As the film celebrates 60 years of success, we look at one of the cast's biggest tragedies. After the movie was released in 1964, the cast were set for a sparkling future, but unfortunately for one of the lead actors, this wasn't the case. Brit star Matthew Garber who played Michael Banks retired from acting age 10.
However, he unfortunately and unknowingly contracted hepatitis while traveling around India in 1976. However, by the time his dad managed to get him home the following year in 1977, the disease had already spread to his pancreas. The young actor died at just 21 years old from hemorrhagic necrotising pancreatitis at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead in London.
He passed away on June 13, 1977 and his body was reportedly cremated at St. Marylebone Crematorium (East Finchley, London) three days later. Matthew's younger brother Fergus, who was 13 when the star died, denied claims his brother contracted the disease from using drugs and said it had likely came from eating infected meat on his travels.
The late star was posthumously named a Disney Legend back in 2004. His brother Fergus accepted the award on his behalf. On the Mary Poppins 40th anniversary, Jane Banks star Karen Dotrice revealed she regretted not having kept in touch with her co-star before his death.
However, surprisingly to some fans, Mary Poppins wasn't the only time the onscreen siblings worked with one another. A friend of the Garber family, Karen Dotrice's father and Shakespearean actor Roy Dotrice, called Garber to the attention of Disne's casting team. According to reports, his use of "artful dodges, like squinting, screwing up his nose, and brushing his hair back with one hand" landed him his screen debut at age seven in Disney's The Three Lives of Thomasina which was put out in 1963.
Later that year, both Matthew and Thomasina co-star Karen were hired to play Jane and Michael in Mary Poppins, the children of Mr. George Banks (David Tomlinson) and Mrs. Winifred Banks (Glynis Johns).
The pair reunite again on screen for one las time in 1967 in The Gnome-Mobile, where they play the grandchildren of a rich lumber mogul (Walter Brennan) who find a gnome forest and are tasked with helping keep the gnomes from dying off. His co-star Karen once recalled: "He was how he looked—an imp, and I loved being his shadow. I can't imagine making movies would have been half as much fun without him.
He loved being naughty, finding and jumping off of small buildings on the back lot. "While I was Victorian proper and wouldn't let myself get dirty or muddy, Matthew had a great sense of fun and danger. He was a daredevil and could have been a race car driver.
And he did live a full life over his 21 years.".
