Karen Dotrice is known primarily for her role as Jane Banks in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins, the feature film adaptation of the Mary Poppins book series.
30 Facts About Karen Dotrice
2.
Karen Dotrice's career began on stage, and expanded into film and television, including starring roles as a young girl whose beloved cat magically reappears in Disney's The Three Lives of Thomasina and with Thomasina co-star Matthew Garber as one of two children pining for their parents' attentions in Poppins.
3.
Karen Dotrice appeared in five television programmes between 1972 and 1978, when she made her only feature film as an adult.
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Karen Dotrice has two sisters, Michele and Yvette, both of whom are actresses.
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Karen Dotrice's godfather was actor Charles Laughton, who was married to Elsa Lanchester, one of the co-stars of Mary Poppins.
6.
Karen Dotrice was a toddler when her father joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1957.
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At age 8, Karen Dotrice was hired in 1963 to appear in The Three Lives of Thomasina as a girl whose relationship with her father is mended by the magical reappearance of her cat.
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Karen Dotrice took quickly to Disney as a father figure, calling him "Uncle Walt".
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Karen Dotrice was tickled pink by the accent and the etiquette.
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Karen Dotrice loved being naughty, finding and jumping off of small buildings on the back lot.
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Karen Dotrice was a daredevil and could have been a race car driver.
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Karen Dotrice appeared as Alex Mackenzie in The Thirty Nine Steps with Robert Powell and John Mills.
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In 1974, Karen Dotrice appeared as Desiree Clary in the Thames Television serial Napoleon and Love.
14.
Karen Dotrice took on the role of Maria Beadnell in two episodes of the serial Dickens of London, starring her father as both Charles and John Dickens.
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In 1978, Karen Dotrice made her final screen appearance for some years as an actress, playing Jenny in the BBC2 Play of the Week, She Fell Among Thieves.
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In 1981, Karen Dotrice took the role of Desdemona in the Warner Theatre production of Othello opposite James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer.
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Karen Dotrice is a Desdemona doll, reciting her lines in a thin, reedy voice and moving through the tragedy with a rare somnolence.
18.
Karen Dotrice was married to English actor Alex Hyde-White from 1986 to 1992; they have a son, Garrick.
19.
In 1994, Karen Dotrice married then-Universal Studios executive Edwin "Ned" Nalle and later gave birth to two children, Isabella and Griffin.
20.
Karen Dotrice appeared as herself in the 2009 film The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story.
21.
Karen Dotrice was coaxed back into the spotlight twice in 2004: she was named a Disney Legend at a ceremony in Burbank, and she was interviewed and provided audio commentary for the 40th Anniversary Edition Mary Poppins DVD release.
22.
Karen Dotrice provided audio commentary for the Acorn Media DVD release of Upstairs, Downstairs Series 5, discussing Episode 7, the final episode in which she appears.
23.
Almost a half-century after Poppins, and just in time for its 50th anniversary Blu-ray re-release and the theatrical release of Saving Mr Banks, Karen Dotrice, who had since moved to Brentwood, California, told the Los Angeles Times that it wasn't until seeing Saving Mr Banks that she truly understood why Walt Disney was the father figure she remembered.
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Karen Dotrice noted a common thread; Travers was eight years old when her father died, and Walt Disney's father put him to work when he was eight.
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Karen Dotrice was in our hearts all along, that's for sure.
26.
Karen Dotrice thought it odd that Julie Andrews was a smoker.
27.
Still, in hindsight, Karen Dotrice said she would never have done Poppins or any of her other films if she had it to do over again.
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Karen Dotrice said children "should be learning and growing at their own pace" rather than "living in a Justin Bieber-esque-type world surrounded by a bunch of 'yes' people".
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Karen Dotrice had seen so many of her peers struggling with "all sorts of demons" while growing up that she didn't want her children becoming actors.
30.
Karen Dotrice said she gave up her own career when she was asked as a teenager to appear topless on screen.