‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ star Sally Ann Howes dead at 91

Sally Ann Howes, who played Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” died Sunday in Florida. She was 91.

>> PHOTOS: Sally Ann Howes through the years

Howes died at a hospital in Palm Beach Gardens, The New York Times reported. John Lloyd, a manager of Northwood Funeral Home and Crematory in West Palm Beach, confirmed the actress’ death but said he did not know the cause, according to the newspaper.

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The London native was nominated for a Tony Award in 1963 for her performance as Fiona in the production of “Brigadoon,” and also starred opposite Robert Alda and Steve Lawrence in “What Makes Sammy Run?” in 1964-65, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Howes’ first movie role came when she was 12, in 1943′s “Thursday’s Child.” She also starred in “Dead of Night” in 1945 and “Anna Karenina” in 1948, People reported.

In “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” Howes played the love interest to Dick Van Dyke’s Caractacus Potts, an eccentric widowed inventor, according to IMDb.com. Potts, his two children and Scrumptious embarked on an adventure in a flying-boat-car to do battle with the evil Baron Bomhurst in the land of Vulgaria.

The musical was loosely based on a book by the same name written by Ian Fleming, who created the James Bond spy novels, the Times reported.

Howes got the part without having to audition after Julie Andrews turned down the role, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Andrews believed the role was too similar to the parts she played in “The Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins.”

“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” became an instant children’s classic and was nominated in 2006 for the American Film Institute’s list of 25 Greatest Movies Musicals, People reported. It did not make the final list.

The critic Roger Ebert called “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” “about the best two-hour children’s movie you could hope for,” the Times reported.

Renata Adler, reporting for the Times at the time, said: “There is nothing coy, or stodgy or too frightening about the film. And this year, when it has seemed highly doubtful that children ought to go to the movies at all, ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ sees to it that none of the audiences’ terrific eagerness to have a good time is betrayed or lost.”

In the film, Howes sang “Toot Sweets,” “Lovely Lonely Man,” “Hushabye Mountain” and, as a wind-up figurine, “Doll on a Music Box,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Howes toured Britain in 1973 in “The King and I,” and the United States in 1978 in “The Sound of Music,” the Times reported.

Sally Ann Howes was born in London on July 20, 1930, to comedian Bobby Howes and actress Patricia Malone, according to the newspaper.

Her marriage in 1950 to Maxwell Coker ended in divorce in 1953. She divorced Adler in 1966. Her marriage in 1969 to A. Morgan Maree III, a financier, also ended in divorce. In the 1970s, she married literary agent Douglas W. Rae, who died this year, the Times reported.

She is survived by a stepson, Andrew Adler.

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Photos: Sally Ann Howes through the years Sally Ann Howes, who played Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” died Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021, in Florida. She was 91. Here are some memorable photos of the actress through the years. (Leonard Burt/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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