Matthew Garber
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| Matthew Garber | |
 Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber in a publicity photo for Mary Poppins |
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| Born | 25 March 1956 London, England |
| Died | 13 June 1977 Hampstead, England |
| Notable roles | Michael Banks in Mary Poppins (1964) |
Matthew Garber (25 March 1956 – 13 June 1977) was an English actor best known for his role as Michael Banks in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins. Born in London, England, to parents who had both performed on stage, Matthew Garber attended St Paul's Primary School (Winchmore Hill) and Highgate School.
Garber made three films for Disney. He died in 1977 at the age of 21.
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[edit] Acting career
Garber made his screen debut at age seven in Disney's The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964). That same year, he and Thomasina co-star Karen Dotrice were hired to play Michael and Jane, the children of George Banks (David Tomlinson), who gets more than he bargained for when he hires a nanny named Mary Poppins. Disney's live-action/animated film adaptation of the Mary Poppins book series by P. L. Travers won five Academy Awards and made its stars world-famous.
Garber and Dotrice would pair up again in The Gnome-Mobile (1967) as the grandchildren of a rich lumber mogul (Walter Brennan) who stumble across a gnome forest and are asked to help keep the gnomes from dying off.
[edit] Death
Garber died 13 June 1977 at Royal Free Hospital of "Haemorrhagic Necrotising Pancreatitis" at the age of 21, but his death was handled quietly. On 24 October 2004, Mail on Sunday ran an interview with Fergus Garber, identified as Matthew's younger (by eight years) brother; he told reporters that Matthew contracted hepatitis—probably, he said, from eating "bad meat"—while traveling in India in 1976, and it had already spread to his pancreas when their father brought Matthew back to England the following year. Fergus denied any suggestion that his brother was using drugs. Matthew's body was later cremated.
Garber was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 2004; Fergus Garber accepted on his behalf.
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | The Three Lives of Thomasina | Geordie |
| Mary Poppins | Michael Banks | |
| 1967 | The Gnome-Mobile | Rodney Winthrop |
