karen dotrice

Karen Dotrice is British actress most famous for lighting up the screen as Jane Banks in the 1964 Disney classic Mary Poppins when she was 8 years old. She starred in several other Disney films playing Mary McDhui in The Three Lives of Thomasina and Elizabeth in the 1967 musical The Gnome-Mobile. Dotrice later portrayed Lily in the hugely popular 1970s television series Upstairs Downstairs and appeared in several television miniseries including She Fell Among Thieves.

Dotrice was born in Guernsey, The Channel Islands and grew up in a family of prominent stage actors. Her godfather was the legendary actor Charles Laugton, and along with her father he first brought Dotrice to the stage to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company when she was just four years old. She was spotted performing by a scout for Disney, and arrived at the Burbank Disney Studio with most of her family in tow, apart from her father who was playing King Lear in London at the time.
The young actress made her movie debut in The Three Lives of Thomasina and made such an impact that she was immediately cast as the juvenile lead in the Oscar-winning Mary Poppins. Dotrice later returned to England and continued her acting career in features including The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978), her performance receiving a nod for best female newcomer by the Evening News British Film Awards.

She returned to the US in the 1980 and played Desdemona in Othello on Broadway before taking an extended break from acting to enjoy motherhood. Later in her career Dotrice has reprised her iconic role as an adult Jane in a read-along version of Mary Poppins, and also made a cameo in the 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns.