March 25 - Matthew Garber

On this day, in 1956, Matthew Adam Garber was born in Stepney, London, England. Matthew's parents were stage actors, the kind that work steadily but never become famous, so it was natural that when one of their friends, a Shakespearian actor of the time named Roy Dotrice, came scouting for child actors, Matthew caught his eye. Roy let his boss, the Walt Disney Company, know about the precocious young man. At the ripe old age of seven, Michael was cast in his first film, The Three Lives of Thomasina. He played opposite a young lady named Karen Dotrice, who happened to be Roy's daughter (he apparently didn't feel the need to look very far for his prospects).

Image copyright Disney

The mild success of Thomasina, led to Michael and Karen being cast as the Banks children in Walt's magnum opus, Mary Poppins, the very next year. Poppins became an international sensation and catapulted its two young stars to fame. Which neither of them were quite sure how to respond to. Michael and Karen would team up a third time three years later for The Gnome-Mobile as Walter Brennan's grandchildren. Gnome would mark the last film both kids ever did as adolescents. Karen would star in one more movie in the late Seventies, The Thirty Nine Steps, and several television productions before retiring from acting in 1984 to raise a family (she does make a cameo in Mary Poppins Returns). Michael never got that chance.

Image copyright Disney

Following the release of Gnome, Michael, already a bit uneasy with stardom, would take a break from acting to finish his schooling. He graduated from Highgate School in North London in 1972. We'll never know if he ever intended to return to acting. He took a trip to India in 1976 and contracted hepatitis. By the time he could make it back to England, and better health care, it was too late. The virus had attacked his pancreas. On June 13, 1977, Matthew passed away in Hampstead, London from haemorrhagic necrotising pancreatitis. He was cremated and lays at rest in St. Marylebone Crematorium in East Finchley. In 2004, Michael was posthumously made an official Disney Legend for his short but highly acclaimed career. He was only 21 when he died.