Matthew Garber

Matthew Garber (right) with Karen Dotrice filming Mary Poppins (1964)

Matthew Garber (born March 25, 1956 in London , † June 13, 1977 in Hampstead , England ) was an English actor who was best known in the role of Michael Banks in the Walt Disney film adaptation of Mary Poppins .

He was born in London to two actors. He starred in three Disney films and died at the age of 21 of pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas ).

Career

Matthew Garber made his first movie appearance at the age of seven years in the film The Three of Thomasina ( The Three Lives of Thomasina , 1964). In the same year he and his co-actress Karen Dotrice were selected to play Jane and Michael Banks in the Disney film adaptation of Mary Poppins .

Garber and Dotrice played together again in 1967: as the grandchildren of a wealthy lumber mogul (played by Walter Brennan ); the children stumble in the film Adventurous trip to the little ones ( The Gnome-Mobile ) in the forest a dwarf , who asks her to help them so the dwarves do not become extinct.

death

Matthew Garber died on June 13, 1977 at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. For years his untimely death had been rumored - sometimes he was seen as the result of a mysterious viral infection, sometimes associated with drug or alcohol abuse . His eight years younger brother Fergus Garber announced in October 2005 the British newspaper Mail on Sunday an interview in which he stated that Matthew probably by eating tainted meat during a trip to India in 1976 with hepatitis had infected. This had spread to his pancreas the following year when his father brought him back to England. Fergus denied that his brother could have used drugs. Matthew Garber's body had been cremated .

Matthew was named one of its " Disney Legends " posthumously in 2004 by the Disney Corporation ; Fergus accepted the award on his behalf.

Web links

• Matthew Garber in the Internet Movie Database (English)