Sally Ann Howes death: Tributes pour in as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Truly Scrumptious passes away at 91 

Actress Sally Ann Howes, who played Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, passed away in her sleep on Sunday, December 19, 2021.

The death of the actress, who had a six-decade-long acting career, was confirmed by her nephew Toby through his Twitter account.

---

Tributes have started pouring in as Sally Ann Howes passed away last Sunday

Sally Ann Howes, who died at the age of 91, was born in 1930 to musical comedy performer Bobby Howes and actor-singer Patricia Malone in St John's Wood, London.

Sally Ann Howes (Image via Public Domain)

Her career started at 12 through the 1943 movie Thursday's Child. In 1948, she starred in the film Anna Karenina alongside Vivien Leigh. In February 1958, Sally Ann Howes took over for Julie Andrews in the stage show of My Fair Lady and played Eliza Doolittle for one long year. In 1963, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress for her performance in the musical Brigadoon. In 1968, she went on to play Truly Scrumptious in children's classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a musical film starring Dick Van Dyke. Here's a video of the song Doll on a Music Box from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

Throughout her lifetime, she starred in many movies, such as My Sister and I (1948), Fools Rush In (1949), Honeymoon Deferred (1951) and The Admirable Crichton (1957). Other theatrical milestones in the acting career of Sally Ann Howes, who was more focused on theatre than film and television programs, include her debut in Caprice (1950) and her roles in What Makes Sammy Run? (1964-65), The King and I (1973), A Little Night Music (1990) and her one-woman show, From This Moment On (1990).

Howes was married to Broadway composer Richard Adler from 1958 to 1966. She adopted Richard's sons Christopher, who died in 1984 and Andrew, who is the only one to survive Sally Ann Howes. She was shortly married to Andrew Maree from 1969 to 1970 and later married her last husband, Douglas Rae, in 1972. Mr. Rae died in September this year.

Actress Emma Williams tweeted that she would be forever grateful to Howes for her "sweetest words of advice."

A post from actor Kenneth More's official Twitter page read:

Twitter was flooded with messages from fans as soon as news of her death broke. Here are some tweets from people all over the world:

With a huge number of netizens taking to social media to wish for her soul to rest in peace, it is clear that Sally Ann Howes got what an artist deserves as she is undoubtedly, deeply loved and remembered by the ones that matter: her fans.