRA money on travel consultants, luxury car services and five-star travel.

Defense lawyers are expected to give their opening statements Tuesday. LaPierre has defended himself in the past, testifying in another proceeding that his yacht trips were a “security retreat” because he was facing threats after mass shootings.

The other defendants, NRA general counsel John Frazer and retired CFO Wilson Phillips, have denied wrongdoing. Another ex-NRA executive turned whistleblower, Joshua Powell, settled with James’ office on Friday. He has agreed to testify at the trial, pay the NRA $100,000 and forgo further nonprofit involvement.

One private jet flight, from Washington, D.C. to Dallas, Texas, with a stop in Nebraska to pick up LaPierre’s niece, cost the NRA $59,000, Cornell said. Another, with a Nebraska pitstop on the way to Orlando, Florida, cost the organization $79,000, Cornell said. An NRA policy shown in court said the organization only reimburses for coach-class airline flights. A commercial flight on the same routes would’ve run no more than a few hundred dollars per person, listings show.

James is the state’s chief law enforcement officer and has regulatory power over nonprofit organizations incorporated in the state, such as the NRA. James initially sought to shut the organization down, but a judge rejected that as a remedy.

Now, James is asking that LaPierre and the other defendants be ordered to pay the NRA back and that they be banned from serving in leadership positions of any charitable organizations conducting business in the state — such as accepting donations from New Yorkers or having state residents as members. That would effectively bar them from any NRA involvement.

The NRA trial is being held in the same Manhattan courtroom as former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial. Closing arguments in that case are scheduled for Thursday, forcing the NRA trial to relocate to a different courtroom for a few days.

LaPierre said he would resign at the end of the month. The NRA said he was exiting for health reasons. NRA lawyers argued in a court filing over the weekend that LaPierre’s departure is an example of “clear corrective action” taken by the organization, but state lawyers disputed that.

LaPierre is expected to testify, possibly as early as this week, along with one of his chief nemeses: former NRA board member and president Lt. Col. Oliver North.

A major signal of internal strife roiling the NRA burst onto the public scene in 2019, when North tried to oust LaPierre with damaging allegations about travel expenses and accusations that LaPierre had charged tens of thousands of dollars in wardrobe purchases to his expense account.

LaPierre complained that North had “started to interfere” with his leadership and, with allies among most of the organization’s 76 board members, won the struggle. North was ousted instead.

Associated Press reporter Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

The crash occurred Thursday just west of Petit Nevis island near Bequia as the plane headed for nearby St. Lucia, police said in a statement.

They identified the daughters as Madita Klepser, 10, and Annik Klepser, 12, adding that the pilot, Robert Sachs, also died.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash, according to police.

Authorities said fishermen and divers in the area went to the crash site to help as the St. Vincent and Grenadines Coast Guard headed to the area.

“The selfless and brave acts of the fishermen and divers is very much appreciated,” police said.

He appeared throughout season two of the 1990s series “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” playing a Swiss transfer student named Brian Keller.

NEW YORK — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100.

Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”

Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multi-faceted. Anything less was giving less than her all.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level,” she told The Associated Press in 1990. “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.”

Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in “A Little Night Music,” for which she won a Tony in 1973. 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.

“I’ve had other songs written for me, but nothing like that,” Johns told the AP in 1990. “It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given in the theater.”

Others who followed Johns in singing Sondheim’s most popular song include Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan and Olivia Newton-John. It also appeared in season two of “Yellowjackets” in 2023, sung by Elijah Wood.

Back when it was being conceived, “A Little Night Music” had gone into rehearsal with some of the book and score unfinished, including a solo song for Johns. Director Hal Prince suggested she and co-star Len Cariou improvise a scene or two to give book writer Hugh Wheeler some ideas.

“Hal said ‘Why don’t you just say what you feel,”’ she recalled to the AP. “When Len and I did that, Hal got on the phone to Steve Sondheim and said, ‘I think you’d better get in a cab and get round here and watch what they’re doing because you are going to get the idea for Glynis’ solo.”’

Johns was the fourth generation of an English theatrical family. Her father, Mervyn Johns, had a long career as a character actor and her mother was a pianist. She was born in Pretoria, South Africa, because her parents were visiting the area on tour at the time of her birth.

Johns was a dancer at 12 and an actor at 14 in London’s West End. Her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the title of the 1948 hit comedy “Miranda.”

“I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine; I swam like a porpoise,” she told Newsday in 1998. In 1960’s “The Sundowners,” with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar. (She lost out to Shirley Jones in “Elmer Gantry.”)

Other highlights include playing the mother in “Mary Poppins,” the movie that introduced Julie Andrews and where she sang the rousing tune “Sister Suffragette.” She also starred in the 1989 Broadway revival of “The Circle,” W. Somerset Maugham’s romantic comedy about love, marriage and fidelity, opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger.

“I’ve retired many times. My personal life has come before my work. The theater is just part of my life. It probably uses my highest sense of intelligence, so therefore I have to come back to it, to realize that I’ve got the talent. I’m not as good doing anything else,” she told the AP.

In a 1991 revival of “A Little Night Music” in Los Angeles, she played Madame Armfeldt, the mother of Desiree, the part she had created. In 1963, she starred in her own TV sitcom “Glynis.”

Johns lived all around the world and had four husbands. The first was the father of her only child, the late Gareth Forwood, an actor who died in 2007.

A statement shared by his agent on behalf of the family said Wilkinson died suddenly at home on Saturday. It didn’t provide further details.

Wilkinson was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his work in 2001’s family drama “In The Bedroom” in 2001 and in the best supporting actor category for his role in “Michael Clayton,” a 2007 film that starred George Clooney.

He is remembered by many in Britain and beyond for playing former steel mill foreman Gerald Cooper in the 1997 comedy “The Full Monty,” about a group of unemployed steel workers who formed an unlikely male stripping act.

Wilkinson appeared in dozens of other movies, including “Batman Begins,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Valkyrie.”

The actor was recognized for his services to drama in 2005 when he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire.