Fifty-five years ago today, Disney released its all-singing, all-dancing tale of a British nanny and her unruly young charges.
Now more than five decades on, Mary Poppins remains a beloved family favourite and was even remade last year, starring actress Emily Blunt in the titular role.
But behind the innocent adventures and hopping through pavements, the real lives of the cast were a world away from the happy fantasy of the big screen.
From Julie Andrews' surgery heartache to Dick Van Dyke's suicidal battle with alcohol and Matthew Garber's death at 21, here's a look back at the tragedies that befell the stars…
Julie Andrews – Mary Poppins
Julie played the practically perfect Mary Poppins, but actress Karen Dotrice – who played her young charge Jane Banks – said behind the scenes the Oscar winner was a foul-mouthed chain smoker.
“There was swearing. Julie Andrews was smoking on set. It was a very real 1960s set, I can tell you. They were polite around minors to begin with, but that soon ended," she told The Sun.
Julie went on to win an Academy Award for her role before being cruelly robbed of the singing voice that had made her a star in a botched operation.
In 1997 she underwent surgery to remove noncancerous nodules from her vocal chords, but when she woke up her ability to sing had gone.
"If it had happened earlier, it would have been really devastating. As it was, it was devastating," she told People magazine. "For a while, I was in total denial… I thought at the time, my voice was what I am."
She later sued the two doctors and her case was settled for an undisclosed amount in 2000.
Dick Van Dyke – Bert
Bert was the one-man band, chimney sweep and kite seller with a terrible Cockney accent and a massive crush on Mary.
But during their days on set, Dick was hiding a dark secret – he was in the grips of alcoholism.
He was so desperate to get sober that he entered rehab twice, and when that failed he fell into a suicidal depression.
"We moved to a neighbourhood full of young families with the same age kids and everyone drank heavily, there were big parties every night. I would go to work with terrible hangovers which if you’re dancing is really hard," he told the Telegraph.
“I was in deep trouble, you get suicidal and think you just can’t go on. I had suicidal feelings, it was just terrible. But then suddenly, like a blessing, the drink started not to taste good. I would feel a little dizzy and a little nauseous and I wasn’t getting the click. Today I wouldn’t want a drink for anything.”
After finally winning his 25-year battle, he returned to screens with Diagnosis Murder in 1993.
Matthew Garber – Michael Banks
Brit star Matthew played Michael Banks in the 1964 film Mary Poppins but retired from acting aged 10.
He unknowingly contracted hepatitis while in India in 1976, but by the time his dad managed to get him home in 1977, it had already spread to his pancreas.
He died from hemorrhagic necrotising pancreatitis at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London aged 21.
His brother Fergus, who was 13 when Matthew died, denied claims his brother contracted hepatitis by using drugs and said it had probably come from eating infected meat.
David Tomlinson – George Banks
Born in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, in 1917, David was widowed aged just 26 when his wife jumped from a hotel with her two sons just weeks after they'd married.
Mary Lindsay Hiddingh's first husband had been killed in action, leaving her to raise her two boys, Michael, eight, and John, six, alone.
Reportedly despondent over not being able to bring her children to the UK to be with David, Mary and the children plunged 15 floors on December 2, 1943, leaving him devastated.
He later married actress Audrey Freeman in May 1953 and they stayed together for 47 years until his death from a stroke aged 83.
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