Karen Dotrice

Karen Dotrice is a British actress who started on stage as a child and became known for playing Jane Banks in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins. Born in Guernsey to two stage actors, she made her stage debut at age four in an RSC production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. A Disney scout spotted her and brought her to California, where she was cast in The Three Lives of Thomasina (1963) and then Mary Poppins (1964). She reunited with co-star Matthew Garber for The Gnome-Mobile (1967), and her only adult feature was The Thirty Nine Steps (1978). On television she appeared in programs such as Upstairs, Downstairs, and in 1981 she played Desdemona in a pre-Broadway production of Othello. In 2004 she was named a Disney Legend, later took part in Disney commentary projects and the documentary The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story (2009), and made a cameo in Mary Poppins Returns in 2018.