Mary Poppins (character) Mary Poppins (character) Mary Poppins is a fictional character and the eponymous protagonist of P. L. Travers's "Mary Poppins" books and all of their adaptations. A magical English nanny, she blows in on the East Wind and arrives at the Banks home at Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London, where she is given charge of the Banks children and teaches them valuable lessons with a magical touch. Travers gives Poppins the accent and vocabulary of a real London nanny: cockney base notes overlaid with a strangled gentility. Julie Andrews, who played the character in the 1964 film adaptation, won the
Mary Poppins is the youngest and is born midway through the second book. Though the ages of the children are never made explicit, Jane is estimated to be around seven years old in "Mary Poppins", and John and Barbara have their first birthday in the same book and appear to be around two years old when Annabel is born. Only Jane and Michael appear in the film and stage musical. In the film they are portrayed by Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber; in the 2018 sequel, they are portrayed by Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw. George Banks is Mary Poppins's employer. He