Who else could have played Mary Poppins?

Diana Dors

Kim Stanley

[quote] What if Mary Poppins hadn't been made into a musical film and Julie Andrews didn't exist? Which other actress might have made a practically perfect nanny?

If it hadn't been made into a musical film, then no actress might have, because there’d be no film for her to star in.

I've read that Walt Disney was obsessed with Vivien Leigh so that would have been interesting. She wasn't very maternal.

R2, It could have been made into a straight dramatic film, like so many other Disney productions.

In the book, Mary is more common, referring to all birds as "sparrers" - I could see Angela Lansbury as a sort of Cockney Mary Poppins.

Joan Crawford

Another group to pick from…

Jayne Mansfield.

Mamie Van Doren.

Shirley Booth or Eartha Kitt.

'Just a whack with a wire hanger makes the medicine go down, medicine go down, medicine go down'

I can see Debbie Reynolds doing it

'Lets get high as a kite',

'Just a seconal, a quaalude and a nembutal makes the medicine go down'

'Feed the kids, tuppence a bagel'

'Super-nutty, fragile, spastic ,ex-childstar, and atrocious'

Paul Lynde.

Feed ze virds, tuppence a vag;

Agnes Moorehead

Carol Channing

Carol Burnett

Ahem...

I could see a remake with Chrissy Metz. Replace the umbrella with an airship though.

Per Wiki: In March 1961, Disney announced that it might cast Hayley Mills and Mary Martin in the film.

Julie Harris, Angela Lansbury and Bette Davis were considered for the role of Mary and Cary Grant was Walt's favorite choice for the role of Bert,[Laurence Harvey and Anthony Newley were also considered for Bert.

Angela would have been perfection, though Mary Martin would also have those acerbic, quirky qualities of Travers character.

Davis would have been....an interesting choice. She would have been acerbic and quirky, all right. With a strong director she MIGHT have pulled it off.

I played her first, Bitches!

Divine. The kids would've turned out, er, interesting.

Jane, Michael, bring me the axe

Audrey and Julie should have switched roles in 1964.

Angela Lansbury is winning the poll so far.

Ellen Corby, she had the outfit already and everything!

Helen Lawson

Lucy was planning to do it, but Gary talked her out of it.

No surprisde Angela Lansbury is leading the poll

Eva Marie Saint a possibility?

Audrey. And she wouldn’t have gone on to show her tits like some common hussy.

r32 Julie Andrews has bared her breasts in a public photograph??!!

Yes, R33!!

r34 Gosh I thought she was too prim and proper for that!!

Charles Bronson.

I know people on here like to joke, but Lucy could and would have done an amazing job as Mary Poppins. This would have been a decade before Mame so her vocals would have been strong enough to pull off the music and she could have added a slapstick element to the film that is sorely lacking. Between her and Dick Van Dyke, the film would have been hilarious. It could have been a career game changer for her, and could have led her to other roles in Disney live action films of that era, including Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Beatrice Lillie.

To R21, it would have been a very short movie...Chrissie would EAT all the children!!

Lansbury, but a stern Katharine Hepburn could have made something spectacularly bizarre.

I like Angela Lansbury as an actress, but her singing voice has always sounded like that of an old lady. Not young and vibrant like Julie Andrews.

Lucy Ball would have been too shrill. Julie was perfect. Maybe Vivien or Deborah or Greer could have done in it a straight film.

Lady Elaine Fairchilde!

Kim Stanley

Kim Stanley would would have been so neurotic and terrified the kids. It would have been hilarious.

I liked that Dame Maggie Smith is doing well on the poll. That's who I picked. She would've been excellent as Mary Poppins.

Have ANY of you Dataloungers read the original story?

I got the impression the REAL Poppins was a nutty ratbag like Elsa Lanchester.

R21 made me do it and I hate him!

Sally Ann Howes of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Audrey Hepburn had the right image and demeanor. She could be cheerful and charming and pretty and she loved children. But her voice would have been dubbed for the singing parts and she would have been bitter about it forever.

Sally Ann Howes certainly has the voice, R49, but she is almost too pretty for the part; I think it would've been a distraction. I like the Maggie Smith and Angela Lansbury options - the former would have brought a jaded sternness to the role, which would have been interesting, and the latter would have excelled at the quirky aspects.

Kathy Bates

Joan Rivers

Divine

Shaq

Mr. T.

R48 You're terrible, Muriel!

Ursula Andress

DL favorite Patsy Ramsey.

Gina Lollobrigida was considered for the role, apparently.

The Vivien Leigh idea is fascinating as it would have been her last film. If we were to assume it would have also become a classic, that would have been an amazing finish to her career and life.

I'm wrong. Ship of Fools, Leigh's last film, cane out a year after Mary Poppins. But still. . .intriguing idea.

Mitzi

Well...

Thank you R64 for reminding us about what had been posted at R8! How very kind of you.

Nancy Kwan.

What the hell is R37 huffing?!!

I think Shirley Jones would have been an interesting choice. Beautiful with a beautiful voice, and I always liked when she would be stern with the kids on The Partridge Family.

I would bet Disney thought of her, but dismissed the idea after considering that her image had been sexed up since Oklahoma.

[quote] Beautiful with a beautiful voice

Poppins wasn't beautiful.

[quote] The Vivien Leigh idea is fascinating

But that American buffoon would have to be jettisoned.

Billy Porter, of course. He/she/they can do anything!!!

I look forward to the Urban reinterpretation, "Mary Poppin' a Glock".

Or the gay man as nanny musical retelling titled simply, "MAAAAAARY!"

r67, a small windowless room full of chesterfield smoke.

Harvey Fierstein.

Bea Arthur.

Liv Ullman

I’m not that interested in who got the most votes, but I’m now obsessed with the idea of Vivian Leigh as Mary Poppins.

Ernest Borgnine

Deborah Kerr? I think she would look the part but I'm not sure if she'd sound it? Is it known which other actresses were in the running for the role?

I don't see Lucy Ball or Kate Hepburn in the role because it's quintessentially British. Leigh would have been interesting. The score would have to have been adapted to her range. By the '60s smoking a million packs a day had deepened her voice to make it similar to Dietrich's.

Beatrice Lillie was the obvious choice. She even looked like the illustrations.

And many at the time thought she was the obvious choice for the role.

Joyce Bullifant

Rose Marie

Marjorie Main

Bob Barker

and Johnny Olsen as the Bitch!

I'm surprised they didn't go with Anthony Newley, who was a big star in the UK and at least the Broadway theatergoers by the point. Dick Van Dyke's role in "Bye Bye Birdie" had been overshadowed by Ann-Margret's. Plus Newley would have had the right accent and could sing well.

Liz Taylor could have played a slutty version of Mary.

Anna May Wong.

If she hadn't died.

Joan Crawford, of course.

I know DL doesn't like Greer Garson but I thing she'd have been great in the part.

And I agree about Anthony Newley. Dick Van Dyke is awful, but I'm glad he's still alive.

Kim Stanley would have nailed her.

I guess that was right around the time Tommy Steele was going from rock n' roll into musicals, but I'd have preferred Newley, who would have been perfect. And if you asked him, he'd even do a nude scene gladly.

[quote] This would have been a decade before Mame so her vocals would have been strong enough to pull off the music

The thought of Lucy croaking out "Feed the Birds" or "Stay Awake" off-key is the stuff of nightmares.

"YOU'RRRRRE not SLEEPYYYYY as you SEEEEEEM..."

[quote] Beatrice Lillie was the obvious choice. She even looked like the illustrations.

I would agree, R83, but I'm sure the philistines at the Disney Corporation would have thought her too weird. Her cabaret comic singing style certainly belonged to another age. Wiki says her "mental abilities declined at the end of her career"

Olivia Newton-John would have been interesting.

If only DL-fave AnnE Hathaway had been around when Walt was creating the original!

I'm glad to see that so many people have suggested Bea Lillie.

A group of British producers wanted to put on a musical version of Poppins in the 1930s in the West End starring Lillie. Travers wanted nothing to do with it and refused even to consider licensing the rights. The producers were able to persuade her to meet Lillie and Lillie went to Travers' home for an afternoon visit. The two took an immediate liking to each other and Lillie ended up staying several hours. Travers not only agreed to license the books, she became convinced Lillie, and only Lillie, should someday to play the role.

The financing for that production fell through and it never reached the stage but Travers continued to champion Lillie's someday playing.the part. Years later, when she finally allowed Disney to make the film, Travers became incensed that Walt wouldn't even consider Lillie. Their feud became legendary, to the point he refused to have her invited to the film's premiere. She bought a ticket on her own dime anyway.

Travers met Andrews and said publicly she was a lovely and talented woman. But Travers maintained to her death that Andrews was miscast and the Sherman Bros. score was treacly and insipid. Until Travers' death, she continued to hope that someday Lillie might play the role.

Sorry if this has been a little rambling, I'm still working on my first coffee.

[quote]Travers met Andrews and said publicly she was a lovely and talented woman. But Travers maintained to her death that Andrews was miscast and the Sherman Bros. score was treacly and insipid. Until Travers' death, she continued to hope that someday Lillie might play the role.

And then Bea and Julie worked together in Thoroughly Modern. Andrews would taunt Lillie by humming Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious between takes.

Considering Julie Andrews played the role as a bull dyke, maybe Rosie.

MARY!!!! Poppins starring Paul Lynde or Billy Porter

^ That’s the only correct answer.

I'm surprised 1) RuPaul hasn't made a MARY! Poppins of his own for Netflix and 2) Drag Race hasn't done a full Mary Poppins skit.

The older version of the show could have gotten away with a Sound of Music spoof, but ignorant queens who don't know there was a Holocaust probably would not go over as well as ignorant queens who never heard or Macbeth did.

It would be funny with a Madea type. Not that I’d ever watch it.

A dark take with the sensibility of AbFab/I, Tonya/Mommie Dearest could be fun. So far, there are only three great works of comedy gold based in child abuse.

R96, Andrews was miscast. The film had to change the character considerably to make it work with Andrews. The Poppins in the books is much nastier and much more subversive.

I think moving the period to the distant Edwardian era was part of an effort to de-fang the story.